Edit: I love this community so much, thank you all for trying to help!
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Chronic Illness
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Try cycling. Much easier on the knees.
I did pivot to cycling. But once my knee is already shit, even cycling often makes it worse. So I pivoted to swimming. Swimming was fine so far, but just now, my knee started hurting after a few laps, which inspired me to vent my frustration through this meme.
You could try becoming a Skyrim guard
Is it possible that you simply don't let your body recover long enough?
Also, have you tried physical therapy? I had quite a lot of pain from running, but it turned out, the supporting muscles in my legs were just too weak, so my joints kind of jostled around. A few weeks of cringy looking exercises help a lot.
I was in bed with a cold for like 10 days, and it was still painful within minutes of walking after that. How much more rest should I get? My doctor said I shouldn't completely stop moving because that'd weaken the muscles and make re injury super likely.
Unfortunately, I can't afford th co pay right now. I'll probably get some medical massages though, since those are entirely covered.
Lying in bed with a cold is not "recovery". While your body is fighting illness it is not prioritizing repairing your knee unfortunately. Easy movement and no sitting still for prolonged periods/in awkward positions and eating lots of protein and healthy food is recovery. And try to follow a beginner training plan afterwards so you don't try to progress to fast + learn about the "10% rule".
Two weeks is not a lot of time.
There's a middle ground between complete rest and running: walking.
And you don't need any fancy massages, just google a few exercises to strengthen your knees and do those for a few weeks. Maybe pad the schedule with a bit of calisthenics.
I kept getting injured swimming so my doctor insisted I need to do gym too, apparently it helps strengthen your body to avoid injuries.
Yep, I used to always get “random injuries “ until I started lifting. Now, I only get scheduled injuries. Lol
Aw man, gyms are expensive. Hope I can get somewhere with calisthenics.
You can go very far with calisthenics, but I found it's much harder to get into. There's an additional skill level required to perform the exercises, and the progression is much more visual (for example "cannot do pull-ups -> can do pull-ups"). That can be a bit disheartening while still in the "can't" period. You have to start with easier variations of moves and change them up as you progress towards the "real" exercises. With weight training the only thing that really drastically changes as you progress is the number on the plates. But calisthenics definitely are the way to go IMO, it's much better for you, gives you a nicer looking body, more mobility and flexibility and more real world uses. Maybe just add a bit of weight stuff early on just because it's easier.
Fair, if you have space it can be worth investing on a few weights and maybe a mat, can do a lot with very little!
Calisthenics can definitely help build muscle, especially if you're a beginner. And while gyms can be expensive, you can get more than your money's worth from a planet fitness. It's 10 bucks a month and 30 bucks once a year. Pretty reasonable if you actually use it.
Are you swimming with a waterproof knee brace? That may help your endurance to build back up strength.
Have you seen a fysio? Often early knee problems have more to do with the flexibility of the surrounding muscles.
Lol just throwing this out there, I have a terrible shoulder from swimming. If you feel any weird popping or discomfort REST and see a PT or swimming coach to work on form.
Do swimming, too. It’s even better on the whole body
Even just walking at a Brisk pace is better. In fact if you're not actually sprinting there's no real Health difference between jogging and walking quickly other than the aforementioned less pressure on the knees
Cycling, swimming, rowing machine.
Throw in some pull ups/pushups/squats and you’ll love what you see + have very functional muscles across the board. You don’t even need to do a bunch of weights when you do squats. Just squat the bar every time you go work out. Great way to just keep your legs and such tuned