Edit: I love this community so much, thank you all for trying to help!
The trick is to run on your toes
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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Chronic Illness
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Do cycling.
Holy shit. This is what’s wrong with me. I was working and taking 15,000 steps a day and now I’m staying home with the kids and getting no exercise other than the anxiety of running back and forth between them.
Probably not as good as walking/running...but the elliptical at a gym could really do the trick with very little knee pressure.
I ran a lot when I was younger; had to stop because of a knee injury, too. It never stops sucking but hopefully you can find something better on your knees that still helps you.
The fact that running reduced your symptoms is absolutely awesome, it's never been as effective for me. It's proof that you CAN beat this, that things can change. That is the ULTIMATE win. You've got this!
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.
Have you seen a fysio? Often early knee problems have more to do with the flexibility of the surrounding muscles.
Are you swimming with a waterproof knee brace? That may help your endurance to build back up strength.
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.
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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
Fuck, that sucks!
Idk why but you saying it like it is improved my mood just now
Sometimes we just need someone to acknowledge that our situation is shitty. It can be downright therapeutic. Jumping straight into possible solutions is obviously a helpful thing to do, but sometimes it's important to grieve a little first.
Same. I switched to skipping (jump rope) and haven't looked back.
I was standing up from the toilet one day and my knee pooped and it hurts randomly now
Eww.
Did your knee poop out your kneecap?
Same here. I switched to cycling.
I tried switching from running to cycling for my daily cardio, but lately I'm wondering if I'm just not built for cycling. I'm so bad at it.
I live near mountains and will do hikes where I gain 3,000 feet in elevation and burn 2.5k calories, enjoying every second of it, but for some reason I can barely bike up a small hill.
Underdeveloped muscle groups maybe?
The more you ride a bike up hills, the easier it will start to become. But if it feels like too much of a wall to ride up the hills around you, you could look into swapping out your chainrings or cassette to get lower gearing so the hills aren't as much of a challenge.
So did I, but it still makes my knees worse when I do it. As of like an hour ago, apparently even swimming does.
How do you handle elevation gain? I ask because I can climb mountains like a champ but for some reason running kills my legs and I'm terrible at cycling. It doesn't even need to be a mountain, as a steep hill does the trick. Keeping a steady pace up a hill gets my heart rate to a place similar to running, and it usually stays pretty high for the descent as well. It doesn't hurt my joints nearly as much as running or biking.
I'm actually saving up for some climbing gear, I'm in the middle of the alps! I think I'll be starting with via ferratas, there's dozens near me. Any tips?
I haven't done any climbing that requires ropes/helmets yet, so far I've been sticking to trails. I moved to a mountainous area 2 years ago.
Going uphill is the easier part, it just requires cardio. Going downhill hurt my knees when I first started, but that pain went away over time. Downhill always seems to be harder for people once they get past the cardio requirement for going up.
Investing in a good pair of adjustable trekking poles makes going downhill a lot easier on your joints. Cork handles are expensive, but worth it if you use them a lot. Shortening them for uphill and lengthening them for downhill also helps.
Another great investment is a high quality ultralight chair! I have a Helinox ground chair which is shockingly comfortable and only weighs 17 ounces/482 grams. Being able to relax and enjoy the view before descending adds a lot to the experience.
I have a fucked up knee too. some days i wish i could hack it off and strap a table leg to the stump.
*cries in ehlers-danlos*
I told my rheumatologist, „don’t worry, my dog keeps me busy!”. My dog is now on biologic treatment for osteoarthritis while I’m waiting for mine for an autoimmune arthritis XD
That's so frustrating!!!
I'm in a similar boat, where my joints are really whiny and won't let me run nearly as hard as I'd want to. I found a lot of daily stretching and sleeping with a pillow between my legs helps a lot. Still, my knees or hips wake me up more frequently than I'd like.
Also some strength training can feel like a cardio workout and actually strengthens the muscles around your treacherous joints.
Sorry to jump into solutionising... This one just really cuts close to home.
No reason to be sorry!
Good point, I might just switch to calisthenics for a little while. And yeah, I do need to stretch more!
Is the accessible caption showing up? I made one, but can't see it anywhere after posting.
I was just today wondering how to view alttext on Lemmy, and if people were actually using those here. On Mastodon I've gotten into the habit of reading alttext and I like that. Although I can see, it gives extra information about the intention of the OP. But apparently I can't view them here (at least in the Voyager app).
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I like walking more. I can listen to radio recordings / streams longer while doing it.
Are they really fucked up or do they just hurt a bit? Slight pain is not necessarily a sign of permanent injury and will most likely go away with activity. Even if it is an injury, the best course of action is to keep moving the joint. Joints don't have active circulation and so they need the movement to heal.
https://www.barbellmedicine.com/blog/pain-in-training-what-do/
GP said it's almost certainly that the tendons are inflamed. He said this type of thing usually heals in about 2 weeks, but it's been two months. It's extra scary, since I've had tendonitis in my entire forearm for almost 5 years now and nothing has helped.
Thanks for the resource!
Have you tried slow high volume eccentric movements? 30+ reps, 8 second eccentric, very low weight.
I got into running when I was younger and messed up my foot lol. It's hard. I do yoga now.
I recommend jump rope if running tends to hurt your knees, ankles, or shins.
I can't do cycling either, and I have other issues that make swimming not possible.
When I was able to go, I had a great physical therapist. She had good advice on how to apply kinesio tape.
Can't do physio rn, insurance covers a set amount, which is usually enough, but since I live in an expensive city, there'd be a co pay I couldn't afford.
I'll look into kinesio tape! Maybe there's online resources that'd explain how to apply
I hope it helps! I had to stop going myself for other reasons so I get it.
Make sure to have some sort of oil on hand to remove the tape if you mess up. That stuff stays on for a while, like days.
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