Over the past 20 years of practice, knee pain is one of the most common complaints I treat. When your knees hurt, it’s hard to walk, get out of a chair and climb stairs. Knees can swell, ache and be completely uncooperative. In this blog, I’ll review how knees age and the effects of aging on the knee. Fortunately, there are many exercises you can do to strengthen your knees, making them last longer and feel better as you age.
Effects of Aging on the Knee
Knee pain is an extremely common orthopedic complaint. Frequent knee pain affects about 25 percent of adults, with knee osteoarthritis being the most common cause in people age 50 years and older. With some folks, knee pain can limit function and activity levels, diminishing their quality of life. While obesity and poor lifestyle choices affect how knees age, exercise can greatly reduce the effects of aging on the knee.
Muscles provide power, allowing us to move and supporting our knees and other joints. Muscle strength peaks around the age of 25 and plateaus in our 30-40s. After that, it starts to decline and can do so rapidly without exercise. By the age of 65, our muscles can produce about 75 percent of peak force. These facts about muscle aging are important when considering how knees age, because muscle weakness leads to excess stress on the knee joints. Over time, we can speed up how knees age if we allow our bodies to weaken without exercise.
How to Make Knees Stronger
The large muscles of the leg (the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and even gluteals) all support the knee. Symmetric and good strength in these groups provide our knees adequate support as we walk, climb and move. Exercising as we age is essential in keeping our knees healthy and strong. Here are a few simple exercises you can do to reduce the effects of aging on the knee.
1. Squats:
This exercise is one you should keep in your routine forever. Perform it 3 times per week leaving a day of rest between sessions. As pictured to the left, lower your body as if sitting into a chair. Keep your head up, butt out and knees over your ankles; repeat up to 20 reps or until your thighs are burning.
2. Knee Extension Stretches:
The biggest predictor of chronic knee pain is a loss of full hyperextension, which is the backward bend of your knee. Even a few degrees of loss accelerate the effects of aging on your knees. In the picture to the right, the heel is elevated while a strap is pulling down on the thigh to push the knee into a fully straight position. You can achieve the same effect at home by placing an ankle weight across your knee with your heel propped on your coffee table or ottoman. Perform daily.
3. Walking and Biking:
Continuing to get cardiovascular exercise through walking and biking is essential for overall knee health. Again, if you are already having knee pain, see a physical therapist who can advise you regarding safe exercise. Walking 10,000-15,000 steps a day is a great guideline for keeping your knees and your body healthy. Stationary biking or cycling is a wonderful way to keep your knees strong with low impact on the joint itself.
How our knees age, and in fact how our entire body ages, has a lot to do with exercise. We cannot avoid getting older. We can make that process easier by exercising. Exercise is just like medicine, and when taken with the right dose regularly, will improve health. Over the last 20 years, I’ve treated thousands of people with knee pain and they all had two things in common: they all learned to exercise their knees and left my office pain free!
If your knees already hurt, please see a physical therapist. If you live in the Portland, Oregon area, contact Life’s Work Physical Therapy at 503-295-2585 or visit www.lifesworkpt.com to schedule an appointment. If you live outside the Portland area, please refer to my previous blog on How to Find a Good PT and visit apta.org to locate a great physical therapist in your area.
Good luck!
Sandra Stryker, PT, MPT, COMT, FAAOMPT
Thanks for the solution. I am in India and I am 45. From today onwards I will try the remedies and exercise that you have given.
You’re welcome! We’re glad you found the information helpful.
Hi,
I’m a 28 year old female. Height 5ft 6 inches. 58kgs is my weight.
I ve been having knee pain for about more than an year now. Earlier it was only after I get up after watching a movie for 2-3 hrs. But now it’s more often, almost every day. My job requires a lot of physical activity for 60% of the days like 14 hrs on my feet non stop. Rest 40% is desk job. Apart from that I rarely do any workout. I saw a physician 5 months back who gave me dietary supplement, it worked for a month but now again it’s started. Please help me out.
We’re sorry you’re suffering with knee pain. Unfortunately, we can’t speak to your particular situation without evaluating you first. If you live in the Portland, Oregon area we would love to help you! Please contact our office at (503) 295-2585 to schedule an initial evaluation. If you live outside of Portland, to find a good physical therapist in your area, visit http://www.apta.org. Try to find one with the designation of FAAOMPT (fellow in orthopedic manual physical therapy), who does hands-on treatment as a standard part of care. You can read more about how to find a good PT in our blog post: https://lifesworkpt.com/2017/03/how-to-find-a-good-pt/
Best of luck!
Hi, my mother is a 50 year old woman and of a normal weight for her age. She has begun working out on the treadmill for about an hour a day and normally burns around 700 to 800 calories each day. She has begun to experience some knee pain and is wondering if her excersize is too vigorous and if she should work out less or do these excersizes to strengthen her knees. Is there a limit to how much women of that age should work out to protect their knee health?
This is a great question! There isn’t necessarily a limit to how much people of certain ages should be working out as long as they have the energy to do so. The more important thing is what activities they are choosing to do as their way of working out. An optimal fitness routine is a mix of strengthening and conditioning, and mobility/stretching if needed. Your mom sounds like she is doing a phenomenal job conditioning her cardiorespiratory system on the treadmill, and walking is also great for maintaining bone mineral density. However, it is important to work on strengthening her hips, core, and knees as well. We would definitely encourage her to perform the exercises listed in our blog post (squats and the knee extension stretches). Other great ways to strengthen her hips would be bridges, standing on one leg, and side stepping while maintaining a mini squat. If you are interested in starting a physical therapy program, give us a call at 503-295-2585 to schedule in-person or telehealth visits.
HI, I am just 50 yrs old , have not feeling any pain while walking up or down stairs , is it advisable using stairs ? Thank you in advance
As long as you aren’t having any pain, stairs are a great form of exercise. If you are interested in learning more and starting a PT program, give us a call at 503-295-2585. Stay well Shiva.
Hi, my mother is a 50 year old woman and of a normal weight for her age. She has begun working out on the treadmill for about an hour a day and normally burns around 700 to 800 calories each day. She has begun to experience some knee pain and is wondering if her excersize is too vigorous and if she should work out less or do these excersizes to strengthen her knees. Is there a limit to how much women of that age should work out to protect their knee health?
Walking is a great form of exercise, good for your mom for starting an exercise program! While I cannot say for certain what is causing your mom’s knee pain it is also important to do strengthening exercises. Our recommendation would be to incorporate exercise that strengthens the hip muscles. If you are located in the Portland, Oregon metro area, give us a call at 503-295-2585. We can also offer telehealth visits.
Male 87 year
Active
the past several years my right knee has been gradually bending outward. I have never been bowleg.
knee braces I have used never bring the knee in.
Is there some special remedy for this?
While you cannot correct a bony deformity you can strengthen the muscles that support the joint. Our recommendation would be to do exercise that strengthens the hips, especially muscles on the outside of the hip. However exercise should not cause any additional pain in the knee. If you are located in the Portland Oregon metro area, give us a call at 503-295-2585. Stay well Samuel.
Hi, I am a 66 year old female, raising 3 grandkids. I am 70 pounds overweight and my energy level is poor. I never had a weight problem when I was younger and hate the way I look, I know I eat to much sugar and fast food and sit to much, help me.
Hello Mickie. Thank you for finding our clinic and reading our blogs. We see people everyday who are looking to get stronger and live in the best body they can. If you are interested in learning more about PT services, please contact our office at 503-295-2585 to learn more.
I am 70 yr old male who trains at the gym for 2-3 hours every OTHER day.
I focus on running, elliptical, rowing machine, stretching, squats, weights, pullups, pushups and diet … been doing this for years.
I get between 7-8 hours of deep REM sleep per night.
No knee or hip replacements. Sore the next day? Yes, but only for a few minutes after rising each morning.
Hi Paul! I am happy to hear that you are so active! Exercise is the thing that is going to help keep you and your knees healthy. One thing I would suggest is looking at your stretching program after exercise. Stretching after exercise can help with that next day stiffness, remember that stretches should be gentle and never painful. Talking to a physical therapist could be helpful. If you are in the Portland, OR area please give us a call at 503-295-2585.
,Hello I am 67 years old now oh, I was very active through my years I raised horses trained them rode them had babies did landscaping did interior decorating I’ve been verybody movement, one day as I was walking down stairs. Everything was normal my knee locked up, went to the orthoscopic doctor and they did arthroscopic surgery, this was in 2005 today it’s November 21 my left knee that they did surgery on is again starting to pinch up, I’ve always been very active I’m a few pounds overweight by at least 30, I have a large bust that which I’ve been told I need to have surgery and have it rejected but my body is my body, I would advise anybody to try your exercises as long as it lasts oh, but when it quits working time for other measurements, I have found it swimming is very important, I swim all summer do exercises in the water as soon as winter comes I have to shut the pool down and that’s when I end up setting oh, I love the paint because of my me and my pain I can’t get around as well anymore oh, I have noting that walking does help even if you can walk around your house three times each day and add another walk around you’ll feel better and if you can’t do that in the winter then join the why your house is worth it you can swim and walk at the Y and socialize if you want but with the covid-19 all I would keep my distance oh, you cannot live in fear for if you live in fear you’ll stay home and be alone and which is worse, to die is another adventure I know I was already there and brought back oh, thank you for your advice
Thank you for sharing your story Kathy. We are happy you found the article useful.