Common Mistakes That Can Harm Your Knees And Joints

Dr. Saurabh Giri, Helios Orthojoint, Knee replacement Surgeon in Pune, Orthopedic in PCMC

Introduction

No matter if you are a seasoned athlete, weekend warrior, or couch potato, protecting your knees is crucial for long-term mobility, flexibility, and a happy lifestyle. The body constantly displays early illness symptoms. In order to maintain a healthy knee, we must recognise them and take prompt corrective action.

Since the knee serves as a hinge joint between the foot and the rest of the body, it must withstand a lot of strain in order to keep the body balanced on the ground. It must withstand forces such as bending, twisting, landing, and propelling. In actuality, it functions as a wheel for the “Human Body” machine.

To protect your knees, avoid the following common errors:

Ignoring discomfort: low back pain

Everybody’s body experiences minor aches and pains from time to time. Most of the time, we can easily get over that pain. However, if your discomfort is interfering with your daily activities for longer than a week, you should see a doctor to determine the underlying cause. A minor injury can be treated more effectively in the early stages than when it becomes chronic. Consider a meniscus tear as an illustration. If caught in the early stages, a minor tear in the meniscus—the knee’s shock absorber—can be perfectly mended. But if you disregard.

Overweight

A person who is overweight and has fat. During the stance phase of walking, the knee joints support four times the body weight. Thus, the knee joint will be subjected to a 4 kg increase in strain for every kg of body weight. The cartilage of the knee between the two hard bony ends will be crushed by this added strain.

Standing up from a floor-based seated position and climbing stairs will place an 8 times larger strain on the knee and cause significantly more injury. The patients are typically caught in a vicious loop where they cannot exercise or walk because of knee pain, which causes them to gain weight and further harms the cartilage in their knee joints, leading to eventual arthritis.

Refusing to take the prescribed action: prescriptions

The advise of an allopathic doctor is frequently disregarded. They don’t adhere to the entire treatment plan for full recovery. They neglect the suggested medications and workout regimen for recuperation, which ultimately gets them into further problems. Alternative medications are often utilised in India without any scientific justification, and the majority of the time they end up doing more harm to your bones and joints.

Ignoring an ACL injury: ignoring an ACL injury

The complex knee joint relies heavily on its ligaments to maintain stability and allow for regular motion. Knee injuries are common in many sports. These sports include basketball, rugby, football, hockey, skating, and others. It is typically a knee ligament injury if you hear a “pop” during the accident. Seek appropriate advice to recuperate. Ignoring an ACL rupture will cause instability in the knee, making you more vulnerable to additional injuries as well as damage to the menisci and cartilage.

It’s crucial to add neuromuscular training into your daily routine to improve agility, leg strength, and jump-landing skills for greater knee joint stability in order to prevent tearing your ACL. ACL risk-prone sports (such as those mentioned above) should be avoided by athletes of all ages; assistance from an athletic trainer can help them avoid this crippling injury. To teach players proper techniques for jumping and landing, the training programme should include stretching, plyometric exercises (training to improve speed and force of muscular contractions), and weight training.

Overdoing

Some people engage in daily weight training that is really aggressive. Body must relax. We must arrange our training schedule so that moderate workout days are inserted between days of intense exercise and some days of complete rest. By doing this, tendinitis problems and overstraining of the muscles will be avoided.

Ignoring the leg’s other muscles

Many people concentrate primarily on the muscles around the knee joint while recovering from an injury, omitting the hip, calf, and small foot muscles. This can result in an unbalanced limb and a recurrence injury or a delayed recovery.

The incorrect footwear

For the stance phase of walking or running, the foot serves as the basis. If we don’t wear the right footwear it can harm the ligaments. The next closest joint, the knee, which has ligaments and muscles, will be impacted. Therefore, it is important to wear appropriate footwear to avoid knee injuries. Keeping the adage “Prevention is Better than Cure” in mind.