3 Helpful Ways to Keep Your Knees Healthy

As we get older, our bodies begin to produce less collagen which impacts our overall bone and muscle health. With a the lack of collagen in the body, this contributes to muscle stiffness, soreness, and aches in different parts of the body.                

Recent studies have found that knee inflammation and strains can be a result of muscle stiffness and aches. For this reason, it is necessary to implement healthy practices into your daily routine to help encourage good knee health

Here are a few tips to help protect and keep the knees healthy:                                                    

Stay Active                            

A good way to keep the knees healthy is by simply staying active. By exercising, a person improves their circulation, which helps increase oxygen supply and blood flow to the muscles in the body. Once this happens, muscle stiffness has been shown to decrease, which helps improve overall comfort within the body.

Studies suggest that exercise should be done at least 2-3 times per week for thirty minutes each session. Simple exercises such as walking, light cardio, or yoga have all been shown to help improve circulation and also minimize muscle stiffness.            

Try Cross-Training Techniques                                    

Equally important, if you are currently active, implementing cross-training techniques into your weekly workouts are an amazing way to help reduce muscle stiffness on the knees. For example, placing direct pressure on the knees during each workout can negatively impact your knee health. Excessive pressure has been shown to cause injuries and sprains, which contribute to muscle stiffness.                                             

For this reason, it is necessary to implement static and dynamic stretches into your workout routines and also cross-train to give your knees time to recovery after high-intensity workouts. Great examples of cross-training exercises include yoga, swimming, and kickboxing.                               

Work on Your Flexibility                    

Lastly, a big factor that causes muscle stiffness is a lack of flexibility and range of motion within the muscles. Studies have found that flexibility is essential because it allows the muscles to stretch without causing unwanted injuries and pain in the long run. When a person is not flexible, aside from exercise, this impacts their daily activities, such as walking, standing up, or sitting on a chair.

Altogether, working to improve your overall flexibility can be a great benefit to your knee health. Practicing stretches have been shown to reduce muscle inflammation and stiffness that comes from general wear and tear of the ligaments. Over time, working on your flexibility helps strengthen the range of motion to help straighten the knee, thus improving overall comfort.