By now, you have no doubt seen many guides on how to strengthen knee joints, but you may not realize just how important it is to do so. Neglecting one’s knees can lead to a lifetime of pain, serious musculoskeletal conditions, and even surgery. For further detail, check out the six highly compelling reasons to strengthen your knee joints below:
- Strengthening the knees helps to prevent pain and stiffness. It’s a general rule that the more you move any joint, the less pain and stiffness you will feel in it. Ergo, regular knee strengthening exercises are a great way to prevent the “normal” pain and stiffness associated with aging and/or leading a sedentary lifestyle.
- Strengthening the knees helps to heal injury. Strengthening the knees gently with low-impact exercises is a great way to increase blood flow to the area, which speeds the healing of damaged ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Blood carries with it white blood cells, which are the body’s most powerful healing agents.
- Strengthening the knees helps to reduce risk of osteoporosis. Exercise is a key way to build bone strength and density; as osteoporosis frequently strikes the knees very hard, strengthening your knees is a key way to ensure you will be able to walk comfortably for the rest of your life.
- Strengthening the knees helps to reduce risk of arthritis. If your knees are weak, they are more easily shocked when you engage in high-impact activities like running or jumping, and it is this kind of stress which erodes the cartilage in the knee joint, leading to arthritis. If your knees are stronger, they will cope much better with strenuous activity, and even normal activities that place a lot of load on the knee (such as carrying groceries).
- Strengthening the knees helps to prevent the need for surgery on your ligaments and tendons. Weak knees are, logically, much easier to seriously injure. There are four main ligaments in the knee, each of which may become sprained or torn, leading to weeks or months of inconvenience and discomfort. As mentioned above, the stronger your knees are, the better they absorb shock, protecting them from injury.
- Strengthening the knees helps to prevent the need for knee replacement surgery. The ultimate reward for strong knees is avoiding the final and drastic solution to damaged knees: surgery. Knee surgery is painful, takes a long time to recover from, and in some countries, is very expensive. Every time you engage in knee-strengthening exercises, you are investing in your knees’ future, ensuring that they will last for decades to come and never need replacing.
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