Stay Safe and Tread Onward

Walking provides a multitude of health benefits. From burning calories to strengthening the heart — almost everyone agrees that taking your pants for a walk is among the simplest and most beneficial exercises. However, did you know the low-impact activity may also cause the onset of pain in your knees?

How Can Walking Be Bad for Your Knees?

While more sources claim that walking can alleviate knee pain, you can strain or cause damage to your knees when walking on hard surfaces like concrete, walking up and down hills, as well as treading on the ground with a sideways tilt or angle.

If you are overweight, the added downward pressure on your knees while walking can exhaust your joints and raise your risk for osteoarthritis — a type of wear-and-tear arthritis. What’s more, having poor muscle strength or flexibility can injure your knees, mainly because they cannot absorb the stress that accompanies walking and other physical activities that require putting pressure on your knees and joints.

What is Overpronation?

Overpronation of the feet is a contributing factor to walking-related knee problems. Medical News Today describes this condition as “when the arches of the foot roll inward or downward when walking.” The rolling motion in overpronation can result in painful twisting in your knees, feet, and shins. Sometimes, people refer to this condition as flat feet.

Overpronation disrupts the body’s natural alignment. As such, it can have further consequential effects on the body, including:

• Bunions
• Heel pain
• Shin splints
• Achilles tendonitis
• Chronic lower back pain
• Plantar fasciitis
• Iliotibial band syndrome
• Patellofemoral pain syndrome
• Stress fractures in the foot or leg

How to Stay Safe When Walking

There are several steps you can take to avoid overpronation and reduce walking-related knee problems. Stay safe when taking Your pants for a walk by following these tips:

• Besides concrete, surfaces that can trigger or aggravate knee problems include sand and snow. Dirt, grass, wood chips, and a cinder track are ideal surfaces for walking, especially if you have issues with your knees and joints.

• Avoid wearing high heels and heavy shoes. If you overpronate, opt for special shoes or shoe inserts that restrict excessive foot rolling. For example, athletic shoes for walkers are often the best type of footwear. These shoes take into consideration overpronation and knee pain by having flat and flexible features, which bend in the forefoot and have a low heel-to-toe drop.

• If you are overweight, the only solution is to work your way toward a healthy body weight gradually. Start by making healthier food choices and practice fat-burning exercises that avoid killing your knees.

• To improve your flexibility and muscle strength, perform additional low-impact exercises that complement your walking program. These include swimming, calf, quadriceps, and hamstring stretches, straight- and bent-leg raises, wall sits, wall squats, hamstring curls, single-leg dips, and yoga poses that target the lower back and the backs of the knees.

A Final Word of Advice

Always operate within your current physical capabilities and avoid over-stressing your knees or any other part of the body. If you experience knee pain while walking, stop the activity and seek out your doctor for advice and treatment.