Knee Pain

Please remember the advice we give is general and not meant to be used as a substitute for professional medical or health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you want specific advice then please seek help from your doctor or local physio.

The purpose of this guide is to help you overcome any issues you have related to your knee. This may be knee pain, or other symptoms such as clicking, clunking or grinding sensations in the knee.

Causes of knee pain

Knee pain has various causes. You may have been told you have:

Osteoarthritis
Cartilage tears
Meniscus tear/injury
Tendon problem (eg. tendonitis, tendinopathy)
Bursitis
Anterior knee pain / Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS)
Baker's cyst

Or, you may just have unexplained pain around your knee.

What to do about knee pain/problems

Whatever the cause of your knee pain, it is important to find ways to keep being physically active. Continuing with the program is likely one of the best things you can do to help it.

Rest assured that exercise is safe and healthy for your knees, whatever problem you have been diagnosed with. Even for “severe osteoarthritis with bone on bone” the research shows us that strength and fitness exercise is beneficial and safe.

The majority of cases of knee pain do not require any specific diagnoses or specific treatment to overcome. Most musculoskeletal pain gets better with time. And pain itself is rarely a sign of anything serious.

There are plenty of knee exercises in the program, meaning you probably don't need to add in any extra knee exercises to overcome this pain. Just keep going with the program as best you can.

In order to continue with the program, modify the exercises to make them tolerable. There is no right and wrong here, it will be personal for each individual.

When it comes to symptoms other than pain, such as clicking, clunking or grinding sensations in the knee, our approach should be the same. Much like with pain itself, these symptoms are rarely a sign of anything serious. We encourage you to continue with the exercise program, modifying movements as needed.

How to make the program exercises tolerable

The goal is to modify the exercises in order to make the tolerable, so that you can continue. The use of the word tolerable here is intentional. This doesn't mean the exercises have to be completely pain-free. Some pain with exercise is ok. It just has to be tolerable for you.

There are 3 general rules to follow when modifying exercises:

Reduce the weight that you are using
Reduce the range of movement
Vary the movement or find a similar alternative

Often, the squatting type exercises are the most problematic when it comes to knee pain. So check out this article to to learn how to modify squatting movements: How to modify squatting movements

If none of these modifications are working for you, and you find certain exercises are just too painful, then it’s okay to just skip those exercises for a while. Keep going with all the other exercises in the workouts as best you can. Then try to gradually reintroduce the exercise that was previously too painful, starting with the easiest possible version and slowly progressing.

Things to look out for...

There are some signs & symptoms to look out for that suggest further medical investigation is warranted. So if you have knee pain and any of the following, it's a good idea to speak to your doctor before continuing with exercise:

Constant/severe pain
Pain that is progressively getting worse
Pain during the night, especially if it wakes you up
Trauma (eg. a fall or injury to the knee)
Swelling/redness
Pins & needles or numbness
Your knee is giving way

Summary

We hope you have found this guide helpful for overcoming your knee issues and giving you the confidence and know-how to continue with exercise.