[zookeeperof04]

Okay I have been going strong for about a month and am happy with the results. But the pain is killing me. I have gotten beyond the shin splints but now its the knee and hip pain. I use ibuprofen and icy hot. I just hate taking medication. What works for your aches and pains from exercising??

[fight2winthis]

Dont take this the wrong way but perhaps you should change/modify the kind of exercise you do? I hear swimming burns loads of calories with no impact on your joints Not an expert opinion but i'm not sure the constant pain is a good side effect, you shouldn't have to deal with it, esp if it's an every-time-you-exercise occurence. Cheers and good luck with your efforts.

[Aly6690]

I've had knee problems since I was born and often get hip and knee during or after working out. The best advice I can give you is choose low impact exercises.When mine knees are bad I try to cut down the running and opt for the elliptical and swimming. But i'm not a big of swimming.

If this is happening on a regular basis, then you really should see a doctor or physio. They might be able to suggest ways to prevent the pain.

Hope that helps!

[tdiprincess]

I agree with Aly. I too have knee and hip pain at times. The best thing for me was eliminating jogging/running. It makes me very frustrated to do this, but in the long run it will save my knees and hips.
Also, give your body time to work up to what your mind can handle. Our minds can go a mile a minute, but our body's are screaming, "NO!!!" Listen to your body. This again, is something I had to do.
I was having soreness in my knees, hips and my ankle (I strained it earlier in the summer and didn't realize it wasn't completely healed). Anyway, I took my exercise down a couple notches. I had been doing some heavy circuit training that my mind could handle, but my body couldn't LOL. I've cut that out for a few weeks.
My schedule had been: circuit train 2-3 days a week, 30 day shred 2 days a week and biking 3-4 days a week. It was a bit too much.
So, I cut down. For about a week almost 2, I only went cycling. No circuit and no 30DS. I did also some arm exercises and aerobics to help a bit. I did start a strength training program. 100pushups, 200 situps and 200 squats (which would help majorly strengthen your body) as well. That is 3 days each week.
This week I added in 30 day shred. However, I only do it 2 days a week right now.
I will continue at this level for 1-2 more weeks, then I will add in a day of circuit training.

This was incredibly frustrating and challenging to do, but I feel like I've given my body the time it needed to heal up and recoup.
It is recommended too to take a "rest" week every 6-8 weeks. That may not be a bad idea. This gives your body a chance to recoup.
Also, make sure you have good footwear. This makes a WORLD of difference on your joints!!

I hope this helps a bit. I know it will be challenging, but you will be better off if you cut a couple things out and regroup a little bit. Then over the span of a month or 2, add more things on, but slowly.

[Bethsheba]

Hey- Listen to your body and cut out the high impact stuff. Go see a sports med Dr. or physical therapist. Don't be stubborn like me and and up with a serious stress fracture.

Let me share my story in the hopes it will save you from a similar fate. I was training for my first ever 10k. So I kept upping my distance, adding more running days, I figured if I had the energy to do it, it was all good right? Wrong. One day my hip started to hurt. I sucked it up kept running, finally the pain got so bad it hurt just to put wieght on my leg.

Turns out I had a bad stress fracture close to my hip socket. If I hadn't stopped when I did I would have ended up with pins in my leg!

My Dr. told me I had increased my amount of running too fast. What had seemed reasonable to me turns out was unhealthy. The short of it is I ended up have to swim for 12 weeks to get exercise. Wasn't even allowed to walk the dog. (BTW- I did lose weight swimming and seriously toned up but ICK! bathing suits and chlorine hair)

On the bright side I eventually did go back to running. even did 2 half marathons before my knees crapped out haha.

So PLEASE check out those aches and pains, talk to an expert. Maybe you just need better shoes, or a better workout surface. if it turns out you need to try a different workout more suited to your body dont let that discourage you (even great athletes go through this). most important is to protect yourself from serious injury. afterall its awful hard to lose weight and get in shape if you are confined to bedrest.

[kelly315]

Changing your diet can help you with joint pain. The biggest change is cutting back on sugars/complex carbs- this can often do wonders. There are other vitamins that you can add into your diet to improve joint health as well:

http://www.arthritis-treatment-and-r...oint-pain.html

Hydration always helps as well.

I would also suggest experimenting with different types or levels of exercise to see which ones cause the least pain to you.

[sheshalesha]

I have had serious back issues and am sorely out of shape. I know that I wouldn't last a week if I took up a jogging or even walking plan. So I have been doing everything in a pool. I can speed walk for hours in a pool and have NO discomfort to my back or joints...my muscles burn, but that is a pain that tells me I didn't sit on the couch all day. Exercising in a pool is a much harder and overall better workout than jogging around the block.(IMO) I also live in S. Texas and would die of a heat stroke before I ever made it to the end of the block.

[fitmom]

I read somewhere that you should take four days off after six weeks of exercising straight and seven days off after twelve weeks of exercising straight to give your body a rest and not to risk overtraining.

I get DOMS from exercising too intensely sometimes and Advil works and stretching. Although shin splints to me sound more serious. Maybe cut back on the running and take it indoors. Hope this helps.

[tdiprincess]

Kelly reminded me, I started taking a glucosamine supplement. As much as I don't enjoy Walmart, they had the best price on it. I don't take the full 2-3 a day, usually 1 or 2 tops. It takes about 6-8 weeks to notice any difference, but it should help a little bit.

[bodycapable]

Listen to bethsheba and ease off. It doesn't work for you in a long run to exercise to the point where you get overtraining injuries, because then you're forced to rest for a long time.

One thing you could try is to learn foamrolling. You can recover much faster and avoid injuries if you foamroll before your workouts.

[Precious Little]

I agree with the previous posters on backing it off, give your body a rest. I ended up having to go to a physio about my injured knee because I ran thru the pain for a few weeks doing 5km run and again on my first 6km run. So not worth it. Now I have to tape my knee every day for another week while I do rehab exercises. NOT FUN. Plus my knee is still really sore.

I'm gonna chalk this one up as a serious lesson not to overtrain.

[WannaBeLoserAgain]

I say listen to your body and ease off a bit. Let your body heal and ease into exercise slowly...it should not hurt to exercise. Try some ice packs for your pain.