Hi Susan! Sorry I'm so late to the party but I'm out of town and have sporadic Internet use. Like Mel said in her post, I've been dealing with knee issues too and maybe have some ideas, especially if it's arthritis.
I found out this spring that I don't have any cartilage at all in either knee due to 'severe osteoarthritis', so they're both bone on bone. Honestly, my doctor was astounded that I can get around as well as I do given how awful the Xrays look and attributes it to my ridiculously strong leg muscles. He'd happily replace both knees tomorrow but I'm definitely not ready for that so we've done a lot of talking about how to preserve their function.
Muscle strength really is the
key to dealing with arthritis of the knees. The stronger you can make the muscles that support the knee, the more you relieve the pressure on the damaged joint. Like an internal knee brace, you know? Study after study has shown that the more active you are, the better your outcome and function.
But he gave me some modifications to traditional leg exercises to preserve the function I still have. The first rule is to avoid impacts. I can't run or walk for exercise (both kill me) but have no problem with the bike or elliptical and shoot for about an hour of cardio a day. Like Misti suggested, swimming is awesome too. It's ironic that I can't walk around the grocery store without pain but can do an hour on the elliptical, no problems.
No jumping either, so no plyometrics.
Rule #2 is no exercises to a 90 degree angle. That means on squats, lunges, leg press, hack squats, extensions etc. I have to stop short of 90. I still do BB squats but stop short of parallel.
Rule #3 is no more heavy weights. And by heavy, he meant 500# leg press and 205# squats. He's OK with 135# squats and 3 plates on a side on leg press but more than that stresses the joint too much, so that's about my limit now. So I compensate for lower weights by going higher in reps -- like for one workout, I did ten sets of 25 BB squats at 95#. It worked.
I often do sets of 25 now, sometimes 50.
Rule #4 is try to exercise one leg at a time because the stronger leg will always try to compensate for the weaker. So I do one-legged extensions at 30 or 45# and only do half reps from the middle to the top of the movement (so my knees don't go to 90 degrees). If you just switch back and forth from one leg to another for five or six sets, it works pretty well. You can do one-legged squat with the ball, one-legged curls and leg press, and of course, lunges are one-legged.
So the bottom line is that I can still work out using all the traditional leg exercises so long as I modify them a bit. So far, my legs still feel strong and the knees are hanging in there.
Couple of notes: I've been taking the G/C for many years and think it helps, so it's worth a shot. And my doctor said that noise in the knees (crepidation) isn't a problem unless it's accompanied by pain.
Good luck with the knees! A formal diagnosis is a great idea and will certainly help you figure out how to keep them strong.
Leg Exercises that Don't Stress the Knees (too much)?
) Anyway, no twisting of knees with weight, and no high impact things - aerobics, running on hard surfaces.
