How to Strengthen Knees When Overweight

Knee pain is commonly found among many people due to overweight. As knees are the part of the body that deal with the body pressure while you’re standing or walking or performing any other activity, they tend to get sore at times.

Going to an orthopedic isn’t always a choice that people prefer. So, in order to solve your problem and even strengthen your knees from the comfort of your home, I will be sharing few exercises and ways in which you can make this come true. It’s all about persistence, determination and self-care. Let’s begin.

How to Strengthen Knees When You Are Plus Sized

Water Exercises

Studies have proved that regular water exercises can reduce a great amount of joint pain. While in water what happens is, there is less pressure applied on your muscles while exercising. Especially when it comes to swimming; it is considered as one of the nicest cardio workouts for strengthening the knees.

Swimming is not only simpler than other water exercises, but is also considered as one of the best exercises for people with knee pain. It lets your joints flex with zero gravity

Also, it has been seen that many people are able to exercise in the water for long hours without getting tired. Not only that; water exercises are actually fun and simple.

Your body feels light and free, thereby giving you the will to enjoy your workout and benefit your body at the same time. It helps maintain perfect body weight and also strengthens and tones the body muscles.

Walking

This is the simplest and the best form of exercise to begin with. It is a low impact cardio exercise which strengthens your muscles, helps you to lose belly fat and relieves you of knee pain. The best part with walking is you can decide your own pace. Moreover, you do not need any equipment for this exercise.

Every person experiences a different area and degree of discomfort. Walking allows the person to choose his or her own style, be it fast, moderate or slow. You can begin at a very slow pace and with passage of time increase the duration and its pace to suit your convenience.

One may not be able to walk speedily, but the best part is research shows that slow, moderate pace walking is equally beneficial to the knee. It increases the blood flow to the surrounding muscles which are tight and builds up the muscles around the knee.

Either way, walking is known to provide lubrication to the joints, burn calories over a period of time and aid in weight loss too, which further alleviates knee pain.

Stretch exercises

Though exercise is a must, it should not be too hard on you. You need to select some gentle exercises which do not aggravate but alleviate your condition. Easy stretch exercises should be practiced regularly as these will make the muscles more flexible and slowly bring relief to your sore knee.

When the knee is too tight, you will find it very difficult to even do the simplest of chores, thus making you uncomfortable. Light exercises in the morning before you are out of the bed and again at night will go a long way in giving relief in case of knee pain.

Weak quadriceps is one of the major reasons for knee pain. To overcome this, Knee quadriceps stretch and standing hamstring stretch exercises should be done regularly.

These stretching exercises build the knee and its surrounding muscles when done regularly and help overcome problem of knee pain.

Step Exercises

Step exercises are something that is very easy to perform as well as is a guarantee for outstanding results. They do not take much time and energy as well.

All you need for these exercises would be a sturdy firm stool or you could even work with staircase steps. For this exercise, you would have to step on with your right leg on the stool.

As the left foot follows behind, you let it hang in the air and control your body weight on only the right foot. You should continue this for approximately 5 seconds before switching to the left foot for the exact same procedure.

There’s also another step wherein you step on the stool, right leg first then left. Then get down with right leg first and then left. All you got to do is continue this stepping up and stepping down for around 5-10 minutes for better results.

The step exercises target on your legs, especially knees building up its flexibility as well as strength. They also help in losing excess body weight by burning as much calories as possible.

One of the best characteristics of these exercises is that they can literally be performed anytime and anywhere. As long as you have a high raised platform, that’s all you need.

Up and Downs

Now these up and downs aren’t the regular up and downs where you get down on your knees and stand up again. This one is a different and an easy version of the very same exercise.

For this, you need a chair or a stool. All you have to do is, sit on the chair/stool with both your arms at your sides then slowly stand back up till you have reached your original height. Wait for a few seconds and repeat the whole procedure again.

It’s that simple and easy to perform. You could do this every day for 4-5 minutes for good results. Chair exercises may look like a piece of cake, but they have a great impact on the body.

You can lose 120 to 250 calories by performing these exercises. Apart from that, they also improve your body posture and provide you with better balance. Your muscle mass too gets into control easily.

The best part is you could perform them whether you’re in your office or home or any other place, without having to face any inconveniences.

Healthy Protein-filled Diet

As much as exercises are effective, so is diet. It plays a very important role in improving muscle strength and keeping you healthy. Lunch and dinner usually contains a good amount of protein that is required for your body, mainly the joints.

The most essential meal where people usually lack behind in protein and fiber is the morning breakfast. Usual breakfast dishes like oatmeal or bagels do not consists of the needed amount of protein for the body.

They only manage to keep your tummy feeling full rather than actually nourishing you. You could include fresh fruits with your oatmeal to add on the protein factor. Bananas, Raspberries, Kiwis are filled with high nutrition.

Yoghurt too is preferable option, especially Greek yoghurts. They offer a huge amount of protein to your meal that too in a delicious manner. They can anytime replace those unhealthy cereals that you would eat instead.

Apart from that, eggs are a great choice for breakfast meals. Dishes like scrambled eggs, sunny side up, vegetable omelet are healthy as well as easy to prepare.

Talking about easy dishes, smoothies are an easy way of gaining the desired nutrients. They are very quite convenient to make and also accelerate the weight loss process.

Also, if you choose to add on veggies to your smoothie, they help you feel full for longer hours. These tiny changes in your diet can make a huge difference on your body making you healthier and fit.

Deal with your emotions appropriately instead of overreacting.

No matter what the situation is, all the doctors, physicians and dietitians would give you tips that focus on your physical health in term on diet and exercises. Whereas the truth is, none of it would make a difference if you aren’t emotionally ready for it.

Knee pain and other bodily issues do occur commonly and it’s completely fine. Overweight can lead to many body health issues at times, but that doesn’t necessarily have to play with your feelings.

Everything can be solved as long you accept your real self. You know yourself the best. Study yourself, see what diet and exercises suit your body the best. Make sure they are exactly what you have been looking for and go for it.

Getting yourself mentally ready is the first step to everything.

Conclusion

Self-care is the best care in the whole world. No matter what your body size is, it should not define your capabilities. There may be slight issues like knee pain that you may come across, but that can be dealt with slowly and steadily with patience and enough exercises.

As seen above, here were few of the tips with which you could strengthen your knees and also get rid of any knee pain that you may be facing due to body weight.

They are all pretty easy and quick to perform. The results will always turn out positive if you stay persistent. All that is needed is a lot of care and a little leap of faith. I hope this write up helped you in some or the other way possible. Good luck with strengthening your knees!