Do you worry that you’re wearing out your knee with too much exercise? Don’t worry your knee is an amazing shock absorber and loves this job and actually needs to do this to stay healthy.
Knees are really strong and its important to keep all the muscles around the knee strong, your thigh muscle “Quadriceps” which goes over the front of your knee via the knee cap but also over the front of your hip. Your “Hamstrings” that are at the back of your knee and extend up over your hip joint and work with your “Gluteus maximus” or buttock muscles to support the knee joint, and the calf muscles “ Gastrocnemius” which support your knee but also extend over your ankle through the Achilles tendon and powerfully supports the ankle.
There are lots of ligaments supporting your knee and they are some of the strongest ligaments in your body.
Now its true that cartilage gets thinner with age, but this and even some damage to it through your life, does not mean it is weaker, it can still work totally fine. Actually shock is also absorbed by your muscles and the long bones in your thigh and shin, so there is a very clever system working to give you shock absorption.
Inside the capsule of your knee there is a lining of cells called your synovium which ooze an amazing lubricant called synovial fluid. The scientist have calculated that each of us produces about a teaspoon full of this stuff every day which nourishes our knee and helps us absorb forces.
Now the best way to help your knee make lots of health giving synovial fluid is……to move!
Why movement is so important to the knee joint is because cartilage doesn’t have a blood supply or a nerve supply, which in most other tissues is the mechanism that brings healing if you damage it. Cartilage has a different mechanism of healing, it gains most of its nutrients from the synovium fluid produced in the knee and this happens when the cartilage is repeatedly compressed ie. when we walk.
If we do have to repair the cartilage because of an injury, we have special cartilage making cells called “Condrocytes” and they also exist in a knee with Osteoarthritis (O.A). If we want these cells to be stimulated into action we need to move and walk, however everyone is different and you need to start this process at the right level for you. That may mean more gently for some and quite active for others and the trick is finding your “Sweet Zone” which is enough to encourage the chondrocytes but not too much which can disturb their clever cartilage making activity.
There is a lot you can do through simple movement to make your knee more healthy.
