How can I ease my body into liking exercising again?

May 20, 2009 2:36 AM

I decided to exercise! Hurrah! So I bought me a skipping rope and decided to start jogging. Unfortunately, my body is not liking the idea (especially my knees). Help?

Some background info:

I am a 21 year old male. I used to work out regularly at the gym doing weight training and some light cardio, but it has been about a year since I have stopped. Since then, I have not exercised regularly (or at all, really) and am out of shape. I did not play any sports either. The most I have done is go on extended walks up and around town for 30 minutes ~ an hour every now and then (maybe twice a month-ish?), and walk to classes on campus.

Well, now that school is over for the summer, I decided to bring my body back into shape, starting with some cardio. I bought a skipping rope and some ankle weights. I knew that it had been a while since I took a whack at exercising, so I decided to take it slow and not use the ankle weights until a couple of weeks later. I started today, with skipping 600 times, in intervals of 200 jumps. I had planned on doing some light jogging, but it started to rain, and I wasn't man enough to run in the rain, so I stopped. Fast forward a couple of hours later, and my right knee is hurting. It is a bit painful at the bottom of the kneecap, about where the shin meets the knee.

I want to keep exercising! To counteract this, I've decided to buy proper shoes for jogging/skipping rope. My reasoning is that maybe I need to cushion the force of my run and jumping. Also, I'm thinking of buying something to bandage/brace my knee to keep my kneecap stabilized. (I could use some feedback on this though, I'm just hazarding a remedy).

Soo... I guess my questions are: What should I do to make my hurting knee(s) feel better? How do I prevent my knees from hurting? Should I change my exercise plan?

Many thanks :)

posted by veol to health & fitness (19 comments total)

If you want to change, I recommend cycling. It's good in a cardio sense and means you can gainfully turn pretty much any journey under 15 miles (more if you're keen) into high quality exercise.
posted by rhymer at 3:06 AM on May 20

Warming up is always a good idea. Light stretching beforehand is not a bad idea either. Jumping rope can be one of the harder exercises to pick up on. It can be tedious and the learning curve is a bit flatter compared to some other exercises. You don't give specifics on your weight but this could be problematic for dynamic exercises like jumping rope. Jogging in place should be a decent stand in exercise until you are up to par. Try timing yourself rather than counting the reps. You may have to totally lay off rope jumping until your body has acclimated. Last, if you have never jumped rope before, it will take you more than a couple of weeks to switch over to ankle weights while jumping. That is at least an intermediate level exercise.
I wouldn't worry about a brace, but a bandage may keep your knees warmer while exercising. You could also just cut the bottoms off some socks and those would accomplish the same purpose.
RICE is an acronym for Rest, Ice (10 mins on 20 off), Compression, Elevation. If you don't have any problems with Ibuprofen, that may also help.
posted by P.o.B. at 3:31 AM on May 20

First thing - don't do any more high impact exercise until your knee has healed (how long that will take will depend on if you've actually damaged them or they're just sore from the new workout)

Its been well over a decade since I skipped but even with supple child joints I found 'skipping' much easier on the knees than 'jumping' (ie, its sort of like running on the spot but in rhythm with the rope)
posted by missmagenta at 3:33 AM on May 20

I've had trouble with my knee from too much strenuous running before and besides taking it a little easier I found it extremely helpful to do a simple exercise to strengthen the muscles around my knee every morning for a couple of weeks:

Find a heavy book or something similar that you can hold wedged between your knees. It should take some effort to hold it.
Now find a chair or a ledge where you can sit on the edge so that your upper legs are in the air and your feet are off the ground.
Then, slowly move the book up and down a little.
Repeat as much as comfortable.

This really did wonders to my knee strength and I haven't had problems anymore. I am also more attentive to little signs of my knees having enough and taking a rest.
posted by Glow Bucket at 4:49 AM on May 20

The first things that comes to mind is... slow...down. You can't get back into shape in one day or even a week. Your body needs time to rest, rebuild, etc. You might want to check out the book CHI RUNNING by Danny Dwyer, which promises injury-free running, if you learn his technique properly. There are also some nice warm-up stretches and general exercise tips in there that you might find helpful. Good luck!
posted by LittlePumpkin at 5:30 AM on May 20

Whoa there. SLOW DOWN.

From 0 to 600 jumps? No wonder your knee is screaming!

First, skip like missmagenta suggests.

RICE until you feel better. Scale back to non-impact exercises until the knee feels better.

Then slowly ramp up. The reason you're injured is because you went from zero to full speed.

Do not do jump-rope and go running the same day. In fact, you might want to find another type of exercises - say pushups, situps, and so on, that aren't high-impact - to do on days when you're not jogging.

Maybe start with 100 jumps. Try that every other day. After two weeks, how do you feel? If you're good, add another 50 to the set.

For running, google the Couch to 5K plan.
posted by canine epigram at 5:49 AM on May 20

I went to the doctor with pain just below my kneecap and was diagnosed with patellar tendinitis. He had three suggestions for me: get a petella strap, do a series of physical therapy exercises, and switch to low-impact activities like cycling and using an elliptical machine (ellipticizing?).

He also checked for any lateral movement within the knee. I got the impression that if there had been any it would have been a more serious issue, so it would probably be a good idea to get it checked out.

Good luck!
posted by Hermes32 at 6:13 AM on May 20

You cannot just go back into what you did before. You need to go into it slowly. Also get an exercise bike and use that most of the time 4-3 days a week and jog once or twice. You will find out that a bike gives you a great work out and the jogging is just enough to change things up. I have a bad knee as well and this seems to work for me.
posted by Mastercheddaar at 6:39 AM on May 20

A while back I made a post about jump roping and tchrist posted a good comment on starting out.
posted by dog food sugar at 6:58 AM on May 20

oops that would be tKchrist
posted by dog food sugar at 6:59 AM on May 20

I suggest lunges and squats to strengthen your legs and the muscles around your knee. At first my knees were screaming when I did stuff like that but once I strengthened those muscles they are completely pain free.
posted by zennoshinjou at 7:06 AM on May 20

You absolutely should buy a knee strap/brace for your knee. I used to have similar pain to what you are describing. The brace along with exercise to strengthen the surrounding muscle areas pretty much eliminated all pain I had there. After losing some weight, I don't have any pain in the area anymore.
posted by seppyk at 7:06 AM on May 20

Go slow and slowly build up.

As for running, listen to Doctor Mama. "Everyone makes the same mistake when starting out: going too fast. When you start, you need to go SLOWLY. So slowly that you could probably walk faster. So slowly that you will feel humiliated if you see anyone you know"
posted by studentbaker at 7:38 AM on May 20

- Make sure you stretch afterward.
- Take some glucosamine, which is available at health store and most drug stores.
- Build up the muscles around your knees as zennoshinjou suggests.
posted by ignignokt at 8:08 AM on May 20

I am nth-ing the Slow Down advice. Also, are you striking with your heel when you run? Your weight should come down on the ball of your foot and roll backward. Running like this takes practice (and it will kill your calves), but the benefit is no more knee pain or bone spurs.
posted by domo at 8:43 AM on May 20

As far as running is concerned:

First, don't use ankle weights yet.

Take your time. Start slow and instead of following a strict fitness plan, decide to begin with a small amount of time that you are comfortable with and then go from there.

While I did not increase my mileage overnight, this was my strategy to get from couch potato to amateur runner. Don't forget to warm up and cool down with moderate walking. Also don't feel compelled to follow my plan because this was developed for me personally. The most important advice I can give is to decide your own plan, see how your body feels, and then change accordingly

I also recommend running for a set amount of time over a predetermined distance or speed, as you will notice more flexibility for those days when you want to run harder or easier:

10 min run -> 5 min walk -> 5 min sprint
20 min run -> 5 min walk -> 5 min sprint
30 min run (where I'm at now)

If you take a few days off each week and are doing it right, you'll notice that the 10 min run will get to be absurdly easy. That's what you want. Although you might feel compelled to switch up immediately to more rigorous exercise, stick with that level until you know for sure that you are ready. Repeat for each level.

As your confidence and experience grows, you'll experience success and setbacks before you get it right. This is normal.

Source: Amateur 20 yr old runner (twitter.com/nateruns)
posted by BearPaws at 8:50 AM on May 20

I of course cannot find the article now but many years ago there was a study about walking with weights on the ankles or in the hands. And the conclusion was that it is really really bad for your joints. So if I were you I would forget about the ankle weights unless you want to use them do some leg exercises.

Also I will second the others who suggest to work on your form. Skipping rope should not be too tough on your joints if done properly. Your feet should just barely come off the pavement, just enough room to allow for the rope and then back down. I see a lot of beginners that kind of curl their knees up then slam their feet down. That is a big no no. Just give it a little hop on your toes. But you don't want to be way up on your toes, more like the toes and ball of your foot.

Also dont bother counting as others have said, it just gets distracting. As it is you have too much to think about when learning. Instead just use a clock. Or what I do is use an ipod and go for one song, regardless of length then switch to a new skipping pattern (one foot at a time/doubles etc) then at the next song switch again. In your case I would do one song, take a 30-60 second rest then start up again.

If you think your form is getting better and your knee is still hurting a lot then take it easy again and consider getting it checked out.
posted by WickedPissah at 8:59 AM on May 20

Thanks for all the great advice. I guess the general consensus is to slow down. Although it pains me to take it slow, I can't go against common sense.

I will try to correct my form for skipping rope and start some light jogging/walking once the weather picks up. For now, I'll rest a couple of days to see if the knee is still hurting.

As for strengthening the knees, I will do that ASAP. Anybody know any good knee workouts (if anyone is bothering with this post anymore ;) )

Thanks again
posted by veol at 12:03 PM on May 20

1)Skipping and jumping rope are terms used interchangabley by most trainers. There are quite a few different ways to jump rope and you should explore them all, slowly.
2)Nobody here knows what is wrong with your knee. A doctor will most likely tell you it some kind of "itis". It would take someone who studies your biomechnics to understand what you may be doing wrong, if you are doing something wrong. It would probably be a waste of money to go to a doctor or buy a brace as you may be trying to fix a problem you don't have. If you are still hurt after a couple more days, then you may have an actual problem. Otherwise rest is key.
3)There are no muscles located aound the knee. All the tendons located around the knee are attached to muscle that eventually attach at your hips. Slow lunges are a great suggestion. You also may need to work into these by progressively going deeper into them over a period of a month or so.

Calisthenics and body weight exercises are great. You can use those as a basis before moving on to others or using weights.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:40 PM on May 20