Elbow & Knee: Why do they hurt?

Elbows and knees frequently bother people. Especially once you get older.

Knee surgeries are one of the more commonly performed surgical interventions after the age of sixty.

But why is your knee or elbow bothering you?

Allow me to explain this in construction terms. When you construct a building, you start with pillars.

Pillars are the foundations of the building and bear the load.

Pillars, in turn, will have joints, which take the load and then distribute the rest.

In the same way, your knees and elbows are load bearing. Excess is distributed along your arms and legs.

In this case, the muscles.

So if the strain that you are exerting is high and the muscles along the arms and legs weak, the knee or elbow are forced to take the load.

There is no place to distribute the load.

Over decades, the pressure starts to create wear and tear. You call it knee pain or tennis elbow or equivalent.

But there is no load on your elbow, you say. Actually, there is. It’s a different kind of load from your knee. It is the load of repetitive actions without the required strength to cope.

So what can you do?

One of two things, preferably both.

Strengthen the muscles around your arms and legs.

Don’t get flustered because they are called the pronator teres, the pronator quadratus, the anconeus, the brachioradialis, and the supinator. Exercise them regardless.

Do the same to your leg muscles.

Reduce the load on your knees and elbows. The knee by reducing weight, if excess. The elbow by reducing or avoiding repetitive actions. Typing on keyboards, for example.

The human body is amazingly forgiving. It shows signs of weakness after years of abuse. The amazing thing is that if you start today and do the right thing, you can correct, most often even after it is late.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain