Whether your knee pain is constant, sporadic, or occasional, it's important to take it into account and adapt your workouts accordingly to avoid doing any further damage. For people who are used to starting their workouts with sweaty warmups, it can be frustrating to have to slow the pace down or switch up routines to accommodate knee pain. If this sounds like you, try one of these four exercises that are gentle on the knees but work your body enough not to make your warmups feel like lukewarm cooldowns!
Swimming
Swimming may not be convenient for a quick, early morning warmup, but it's one of few full-body cardio workouts that takes all the weight off your knees and prevents any strain. If you can fit a swim in before your workout, opt for a freestyle stroke, which is usually the fastest. You can make it more effective by improvising a HIIT routine where you alternate between fast and moderate speeds for different laps.
Rowing
This seated-machine exercise may look like a hellish upper-body workout, but it's actually a full-body powerhouse you have got to try. While working your arms, back, and shoulders with the pulling motion, if your form is correct, you'll also be engaging your abs, quads, hamstrings, and glutes every time you control your slide forward.
Walkout
Walkouts are do-anywhere [2] bodyweight exercises that are the perfect cross between a stretch and a cardio exercise. As tame as they might look, walkouts fire your entire body up, using your arms to crawl out, core for stability during the high plank, and legs for sturdiness on the crawl back up.
Elliptical
Swap your treadmill habit for the elliptical, which is designed to mimic the running motion without the hard impact. Although some people find it tame, you can make this machine work for you [3] by adapting your favourite treadmill HIIT combinations [4] to it or by trying one of our many elliptical workouts [5] that are perfect for all levels.