My knees are shot from years on the dredge deck

I'm looking for low-impact exercises to strengthen them without more strain. What has worked for you?

3 comments

3 Comments

Man, I see this so much with people who've worked hard physical jobs. The instinct is to stop using the part that hurts, but then it just gets weaker and the problem gets worse. In my experience, you have to rebuild the muscles around the knee with zero impact. For me, that meant a lot of swimming and using a stationary bike, just pedaling with no resistance. It feels silly at first, but that consistent, gentle work made a real difference over time. Your mileage may vary, but the key is finding the movement that doesn't cause pain and just doing it regularly.

taylor.thomas1mo ago

My uncle was a construction worker for 30 years and had bad knee pain. He tried the no impact stuff like swimming, but it didn't help much. What really worked for him was slowly adding light weight training, like leg raises with small weights. His doctor said the muscles needed to learn to handle some stress again. Now he can walk without pain after months of this. Sometimes you gotta challenge the area a bit, not just baby it.

thea7711mo ago

Spot on. I see this with my mom's arthritis too. She stopped gardening because her hands hurt, and they just got stiffer. Her physical therapist had her start squeezing a soft ball for a few minutes a day, just a little bit of pushback. It's not about forcing through sharp pain, but that tiny bit of daily stress tells your body to keep the area working.