Doesn’t matter whether you are a professional athlete, you like to exercise casually or you prefer the comfort of your chair instead of jogging, knees mean a great deal for your mobility. Unfortunately, many of us tend to ignore the warning signs and instead of paying attention to some injuries or problems on time can mean you will need to visit the orthopedics’ office regularly. It is said that majority of knee problems could have been prevented with timely treatment. Knowing the warning signs can make the difference between healthy knees and permanent damages.

Here are 5 of the most common causes for knee damages:

1. Ignoring knee pain. Surely a little aching from time to time is not a reason to start panicing but if your knees are causing constant pain above the average limit and it’s starting to disturb your normal everyday life, it is definitely time to make an appointment with an orthopedic. If you decide to ignore the pain and just claim it’s due to stress, you are risking with permanent damages.
2. Staying overweight. Every extra pound will add five times more stress on your knees, increasing the possibility to develop osteoarthritis or cause the existing arthritis to worsen. However, that is a double sided coin. If you are highly overweight, it is not recommended to start exercising crazily as that might cause even more damage to your knees. It is wiser to take it slowly but steadily to make sure your knees maintain their strength.
3. Forgetting or mistreating the ACL. The anterior cruciate ligament is one of the four main ligaments around the knee, hence it is understandable what an important role it has to play. Sports that involve a lot of jumping, like basketball, put bigger stress on the ACL, increasing the risk for rupturing. Only the ACL alone is responsible for more than a hundred thousand injuries in the US every year. So ignoring the warning signs or mistreating ACL can be the downfall for your knees.
4. Going overboard with your workout. Top coaches are not recommending rest days just for fun: there has to be a balance between resting and training. Training every single day intensely causes huge stress for your knees while not allowing them to rest takes it even further. Same goes for sudden bursts. If you have never done intense workout but start doing so from scratch, you are putting the health of your knees in great danger. The constant strain threatens the kneecap and ligaments, causing injuries that the knee might not recover from at all. Don’t push too hard nor forget strecthing and resting – it’s a crucial part of the workout regimen.
5. Wearing wrong footwear. Shoes have an important role to play in distributing the weight and supporting the work of your knees. Wearing shoes that don’t give your feet any support can put greater strain on the knees, therefore contribute to your knees weakening.

If you want to maintain the health of your knees and be sure you won’t have to suffer due to knee pain, keep these pointers in mind – exercise moderately, pay attention to the pain and you should be able to avoid most knee-related worries.