Chris Boettcher

If I was 20 pounds overweight and had chronic knee pain, here’s exactly what I would do to lose the weight and save my knees: 

Two pillars are key here:

1) Diet
2) Exercise

Let’s start with the diet:

Many guys' knee pain stems from carrying excess weight along with chronic inflammation, both putting more strain on their already weak joints.

Luckily, these are controllable by making a few key changes:

1) Avoiding Processed Foods

Processed foods, especially those high in added sugar, cause rapid spikes and crashes in blood sugar

Over time, this leads to insulin resistance, which brings a whole host of problems, especially chronic inflammation.

We want to avoid processed foods as much as possible.

Limit:

- Bars
- Cereals
- Processed breads
- Packaged snacks
- Sodas and fruit juice

And eat nutrient-dense foods like:

- Eggs
- Meats
- Fish
- Fruits
- Vegetables

This simple shift will reduce inflammation in the knees.

2) Limiting Calories

Excess weight stems from excess calories.

Each additional pound exerts an extra 3-4 pounds of pressure on your knees.

Carrying around an extra 20 pounds means your knees have to bear an additional 60-80 pounds of pressure with each step.

How to limit calories:

- Avoid liquid calories
- Use an eating window
- Limit yourself to one plate
- Prioritize protein each meal

Being in a slight calorie deficit (500 a day) will help you lose ~ a pound a week.

And each pound you drop takes pressure off your joints.

Now, let’s shift the focus from diet to exercise.

While losing weight is a huge factor in reducing this joint pain, we can also focus on a few key movements to help with chronic knee pain:

1) Ankle mobility 

Knee pain often stems from poor mobility above and below the knee joint. This limited range of motion causes compensations and puts additional stress on the knee.

Here’s an example for improving ankle mobility: 

2) Hip mobility

Tight hips due to prolonged sitting alters your biomechanics.  It impacts your ability to squat and even go up and down stairs correctly causing increased knee pain.  

Here's an example you can use to improve hip mobility: 

3) Hip and Glute Strength 

Knee pain also stems from weak hips. By improving hip mobility and strengthening your hips you can take significant stress off the knee joint.  

Here’s an easy bridge exercise to build strength in these areas: 

4) VMO strengthening

The VMO, or Vastus Medialis Obliquus, is a muscle located in the front of the thigh. A weak VMO is often associated with knee pain.

Here’s a simple exercise to strengthen the VMO while at the same time building additional glut strength: 

5) Incline Walking

Incline walking places less stress on the knee than walking on a flat surface. 

It also fires your entire posterior chain for improved support of the knee.  

You can also use backwards walking on an incline to build knee strength and stability.

To recap, diet and exercise are both key to reducing knee pain

For diet:

- Limit processed foods
- Stay in a calorie deficit to lose weight

For exercise:

- Increase ankle/hip mobility
- Build hip and glute strength
- Build VMO strength
- Incline walking

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