Meet Jenna dding. She is a hiking guide and physiotherapist with the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG). She had six different surgeries on her own knees - two ACL surgeries, a posterior lateral reinforcement, and a few inserted arthroscopy. (Needless to say, she has some personal experience.)
It has migrated from the Arctic to China around the world. It runs 150 days a year and can gain and descend thousands of meters a day. When she is not leading, she works as a physiotherapist with athletes and recreational athletes to heal and strengthen them from various injuries.
Here are some tips on how to prevent yourself from getting hurt on your knees while on the go.
The most common problems
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Heavy backpacks: Seems obvious, but a backpack that is too heavy can damage your knees. Whatever you can do to reduce your pack weight will surely help your knees.
Poles: Jenna recommends the use of sticks for backpacking - but with caution. Many people make the common mistake of leaning too far forward when using poles. This can actually put more strain on the knees. Instead, it is important to sit back on your hips and use the bars to improve balance and lower your body as you cross steps.
Don't sit back in your hips and go downhill: In contrast to skiing, sitting in the back seat when downhill is actually good for the knees. So many people don't use their glutes to slow them down, and their knees are too far forward, which puts too much pressure on the back of their kneecaps. This can lead to knee pain.
Prevention of knee injuries
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Jenna can not say more: knee injuries rarely affect the knees, but are due to weak hips.
Classic clamshell exercise: Lie on your side with your knees bent and your ankles stacked. Lift your upper knee away from your lower knee while keeping your hips perfectly still. Usually people swing their hips back so they can cheat. Do not take the easy way, train the right muscles and become strong.
Bridges: Lie on your back, bend your knees so that your feet are on the floor and close to the buttocks. Squeeze your core together, squeeze your butt, and lift your hips off the floor so your knees, hips, and shoulders are in a straight line. To make this difficult, straighten one knee so that the foot lifts off the floor and do one-leg work. Concentrate on keeping your hips straight throughout the movement.
For a more demanding exercise, try one-leg squats: The key here is to focus on keeping your knee from wiggling from side to side and stretching your butt out and back as you bend your knee.
A dynamic warm-up: “People tend to underestimate hiking. It's always good practice to warm up a bit beforehand, ”says dding. "Just take the joints within their reach. This lubricates the joints, activates your nervous system and awakens your body for the activity it will do. "
Some examples only make ankle circles. Leg swings - forward and backward and from side to side. High steps and butt kicks are also simple and straightforward.
Lean back: Start as a squat while hiking. This allows the first of your hips to relax so that your hip flexors are not overstrained. This can cause your glutes to contract and stabilize your thigh.
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