May 8, 2018 pedalgoa

Hiking Tips: How to prevent knee pain from hiking hills :: hiking injuries. walking injuries.

Has the thought ever crossed your mind to wear a knee brace while hiking?

No?

Good! Try to keep it that way! 😉

Prevention is the best course of action for any sort of hiking injuries.

Most common hiking injuries are preventable.

Knee pain from hiking, also called hiker’s knee, is one of the more common hiking injuries that can be prevented.

Of course being out in the outdoors, things do happen, but when it comes to injuries related to your muscles and joints, there are things you can do to minimize the risk of encountering knee pain that affects the way you walk.

Covered on this page:

HIKING 101

Avoid having to wear a knee brace for hiking!

How can you avoid wearing a knee brace for hiking?

By not having to need one! 😉

While wearing the best knee brace may feel like it’s being helpful when you’re hiking or walking, you don’t want to become over reliant on a knee brace.

So the best thing to do is to take prevention steps seriously, and work towards keeping your knees happy.

You really do not want to end up in a position where you feel constant knee pain when you’re taking up one of your favorite hobbies… that’s hiking of course. 😉



Side note!
See about the best shoes for hiking in Hawaii and what to wear snorkeling in Hawaii! And for Hawaii vacation ideas, see the best things to do in Waikiki that will give you Hawaii vibes!


Tips to prevent knee pain from walking downhill aka hikers knee

Your leg muscles and joints are interconnected: Work on strength and conditioning for your lower body (and upper body!)

What does it mean that your muscles and joints are interconnected?

It means that in protecting your knees and preventing knee pain, you want to keep your entire lower body strong and fit for action (hiking)!

Actually, the muscles of your entire body are interconnected, so ideally, you want to work towards having a strong upper body and lower body, and that includes your core.

Working on body weight exercises that use your leg muscles are a good way to increase leg strength.

While isolated strength training does have its place, by incorporating body weight exercises like squats and lunges, it gets a bunch of your leg muscles working together.

(Isolation here means working on muscle groups individually. For example, a leg extension machine that works just the quads.)

Conditioning for hiking also includes flexibility.

There are a number of ways you can increase your flexibility.

Some of the more common ways to increase your flexibility that you might consider adding to your training plan include:

  • Static stretching (the type that probably first comes to mind when you think of flexibility, where you hold stretches for a set count)
  • Dynamic stretching (active stretching like running drills)
  • Yoga (with yoga poses for hikers)
  • Foam rolling to work on massaging different parts of your body

Foot support can affect knee support: Get the right hiking shoes for you

What does it mean that foot support affects knee support?

Back to the interconnected nature of your lower body.

Wearing shoes that aren’t properly fitted or aren’t properly supported can not only lead to problems for your feet, but they go further up and cause problems or other parts of your legs.

This is why the type of hiking shoes or hiking boots you select is very important.

If you’ve never bought shoes specific to your outdoor activities, it is best that you head to experts who specialize in getting the right shoes for you.

– Where can you find hiking shoe experts?

If you have an REI store near you, that’s a great place to get your first pair of hiking shoes.

They have staff assigned to finding the right shoe for you.

They also may have some props in the way of makeshift rocks.

This allows you to try out your potential new shoes on varied terrain to see how the shoes and your feet respond in real-life situations when you’re hiking outdoors.

REI also has free outdoor classes that covers things like backpacking basics, so look into that too if you’re preparing for your first backpacking trip!

Once you’ve gone hiking for a season and have determined that they are the right pair of shoes for your feet, you can use the same tips as running shoes for how to save money when you replace your shoes!

Don’t hike too much too soon: Record your hiking mileage

Another area that can prevent knee pain when hiking is to not do too much too soon. Whether you’re going for hikes twice a month, or you’re training for a longer backpacking trip, keeping track of how much ground you’ve covered can be helpful.

The best way to prevent yourself from doing too much too soon is to record the number of miles you hiked.

If you are doing other kinds of activities in your backpacking training, record that too.

It can allow you to go back and see if you are indeed gradually increasing your mileage, or if you’ve dramatically increased your mileage quickly without even realizing it.

This may sound obvious in that you would notice, but really, it happens!

You’ll also want to note the terrain and any other variables that may affect how strenuous your hike was.

A flat 5 miles is different from a hilly 5 miles, and when you’re looking back at your notes, you’ll want to have a way to distinguish that.

Even if you’re doing a couple of hikes per month, keep track of it!

It can be as simple as writing it down on the calendar you have hanging in your kitchen!

Or you can get a dedicated standard wall calendar just to record your hikes and/or training.

It could serve as motivation to see it hanging up like that. 🙂

Give your knees support when hiking downhill: Use trekking poles

While trekking poles can be helpful for more than just hiking downhill, if you are looking for ways to prevent knee pain and you’ll be hiking on trails with hills, consider trekking poles.

You may think that going down hill on a trail is the easy part of hiking.

But if you’re hiking on trails with varied terrain that gets you hiking downhill quite a bit, it can start to cause you problems with your joints and muscles before you even realize it.

It’s the downhills that can cause the most strain on your knees.

And many times, hiking downhill a lot is the main cause of knee pain when hiking.

One of the reasons for why you use trekking poles is because it can lessen the impact of the force on your knees.

Your poles can provide additional support to your knees so you are not relying so heavily on your knees to get you down.

This makes it so your knees don’t experience as much stress.

Replicate the trails prior to your backpacking trip

If you’re training for a backpacking trip with variable terrain, you may also consider adding stairs to your training program to start to condition your knees to go downhill.

If you’re able to find a nearby local trail that is a shorter version of your long trip that can replicate the hills, that would be the best case scenario.

But otherwise, stairs could be an alternative for training.

However you train though, remember, aim for gradual increases!

You don’t want to start experiencing knee pain before you even head out for the big one!

This is where overall strength and conditioning of your legs becomes important too!

HAPPY HIKING!

hiking gear list – what to wear hiking – best daypack for hiking

gifts for hikers under $25 – gifts for travelers under $25

 



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🐠 Here are things you must consider packing!


I also don't go snorkeling without a personal swim float buoy. Not only does it help to keep me visible, but it makes for a perfect way to rest out in deeper water! Oh, and it also serves as a dry bag so I can take stuff into the water with me.

Another way I have taken valuables into the water with me is to wear a travel money belt that I don't mind getting wet with salt water (it's not waterproof but I have several so I just use one of them) and then I put things in a ziplock freezer bag, and put that freezer bag in the money belt.

There are also designated waterproof waist pouches that you can store your valuables and take into the water with you.


see more:
- What to wear hiking
- What to wear snorkeling