Swelling Of My Knees After A Workout

Exercise is crucial for helping everything from building strength, to warning off chronic diseases, like diabetes and cancer. When exercising, your joints play an essential role in the movement and support of your body, especially the knees. Unfortunately, this means that your knees are particularly prone to problems, like injury or inflammation from the stress placed on the joint and supporting tissues.

Causes

Inflammation after exercise is often due to either injury or inflammatory conditions, like arthritis. When you exercise, you can easily "overuse" the knee joint by performing repetitive motions, especially while supporting weight. When tissues are injured in the knee, the body responds by flooding the area with immune cells, which leak into the tissue and cause inflammation. If you have problems with arthritis of the knee, exercise can irritate the condition, causing a flare up of inflammation during and after your exercise sessions.

Treatment

When your knees start to swell after exercise, there are several immediate options available that can help reduce swelling, as well as help control any accompanying pain. First, it's important to rest the knee joint to prevent future damage to tissue in the knee. Next, place an ice pack on the area for about 10 minutes, then repeat throughout the rest of the day four or five more times until the swelling starts to subside. A compression bandage can be wrapped around the knee to help encourage draining, as well as you can elevate your knee while laying or sitting down to help reduce inflammation. Try to keep the knee slightly bent when elevating the leg.

Medications

A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, or NSAID, can be used to treat inflammation from the inside. There are three main options available, including aspirin, naproxen and ibuprofen. Along with helping reduce inflammation, NSAIDs also help reduce pain in the knee joint by reducing the action of hormone-like substances called prostaglandins, which are responsible for irritating the nerve endings in the affected area, causing pain.

Prevention

While resting the knee is crucial to treating inflammation, the opposite is true for preventing knee inflammation. Because inflammation is often associated with injury or conditions like arthritis, working the knee and building the supporting muscle is crucial. A stronger knee joint both helps prevent injury, as well as can reduce pain and increase function when dealing with knee arthritis, suggests the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Choose exercises that are low impact, such as water exercise, elliptical trainers or stationary bikes, to work the muscle while reducing impact on the knee. A knee brace may also be recommended by your doctor to help add more stability to the knee joint, preventing the injury and irritation that can result in inflammation.