Painful knees and crunching

[shockandawe]

My knees creak and crunch when exercising, and so painful when going up and down stairs.

They make such a racket that even my dc know it's me coming up in the evening, as they can hear it from their bedrooms!

Lately I find myself having to use the bannister on the stairs to bear weight on, to try and take some pressure off my knees.

I'm a healthy weight for my height, but what can I do? I'm 37 btw.

[amarmai]

bike riding has rehabbed my knees. Mid 70s and no noise/pain.

[Backingvocals]

I have this - since I started going to a personal trainer ironically. It's all the millions of lunges he makes me do

Not sure what can be done though so posting to empathise and bump.

[LivingInMidnight]

I have similar knee noises. Physios suggest knee exercises like squats. Your GP could refer you to a physio who would probably give you some exercises to do. There'll be examples on YouTube though.

[Elfontheedge]

It could be the bursa - the fluid sacs round your knee caps -getting inflamed. I get this when I over do it a bit sometimes. I found an ibuprofen gel when it flares up to reduce the inflammation and also some physio exercises really helped.

[cauliflowercheese14]

I have one crunchy knee, swimming only once a week has genuinely helped, it gets worse if I skip a week.

[NotJanine]

Mine are mega-crunchy, I've even made a physio pull a disgusted face!

I was referred years ago and they said it was just worn cartilage, any pain was from little spurs of cartilage sticking up (or something like that). Strengthening upper leg helped to reduce the pain for me (so that the knee cap moves properly), but can't do anything about the noise.

Even if you are fit and healthy the muscles may not be working properly so may need to be built up/re-trained. Can you self refer for physio?