Knee stiffness

[Madge50]

Hi all, I am new to this, just started week 4 today, so far so good. Did have really stiff knees at the end of week 3, no actual pain, just felt like the tin man and needed oiling! I am doing this to get a bit fitter, and healthier, my 50th birthday is this year. Any tips for diet to help with joint stiffness?

Thanks my new running buddies

By the way, I hated PE at school, so thought would give this a go, really like it, and have found the comments and blogs really encouraging.

[OlsBean]

Congratulations on reaching W4.

I have bad joints and diet has helped me. The most obvious food to aid joint care is Oily Fish which contain Omega-3 which you probably know about already, or you can take Omega-3 supplement.

Vitamin C is also important, which I'm sure you'll know things like citrus fruits are a good source of.

The antioxidants in Green Tea supposedly help with joint inflammation amongst other things, I use something called Matcha Powder en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matcha which has something like 120 x the antioxidants of normal green tea, gramme for gramme. I have have half a teaspoon each morning in my Readybrek or Porridge.

Extra Virgin Olive oil helps also but obviously if you're also watching the calories then you need to use it sparingly as it's loaded!

Just eat healthy and be mindful of how much sugar there is in most things processed as sugar does not help with Joint Care!

Good Luck

[LMS2110 Graduate]

Hiya Madge, nice to see you on the forum. And well done for getting to week 4 with no hiccups! I'm a few years ahead of you age-wise and on week 7. I'd done no 'organised' exercise since school either but became determined to get loads fitter to prepare for retirement and hoped that I might lose some weight along the way. I haven't experienced any joint pains before running, so when my knees started to hurt a wee bit - a bit like yours, not really sore but feeling as if they needed oiling - I concluded it must be the running! I have a really super local pharmacist, sooo super friendly and helpful, I asked if be had any suggestions. (An appt with my GP is almost impossible to get without a month's notice and he's always too busy with sick people anyway - so I didn't want to bother him). The first bit of advice I got was to get some properly fitting running shoes after 'gait analysis' . This advice also featured from others on the forum too! Secondly, he suggested that a course of glucosamine+ chrondroitin might not go amiss to help rebuild the natural lubricant in the joints...apparently it sometimes needs a little help as we get older. Then, he suggested an application of Deep Heat (or similar) to provide warmth/comfort. Lastly he said that natural Arnica might help if the area was bruised and muscles strained. I did the lot!

Getting my gait analysed was amazing, and the shoes I bought (along with customised insoles for my wonky foot) weren't cheap BUT I haven't had foot or knee pain since then! Because they correct the way my foot hits the ground and the stress on ankle bones right through to my hips is corrected/reduced.. everything just works better!

As for diet, again Inspired by others on C25K, I've decided to try the 5:2 diet. I'd seen a BBC documentary about it at the end of last year, and it made a kind of sense to me .... So nothing ventured, nothing gained.... I'm giving it a whirl starting this week. I'll keep you posted.

Lots of good wishes for the weeks ahead, enjoy your running (once you've oiled the knees)

Cheers, Linda

[Madge50 Graduate in reply to LMS2110]

Thanks Linda

You mention a 'course' of glucosamine etc., I did not want to take supplements all the time but do understand given inevitable ageing and all that, odds stacked against us for being female (ha ha) a little bit of help may be needed at times, what was the 'course' , a few days, a week etc., ?

Thanks again for the encouragement, it makes me feel part of a big group, that really does help, especially when you are fighting just to get out of the door!

Best wishes

Mary

[LMS2110 Graduate in reply to Madge50]

I got a pot of G+C at the supermarket and took 3 a day for a week. Like you, I'm not really wanting to get hooked on supplements ... There are so many aren't there, there could be no end! Besides, I prefer to keep sensible about ordinary nutrition and like nice things I can eat from a plate! I guess I'll never know if that short burst did the trick, but I do think the massage of deep heat was nice and I have used arnica before when I've been injured and it really does make short work of bruises (have no idea how, and am not wholly convinced about these 'natural remedies', .... but it does work!) Nice pharmacist did suggest that my great big knees were probably slightly bruised after what I'd put them through! Good to have a fan, eh? One thing I did learn from my GP ages ago after breaking my ankle, was that running (as an 'impact' activity) was one of the best things to build up bones and prevent possible onset of osteoporosis. So, slowly and steadily I'm plodding through the challenge and loving it now...as will you! BTW, for my 50th birthday, I climbed my first mountain in NZ! Way to go girlies All the best x

[Madge50 Graduate]

Fabulous, thanks both, I had seen advice re gait assessment, I have got proper running shoes, but standard nike. I wanted to be more established and a definite 'runner' before doing that. I made myself be more mobile after the run today and the knees seem to have improved - I will keep an eye on it, but won't push it.

Altering my diet a bit will also help shift a few pounds as well I expect! (The weight variety!)

Thanks again, really appreciate the advice and encouragement