Does climbing stairs hurt your knees?

The knees are very important to the human body. If the knee joints are injured, the person's activities will be affected, and then daily life will also be affected. As the elderly age, various body functions gradually decline, especially the knee joints. If you climb stairs frequently, it is very likely to cause excessive pressure on the knee joints and cause injury. Therefore, climbing stairs is harmful to the knees.

How much "pressure" do the knees need to withstand every day?

From an anatomical point of view, the muscles around the knee joint are weak, with only tissues such as the meniscus, collateral ligaments, and cruciate ligaments, but it has to bear 86% of the body's weight. Therefore, the knee joint is very easy to be injured during exercise.

We can take a quick look at the pressure on the knee in different situations:

When lying flat, the weight on the knees is almost zero;

When standing on two legs, the pressure on the knees is 86% of our body weight;

When walking on flat ground, it is about 1 to 2 times of body weight;

When jogging, it is about 2 to 3 times of body weight;

When running fast, it is about 5 to 7 times or even more than the body weight;

When going up and down stairs, it is about 3 to 7 times your body weight.

Going down stairs puts more pressure on the knees than going up stairs, because in addition to one's own weight, the knee joints have to bear the downward force, which increases the damage to the knee joints. From this perspective, climbing stairs frequently may indeed cause excessive "stress" on the knee joints and cause injury.

However, for young people in their twenties and thirties who have no joint, physical or cardiopulmonary problems, climbing stairs on a daily basis is completely fine. After all, the human body's articular cartilage has a certain ability to repair itself after being damaged.

Is stair climbing a good daily exercise?

According to some fitness coaches, climbing stairs is a convenient and fast way to exercise. You don’t have to go to the gym and can do it near home. It can also burn 480 calories per hour.

However, orthopedic doctors do not recommend climbing stairs as a daily exercise because the aging of the knee joint starts from the cartilage. Compared with other tissues, cartilage has poor self-repair ability and it wears out every time it is used, which is not worth the cost.

In fact, as long as we are still walking, the knee cartilage, meniscus, etc. will continue to age and be damaged, but whether the exercise method is proper can slow down or accelerate the aging process. Therefore, WeDoctor still recommends that you climb stairs occasionally and do not use this weight-bearing exercise as a daily exercise.

Who is not suitable for climbing stairs frequently?

Although for ordinary people, climbing stairs does not have much impact on the knees; however, for some people, it is indeed not suitable to climb stairs frequently.

1 Obese people

Any extra weight puts double the strain on your knees. For every pound you gain, your knees will experience an additional 3 pounds of pressure. If you are 10 kilograms overweight, your knees will have to bear 30 kilograms more pressure than a normal person.

2Patients with degenerative arthritis

This disease is more common in middle-aged and elderly people, so it is also called "senile arthritis". The articular cartilage of these patients has degenerated and damaged, and excessive weight bearing or continued improper use of these joints (such as the cervical spine, lumbar spine, knee joints, hip joints, etc.) will aggravate the symptoms.

3Patellar valgus patients

The patella is what people generally call the kneecap. Patellar valgus is common in young women and is mainly caused by the loss of cartilage sulfide in the bone. Frequent stair climbing can make the valgus problem worse, causing pain and limiting knee movement.