Even if you just work hard at ‘this exercise’… As you get older, you get less ‘artificial joints’
One of the inevitable pains as we age is knee pain. If the pain gets worse, you may need artificial joint surgery. However, research has shown that this surgery can be avoided by doing squats and lunges.
A study presented at the Radiological Society of North America conference found that people with stronger hamstrings and thigh muscles were less likely to need knee replacement.
Researchers looked at 67 patients who had total knee replacement surgery and 67 patients who did not. The results of the study showed that among 134 people, those with larger quadriceps femoris, the muscles on the back of the thigh, compared to the hamstrings, the muscles on the front of the thigh, were 82% less likely to undergo knee replacement surgery. The quadriceps is the strongest muscle in the human body.
“These two muscle groups act as countervailing forces, and their balance allows for a variety of activities while protecting the knee joint,” said study lead author Dr. Upasana Upadhya Bharadwaj of the University of California, San Francisco. “Imbalance between the two muscles is one of the factors that causes osteoarthritis to progress to the point where knee replacement is necessary,” he explained.
Researchers recommended exercises such as squats and lunges, which can be easily done at home, as ways to increase muscle strength. Experts advise that strengthening your leg muscles can help reduce the stress on your knee joints and improve the stability of your patella, which can help prevent the progression of arthritis. “Regular strengthening exercises help strengthen the muscles around the knee,” Martin Lau, nutritionist at Arthritis Action, told the British newspaper The Telegraph.