Is walking ok if you have knee osteoarthritis? Siddharth Tambar MD from Chicago Arthritis and Regenerative Medicine discusses.

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A common question I get asked is whether walking is good if you have knee arthritis. The simple answer is it depends. However, the evidence suggests that exercise in general and even running can be helpful in people that have knee arthritis.

This is for a few reasons. Number one, if it helps keep you at a closer to ideal body weight, that reduction in weight leads to a reduction in stress on the knee which is good in terms of knee arthritis related pain. Number two, anything that helps to strengthen the legs whether that’s walking or other exercise can be helpful as well in terms of helping with stability and reducing pain in knee osteoarthritis.

Now with that said if walking leads to more significant pain in the knee, you need to take that into consideration. If you are having pain that is more than a 2 out of 10 with any activity, you should consider modifying or even consider stopping it if needed. Sometimes modification might mean reducing the strenuousness of an activity or changing up technique so that you may still be able to do that kind of activity.

So as a short answer, yes in general walking should be good for knee osteoarthritis, as long as it’s not causing more significant pain.

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At Chicago Arthritis and Regenerative Medicine our mission is to improve your pain and function, allowing you to do the activities you enjoy with the people you care about.

We accomplish this with various non surgical modalities to treat musculoskeletal and orthopedic conditions, including using your own blood and stem cells to treat arthritis, tendinitis, injuries, and back pain.

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