on occasion my knees blow out, like I feel a shift under my kneecap and my leg buckles, I walk with a slight limp for a couple days afterword, I take a few vitamin I and it goes away. I think it might be the tendon sliding around. anyway, is there any way to strengthen this to prevent it from happening?

My wife has torn her ACL three times (2 in one knee, 1 in the other). She can climb great on them, but it was the descent that hurt her knees. The key thing she did in training was to ride the stairmaster backwards. (She uses that full-on stairmaster with the rotating stairs.) I think it really worked the muscles that go into stablizing the knee.

Your solution will depend heavily on exactly what the injury is. You can try to self-diagnose from looking at various internet sites but you also might want to see a doctor.

I began developing some iliotibial-band syndrome on a couple hikes last year but for me it was caused by high-intensity/impact after a period of relative low-intensity and simply ramping up more smoothly cured it for me.

I have done several trips lately that would have played havoc on my knee last october, but not a single hint of a problem now.

Other solutions for ITBS are often just targeted stretching exercises (which I never did) as well as some sort of velcro elastic strap that cradles the band and helps it not inflame while you continue to exercise (which I never used).

I have an issue just like Kiwiw with my right knee. I use a knee brace and hip exercises to rehab the knee. The knee brace helps keep my knee stable while I do the exercises. you can find many hip exercises to do in workout books and on the web.

surfnturf wrote:Get it checked out. Knees problems don't get better by themselves. Good luck!

+1 .... word.