Knee Pain in the Backcountry

Knee pain is a real issue for a lot of backpackers and mountaineers. For some people, this can be a gamestopper.

There are a handful of ways to decrease that pain. First, there are a some things that you can do immediately, while on the trail. And second, there are some excercises that you can do to build the muscles around the knee. Today's video from Chase Mountains covers all of these things in depth:

In review, the things that you can do immediately to decrease pain are:

1. Choose less steep trails.
2. Reduce your weight and the amount you carry.
3. Use trekking poles.
4. Keep your hips low and squat a bit when on steep terrain.

The remainder of the video goes through two exercises that can be done to increase the strength of the muscles around the knees. These include:

1. Trendelenburg Test (7:45)
2. Sideline Hip Abduction (9:30)

The video creator also has a book entitled Hike Strong (it is not cheap), which provides several more exercises.

--Jason D. Martin

--Jason D. Martin