6 Exercises That Can Hurt Your Knees (and How to Modify Them)

Several common exercises — like lunges, squats, and jumping jacks — can cause knee pain or make it worse. But there are creative ways to modify them for more comfort.

“General exercise modifications include decreasing speed, increasing control, or avoiding deep knee bends,” says Eugene Yim, MD, a sports-medicine physician with Hoag Orthopedic Institute in Newport Coast, California.

Can You Work Out With Knee Pain?

Since the source of knee pain may vary, it’s important to see a doctor for a diagnosis before trying exercises on your own.

“It’s generally unsafe to work out through the pain if you have symptoms of instability or swelling,” Dr. Yim says. Symptoms of knee instability include your knee giving out, shifting, catching, or locking up, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

Keep in mind that not all modifications work for all types of knee pain. So, during exercise, it’s better to stop when your knees start hurting than it is to push yourself and risk further injury.

Otherwise, here are six modifications for a more-comfortable workout with knee pain:

1. Standard Lunge

By ensuring perfect form and making a minor adjustment, you may be able to keep lunges on your roster. Michele Olson PhD, a senior clinical professor of exercise physiology at Huntingdon University in Montgomery, Alabama, suggests the following modifications:

• While lunging, press the toes of your lead foot against a wall or other vertical surface, making sure your other leg is as far back as comfortable. This ensures that your knee does not bend too far on your lead leg.
• Place one or two yoga blocks under your back knee. This helps keep your front knee at less than a 90-degree angle.

2. Standard Squat

Traditional squats involve lowering your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor, a position that can trigger knee pain. Dr. Olson suggests the following modifications to lessen the risk:

• Perform half-squat variations by only lowering your body partway down (just as low as feels comfortable).
• You can try the yoga “chair” position, an isometric half squat.
• You can position your feet in a very wide stance with toes turned out (a sumo squat). This requires you to use more of your glute muscles and helps keep your knees from tracking straight forward. Instead, they’ll track slightly out to the side, which lowers the risk of knee pain.

3. Curtsy Lunge

This exercise can be extremely challenging if you have active knee pain, Yim says. “In general, I would advise leaving these out of the workout if you’re experiencing significant pain in the knees.”

For these modifications, focus on controlled movements rather than speed:

• Bring one leg 2 feet behind the other and to the outer side. Keeping weight in your front leg, bend to about 90 degrees in the front and back leg. Avoid too deep a knee bend, and avoid flexing your knees past 90 degrees.
• Try modified reverse lunges instead — imagine you’re standing on a balance beam with one foot directly behind the other. Only lunge halfway down.

4. Mountain Climbers

This total-body exercise can stress out your knees if done traditionally. But these modifications reduce the risk of knee pain, says Pete McCall, a personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise (ACE):

• Place your hands on a bench. Placing your hands higher reduces the knee angle when bringing your legs forward.
• Try reducing how far you bring your knee forward. You’re likely to feel more discomfort the closer your knee is to your chest.
• If these modifications are uncomfortable, a better exercise would be walking or jogging in place without bringing your knees up high, McCall says.

5. Burpee

“The movement doesn’t need to be fast to be effective,” McCall says.

Here are some suggested modifications:

• Use a step platform or another stable, raised surface. This elevates your body, producing less force through your knees when you do the exercise.
• Try slowing it down. Slowly squat down and put your hands on the floor. Then step back one foot at a time. Hold a high plank for three to five seconds. Then return to standing.

6. Lateral Runs

Often used in sports drills, lateral runs can wreak havoc on your knees. These modifications and cues can help lessen the risk:

• Decrease your speed, and use a flat ladder with rungs rather than elevated hurdles. When you shuffle to the right, plant your right foot on the floor and pull yourself to the right while using your left foot to push the ground away.
• “A good shuffle is an automatic combination of half pulling with the lead foot (in this case, the right when moving to the right) and half pushing with the left foot (when moving to the right)," McCall says.