So there I was happily doing skipping on my concrete floor every workout for months as wellas doing squats and HIIT on the eliptical and then one day while doing squats I felt a tiny little "zip" just above my left kneecap. At the time it seemed like nothing so I continued. Before I knew in my next workout both knees were hurting. So began the process of eliminating exercises that were hard on the knees. Squats were first to go followed by deadlifts and eliptical. I figured skipping wouldn't harm any thing so I still skipped because Iwasn't bending my knees hardly at all. Knees still hurt so I cut out evry leg ex except skipping and decided to go for walks instead. Went out and bought a fairly good pair of running shoes and went for an 8k walk. Big Big mistake.. Had tendons hurting I didn't even Know I owned up and down my entire legs. Continued to work out and skip. Knees still hurt like hell. Decided to take a week off from everything. While off went to a resort city and walked around the main drag and harbor for about 3 hours. knees and leg tendons hurt so bad I almost called 911. Next day in my misery i took my new pair of running shoes with me to a well-known athletic shoe store and asked the guy there to give me his opinion of these shoes and could he sell me a pair that matched my requirements. He looked at the shoes and said " there is nothing wrong with your shoes, it's the insoles that are crap. I could sell you a 130 dollar pair of shoes right now and I'd still rip the insoles out and put in one of our custom insoles because most insoles in any off-the-shelf shoe last about a week and then they're no good. So I don't need to sell you shoes but you do need to buy far better insoles." Which I did, for several pairs of sport shoes that I have. I then later called a fitness trainer and told him that no matter what i did my knees now hurt and I'm reduced to walking and skipping. he replied "stop skipping". I asked him why and he said " because you are over-compressing the joint". So, I stopped skipping and JOY of JOYs!! my *!@&+****!!! knees stopped hurting. It's only been a couple of weeks and now I can do eliptical, stair-climbing, and everything is about back to normal and those new insoles in the runners feel very good. Walking feels very good. So the moral of the story is :- if your knees hurt like hell, look into getting some good insoles for you footwear and stop doing repetitive compression ex's (skipping, jogging, running, heavy squats, jumping) and things should return to normal bye and bye barring any major tissue or ligament damage. :tu:

Good to hear you're getting to the bottom of it :)

I've tried skipping on rare occasions. My knees are a bit delicate, and I found, almost immediately, that skipping was murdering my knees. My guess would be it's far worse for the knees even than running. In fact, off the top of my head I can think of no repetitive exercise that's probably worse for them :D

Regarding squats, one thing you may want to try and has helped for me, is lean your weight back at bit. It may feel weird, but you want to be pushing primarily from your heels. I know I used to always push from my knees. I got this idea from something jeremy likness wrote on how to squat, and it has seemed to help.

Good to hear you're getting to the bottom of it :)

I've tried skipping on rare occasions. My knees are a bit delicate, and I found, almost immediately, that skipping was murdering my knees. My guess would be it's far worse for the knees even than running. In fact, off the top of my head I can think of no repetitive exercise that's probably worse for them :D

Regarding squats, one thing you may want to try and has helped for me, is lean your weight back at bit. It may feel weird, but you want to be pushing primarily from your heels. I know I used to always push from my knees. I got this idea from something jeremy likness wrote on how to squat, and it has seemed to help.

I have learned a good tip to ensure I am pushing from my heels...I curl my toes a bit. It really helps with my squat and step up form.

So the moral of the story is :- if your knees hurt like hell, look into getting some good insoles for you footwear
My left knee is always sore, but never enough to prevent workouts. I will look into getting some insoles. It would be nice if the soreness would just go away. Hopefully it's that simple.

I was having issues with my IT band a couple of months ago. I went to a local running pro shop and got some new running shoes a month ago and that solved my knee issues. Men's shoes - so much more comfortable for my wide feet! I am never going back to women's athletic shoes again.

B.I.T.---- with all the leg work that you do, what if any pre-stretches for legs do you do? Do you do post-workout leg stretches?