The summertime gives us a good reason to do some outdoor sports to boost our physical and mental wellbeing, no matter how old we are. But have you ever imagined that these sports could do more harm than good? Exercising is a beneficial activity but why do some of our bodies or joints ache afterwards? Are there really exercises or sports that hurt our joints more easily than others?

Hiking, strolling, running and walking stairs are some of the popular legs-related outdoor exercises. Do you know which one of these hurts our leg joints the most? Our leg joints are responsible for supporting our body in moving and walking. One of the most common causes of joint pain is the loss of joint cartilage. So when we are choosing what exercises to do, don’t forget to consider how we could protect our leg joints and slow down the loss of cartilage when doing such exercises.

In fact, it’s not difficult to understand that repetitive movements put great pressure on our joints and should be avoided. All 4 aforementioned exercises require repetitive movements of the knee joints. To find out which one hurts most, we should consider the amount of pressure it exerts.

For running, the amount of pressure depends on the speed, duration and the body weight of the runner. Mountain running, an emerging sport over the past few years, is one kind of running that requires training beforehand as it exerts more pressure to the knee joints than level tracks.

For stairs walking, the pressure exerted is greater when you walk down than up the stairs as your leg joints, knees’ in particular, have to absorb part of your body weight in every step.