Working Out With Knee Pain: How to Train Around It Safely

Knee pain doesn't have to mean the end of your leg training. It usually means you need to change how you're loading the joint, not stop moving it altogether. Karan from Living Foundations shares the approach he uses with clients who have knee discomfort or injury — practical adjustments for squats, lunges, and other leg work so you can keep training while you recover.

A note up front, straight from the video: this is general coaching guidance, not physiotherapy or medical advice. Try these at your own discretion, and see a physiotherapist or doctor if pain is sharp, worsening, or tied to a specific injury.

Why Knee Pain Happens

The underlying idea is simple: pain or injury shows up when a tissue is asked to handle more load than it currently has capacity for. Whether it's a knee, an elbow, or any other joint, the pattern is the same — load exceeds capacity, and that's where irritation creeps in. Most people don't injure a knee on purpose; they load a specific angle or range past what it could handle at the time, often without realizing it.

Knee pain tends to show up in one of a few general spots — inner (medial), outer (lateral), front, or back of the knee — each with different underlying causes, a topic for another video. Here, the focus is practical: how to keep training despite the pain.

Rule 1: Reduce Your Range of Motion

If a movement hurts only past a certain point — say your knee is fine through most of a squat but pain kicks in below a certain depth — the fix is to stop before that point. Squat only as low as you can go pain-free, using a bench or box as a depth marker if that helps. You're not avoiding the exercise, just working within the range your joint can currently tolerate.

Rule 2: Widen Your Stance

A close cousin of reducing range of motion is changing your base. Widening your squat stance shifts the angle at which your thighs and knee are loaded, often reducing the range of motion needed and changing which muscles absorb the stress. A wider stance also tends to keep the torso more upright, which is associated with less knee strain than a forward-leaning regular squat. Point your toes outward and go as wide as feels comfortable — wider generally means less range of motion at the knee.

Rule 3: Try Different Variations

If squats bother you, don't assume all leg exercises will. Lunges, split-leg movements, or a more hip-hinge-style squat (leaning further forward, deadlift-style, keeping the knees from traveling forward) can shift the load pattern enough to become pain-free even when a standard squat isn't. Experiment to find which variation your knee tolerates, and build your training around that while you recover.

Rule 4: Reduce the Load

Not the most popular advice, but often the most effective: lower the weight. Ego can get in the way of dropping the load — but a body that moves pain-free at a lighter weight is telling you something. With external weights, this is straightforward: use less. With bodyweight movements, you can reduce effective load by supporting some of your weight through your hands — holding a TRX strap, squat rack, or sturdy post while you squat. That support takes bodyweight off the knees and removes the balance demand, making the same movement far more manageable.

A quick test: if you're pain-free in the bottom knee-bent position with no weight on it, but the same position hurts once you're squatting under load, the position isn't the problem — the load is. Lowering the weight (or using a leg press with a light load) may let you keep training that pattern comfortably.

Rule 5: Isolate the Muscles Around the Joint

If a compound movement like a squat or lunge is off the table for now, train the muscles that support the knee individually — leg extensions, hip flexor raises, hamstring and glute work, hip abduction, and inner-thigh work, using ankle weights or a cable machine. This builds strength around the joint so you can reintroduce the full movement later with a stronger foundation.

Rule 6: Use Targeted Stretching

A few specific stretches can help with knee pain when done therapeutically:

• Good morning stretch — legs wide, hinge forward at the hips to stretch the inner thighs. Hold 30–60 seconds.
• Butterfly stretch — seated, soles together, knees drawn toward the floor. Opens the inner thigh and can relieve knee tension.
• Pigeon stretch — targets the outer hip/glute (including the IT band area); can bring real relief to the knee when done with control.
• Elephant walk — a standing forward-fold, alternating bent and straight legs, releasing the lower back and posterior chain.
• Couch stretch — a quad-opener in a modified lunge with the back leg elevated behind you. Needs care: done poorly it can aggravate knee pain, but done at the right intensity it opens tight quads well. If it hurts, bring the back foot further forward.

Rule 7: When Nothing Works, Rest

The advice nobody wants, but sometimes the honest answer. If a tissue is genuinely traumatized, pushing through pain during "rehab" doesn't help recovery — it aggravates it. Back off that body part, train the unaffected leg and the rest of your body, eat and sleep well, and give the injury real time. Revisit it after a week or two.