How beating the bulge can be bad for your knees

THROWING yourself into a New Year fitness regime could damage your knees, a leading doctor is warning.

Knee specialist Ian McDermott said ‘high intensity’ workouts in particular put the joints under considerable strain.

Middle-aged people taking up exercise after a prolonged break were most at risk, he said. High intensity interval training – or ‘HIIT’ – involves going all-out for a minute or two, resting, and then doing it again. Participants run or do specific exercises, like star jumps, squats or lunges.

There is evidence this approach burns calories.

But Mr McDermott, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the private London Bridge Hospital, said it carried a higher risk of injury than more moderate exercise.

He said that in group classes there was often ‘this whole mentality of “No pain, no gain” – which is dangerous’.

‘For cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength, no pain no gain is right,’ he explained. ‘But for joints, if it hurts, it means there’s a problem.’