Home » News & Events » Bad Knees Are Not an Inevitable Part of Aging
by Addison Aloian, NASM-CPT for Women’s Health
You’ve probably been sold a story about aging that goes something like this: You can’t run for miles anymore, HIIT classes with jumping become risky, or sprinting around the tennis court at 63 like you did at 25 isn’t worth it. And by your 50s or 60s, knee pain isn’t just common—it’s inevitable. But that narrative is inaccurate.
There’s a far-reaching misconception many people have that as they age, their knees are doomed. They believe they can’t run or do any other type of high-impact exercise without developing knee pain or arthritis, says Abigail Campbell, MD, sports orthopedic surgeon and the co-director of the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at NYU Langone. And there’s a reason for that thinking.
Yes, women may lose bone density based on hormonal fluctuations and cartilage tends to thin as you age, says Dr. Campbell. But that doesn’t mean you’re bound to experience knee pain—there are ways to work against the aging process to decrease the possibility of feeling that pain. In fact, the latest research points to something far more surprising: Knee pain isn’t driven by age nearly as much as we’ve been led to believe—it’s driven by how (and how much) you move.
A 2025 study in Frontiers in Public Health looked at the association between sedentary behavior, physical activity, and osteoarthritis (especially in the knee). It evaluated data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in a population of more than 24,000 people over 13 years. It found that those diagnosed with osteoarthritis had higher levels of sedentary behavior and lower levels of physical activity.
Additionally, a 2023 Arthritis & Rheumatology study evaluated the relationship between strength training, knee pain, and knee osteoarthritis in over 2,600 participants by administering a questionnaire about their strength training history and following up eight years later. Those with a history of strength training reported less frequent knee pain, concluding that it’s beneficial for future knee health.
In other words, the real risk to your knees isn’t getting older; it’s doing less. Ahead, find out exactly what the science says to do instead—so you can keep your knees strong, resilient, and pain-free for decades to come.
That’s also why so many people mistake normal, fixable knee pain for inevitable “wear and tear” from aging. In reality, the knee is just a highly sensitive joint doing a very demanding job—and it tends to speak up quickly when something is even slightly off.
The knee is naturally less protected than other joints. The hip, for instance, is a ball and socket, but the knee is just a hinge, making it a bit more fragile, says Dr. Campbell. Plus, part of the knee’s job is to take on the force of your body weight while you move. In fact, the kneecap takes on up to 0.5 to nearly 10 times (!) your body weight just during normal daily activities, she adds.
Arthritis is the most common source of knee pain for older adults, specifically those 50 and older, and the knee is one of the more common places to get it, says Dr. Campbell. Plus, research shows that “women have 1.5 to two times higher prevalence of knee arthritis than men, and we don’t totally know why that is,” Dr. Campell says. “There [are] some studies in [women] 50 and up that show almost half will have some arthritis on their x-ray.”
However, “there’s no data to support that running will give you arthritis or make your arthritis worse,” Dr. Campbell says. It just wakes it up, in a sense. “You could go out and run a marathon tomorrow and your arthritis won’t be any worse the next day, but your knees are probably going to get mad at you,” she adds. It’s not necessarily knee damage, it’s just that your knees didn’t necessarily like the activity.
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