At every step it has to cushion about three times the body weight, when you climb a staircase the value increases to five times. This means that the load on the joint increases to 300 kilograms for a person weighing 60 kilograms!
We are talking about the knee joint – an anatomical marvel for top performance. The largest joint in the human body can even carry up to one and a half tons of weight in the short term.
Without our knee joints, we would not be able to walk, sit down, and certainly not hop around. To enable us to perform all these movements, the knee joint consists of a sophisticated system of bones, ligaments, muscles and cartilage. The knee joint is therefore also called – rightly – the most complicated joint in the entire body.
Little Anatomy
In the knee, three bones meet to form two compound articular surfaces the size of 2-cent pieces. These are the femur, the tibia, and the kneecap. To prevent the ends of the bones from rubbing against each other during movement, the healthy joint has a cartilage substance put over it. This acts as both a buffer and a shock absorber.
Knee in danger.
We walk between 4000 and 6000 steps per day. In the process, the joints are constantly bending and stretching. Because the knee is not a pure hinge joint, but also allows rotational movements, it is also particularly vulnerable. The joint is at risk if we are overweight, if we lack exercise, but also if we have incorrect postures, wear the wrong shoes or are overly ambitious in sports. It is during sports that the most frequent knee injuries occur – even outside the skiing season. It is a fact that 300,000 meniscus operations and 100,000 cruciate ligament operations are performed in Germany every year. But it is also a fact that every second German citizen over the age of 35 shows signs of arthrosis in the knee on an X-ray.
In order to prevent joint arthrosis, care should be taken to ensure that the knee is always properly loaded and that sports are properly trained. It is also important to get enough exercise and avoid being overweight.
