OK I chuckled but real talk: knee trouble in your 30s isn’t normal and shouldn’t be treated as normal
this post was submitted on 18 May 2025
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37, Mechanic, lot of squatting and bending. No knee issues.
Moral: Use it, or lose it
OP probably played football in high school or something.
Perhaps, but all that’s mentioned is age.
I’ve heard knees-crap-out-after-30-amirite jokes since my early 20s. It’s a form of denial coalition-building favored by folks obviously avoiding important lifestyle changes, and it’s rarely harmless to affirm that kind of denial.
In addition, unexplained joint pain is a symptom of a number of chronic illnesses that have better outcomes with early diagnosis and treatment, such as rheumatoid arthritis. If someone thinks it’s normal, they might not even ask about it until the pain and damage is life-altering.
That’s why I say it shouldn’t be treated as normal.
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Yeah, if your knees are fucked up at 30, you're probably an athlete and injured your knees multiple times, or obese and overloaded them with too much weight.
Also it’s hard to really fuck up your knees irrecoverably. They can bounce back from a lot.
Consistent use makes them stronger
There is an upper limit to the kind of weight they can sustain but (theoretically and with enough training to work up to it) that limit is pretty high.
Even knees that have been abused long-term can often recover. I hope more people learn this and reclaim the mobility they’ve lost.
ETA: TLDR
I wonder if squatting while lifting weights (gym) is also a speedrun to bad knees, or whether that actually does improvements
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I'm 30 and my body feels better than when I was 20. Looking after myself alot better now.
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46 here, knees are fine, digestive system on the other hand....
I’m pushing 40 and my knees are just fine. My esophageal sphincter on the other hand is very angryface. Omeprazole helps but it’s very much thrown in the towel.
Ugh, kill me.
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Yall some sedentary motherfuckers if your knees already hurt at 30
just a reminder that most people bodies do not degrade. they just stop using them as much as they did when they were younger. the human body is surprisingly resilient to breaking down with regular upkeep. Motion is lotion
You can do some sport. That helps. At least at 30.
Until you sport too much and get an injury, and then it's just a chain reaction of things breaking down because you can't exercise them like you used to.
Yeah it's a terrible feeling giving up a sport bc it's too hard on ya. Like I really love Judo but I just can't throw myself at the floor repeatedly any more. But I might be able to do Aikido or low-contact Karate (or just strength training which is what I chose). The trick is knowing when to move on, and it's a tough decision.
Aikido will not over extend your joints, if you have trouble with even safe falls I can't imagine the instructor would require you to do them.
I'd say workout, yoga, lift heavy thing.
Sports only if you actually enjoy them. Most people I know heavily into sports get injured and some of injuries do not heal back to 100% ever.
This here! You want "low impact" activity that keeps the supporting muscles strong
+1 for yoga. Stretching is just as important, but so many people completely neglect it
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37 here, my knees are great. Sprained my ankle back for the very first time back in November in my kickboxing class and I'm starting to fear I've done permanent damage.
It gets worse. Take care of your body
If they're in a kickboxing class it sounds like they are.
Working my way gradually down to deep squats has been great for my knees. It doesn't take much to get there and maintain. I just found times to hold a squat for a bit while watching TV or gardening. Also, the knees over toes guy has some good advice for keeping your joints healthy.
I’m 38 and my knees bend fine, they just make more noises now than they used to.
Same. It satisfies my craving for popping bubble plast. More environmentally friendly too. Win/win.
Posted by someone who has not hit 30 yet.
Nah bro, I'm past the big 3-0. My knees are still good (though I've got plenty of other aches and pains to make me feel ancient), but I've got friends already complaining. We're all getting old and decrepit. Big RIP to youth 😔
I stood up from the toilet once and my knee popped and kind of hurt, now every once in a while my knee hurts if I stand up too straight
I lost my knees at the ripe ol' age of 14. Was playing racquetball at the Y, pivoted and it just hurt like a son of a bitch. Turned out I have a cartilage deficiency specifically in my knees as well as ton of damage from falling on them while rollerblading without protection, so kneeling on or doing anything that involves rigorous bending of my knees is out of the question.
"And that's why I have to decline your full Catholic mass wedding, sorry."
You should go to the doctor if you have knee problems that early
I think the issue is that if you had injuries at younger age, those injuries become inflamed again as you become older. There are athletes who said their injuries become inflamed again when they hit 30's. There are also soldiers who passed away after their old wounds became a problem again at old age. The body just can't keep up repairing itself anymore.
However, old injuries isn't just the only explanation. If one have hardly been sporty or did labour intensive jobs at younger age and feeling pain on the knees, it could be genetics. If not, then it is something entirely within the person's control: overweight. I have friends who gained weight tremendously over the years even though we are only in our early 30's. One of my friends could hardly walk for long at a pretty short distance. I reckon it is because they work from home and don't do any exercise (some of them became too jaded and insecure over the years to go to gym), while I and my other friend work on-site so we have more physically demanding jobs and we still do exercise.
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Do you guys like, not walk? I'm not exactly skinny and mine are fine close to 40.
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I'm 50. If a terrorist put a gun to my head and ordered me to get on my knees, my head would end up blown off.
Start running, it will strengthen the muscles around your knees and protect them. It also brings a million other health benefits.
There's a sweet spot. Go too easy and they get screwed up and go too hard and they screw up.
But it's true that being reasonably active helps a ton. Someone I know who complained of joint pain as they retired claims it went away as his leisure time caused him to walk all over the place, and now he's 70 with no joint pain. Closest he got was when we spent two hours in a crawlspace working on some frozen pipes and complained that his back hurt a bit and wondered if it was because he was old. No, even the 20 year old hurt after waddling around hunched over in freezing temperatures for a couple of hours.
Great to hear that being active still strengthens your body when being older. That’s one of my biggest motivations: To be physically healthy and strong when I’m old.
Just don't do it wrong though, because then you will ruin everything.
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Currently in a waiting room because my knees stopped kneeing. And I’m younger than 35.
Turned thirty, and all my childhood injuries came back. My ankle keeps me up at night. Getting old sucks.
Knees are somehow better than they were in my 20s. My back however is killing me.
Far better for your knees to go than your back. One can be replaced, the other you just get to live with.
Mine hurt at 25 thanks to the Army.
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