I have nine on bone osteoarthritis from skiing and shattering my knees. I need a knee replacement. I can ONLY run uphill. I can only run on a treadmill because I cannot handle a decline at all. Hills do not bother my knees. It’s so bad because I can’t hike anymore. I can get up a mountain, but would need a helicopter or elevator back out. With that said the only mountain I have hiked in the last 5 years is Mt Washington because I can park a car at the top and drive down.

I have bad knees and can’t run anymore but I can walk on treadmill as long as I have slight incline.

Anonymous wrote:Cue the person who insists that you should not hold on. Even if you are elderly, clumsy, etc. OP I hope you were not holding on while you werer running downhill

hold on if you need to for the sake of balance, but walking at a high incline while holding on is pointless as holding on makes you walk more upright and negates the incline. So if holding on just keep it flat/at 1%.

Downhills are bad for knees. I’ve always used a slight uphill on the treadmill because it feels better on my knees, and also because a one percent incline on treadmill supposedly offsets the loss of wind resistance in terms of effort.

Zero incline isn't negative incline, it's just easier than zero incline outside because there is no wind resistance.

Fwiw, I did nearly all my training for a ten miler on a treadmill after having a baby. I had the tm at 1 percent incline. During the mostly flat race, I felt as though I was running downhill the whole time because my muscles were used to the slight uphill.

For race training, I mix up the incline. Zero incline on a treadmill is still better than any downhill outside where knees are concerned.

Cue the person who insists that you should not hold on. Even if you are elderly, clumsy, etc. OP I hope you were not holding on while you werer running downhill

Anonymous wrote:Isn't 0 incline actually a negative incline?

yes, that's the point of the research. That zero is actually downward and adds stress. It was news to me!

Isn't 0 incline actually a negative incline?

Yes this, even better if you can run on a treadmill with decline once a month or so. I always run at at least 1.5, sometimes 2-3.

I have a bad knee and just finished training for a 10K on the treadmill. I was under the impression that any elevation would be bad for my knee, so I trained for two months on zero incline. Today I found several articles that said low incline (levels 1-3) is better for knees on the treadmill rather than a zero. Thought I would share this as it was counterintuitive to me. (I had asked my ortho about the hill workouts that everyone's doing on a treadmill and he discouraged me from that.) https://plancherortho.com/protect-your-knees-while-running-on-the-treadmill/