Other than really young riders, I personally don’t know many longboarders who haven’t been complaining about knee fatigue or pain at some point. If, like me, you have weak or bad knees due to past abuse or simply to age, you may be wondering whether you should start – or keep – longboarding.
Does longboarding mess up your knees? Should you stop riding after a certain age or if you have certain conditions? What can you do to avoid the ultimate punishment of no longer being allowed to set foot on a longboard?
In this post, I share my personal experience dealing with knee issues in longboarding.
Longboarding with bad knees
While longboarding isn’t always the root cause, it can trigger knee pain in many riders due to various reasons. You may get knee pain in between longboarding sessions even though your knees feel just fine when you’re riding.
That was my case 2 years ago due to weak knees, I was hearing a lot of nasty clicks and noises in my knees (read on for more about how I got over it).
Early arthritis is a common cause of knee pain among longboarders, typically after one or 2 decades of high-impact sports like street skateboarding, sprinting, triple-jump, wakeboarding or other board sports, etc.
Arthritis sometimes comes with aging (yep, not fun). Riders who used to skate big stair gaps and ledges in their youth often end up with arthritis in one or both knees, sometimes as early as age 25. Some people also get knee pain after years of “regular” longboarding.
Other causes for knee pain in longboarders include past knee sprains, tendinitis, torn meniscus, or torn ACL, quite common in sports like football, basketball, or soccer, followed by surgery.
Longboarding activities that are hardest on your knees
Longboarding can involve a lot of crouching, squatting, and knee bending. However, the type of riding and how hard you ride determines the degree of impact on your knees. Let’s briefly look at the most impacting activities on a longboard:
Pushing
Pushing on your longboard requires bending the knee of your supporting leg while your pushing leg lowers down to the ground for kicking.
Your supporting knee can get fatigued from the bending, and your pushing knee can get strained from the impact on the ground and the force applied for pushing back. The degree of impact on your knees from pushing will depend on things like:
- Your longboard’s ride height (affected by mount style, truck height, and wheel size)
- How hard and how far push
- The angle of your pushing foot
Read further below for tips on reducing the impact of your pushing.
Carving & pumping
When carving and pumping, you keep shifting your weight between your toeside and heelside rail with a rotation motion from your hips through your knees. This can cause some strain in your knees if you have any kind of wear or weakness.
Pumping involves loading and offloading weight (aka compression-decompression) which requires repeated knee flexing and extension. Over time, riders with weaker knees may feel increasing strain as a result.
Sliding
Sliding involves pushing very hard forward on your knees while offloading your weight off your board. Hard knee extensions mean you put exceptional force on your knees to get your wheels to break traction.
As a result, repeated sliding can cause strain on weak knees and you may feel some pain after an intense session.
Tucking
Downhill riding requires you to get into a tucked position to minimize air resistance. Your front knee is bent about 90º while your rear knee tucks against the back side of your front knee.
This is a strenuous position for your knees, especially if you need to hold it for long periods of time e.g. when bombing down a long mountain road.
Downhill riding also requires constant speed checks and stand-up slides, also adding a lot of repeated strain if you have knee issues.
Freestyle & tricks
Ollies, kick and flip tricks are all high-impact activities for the knees. This includes hard landings as well as explosive leg extensions and rotations to pop, flip, and control your board.
This is especially true if you ride bigger and heavier longboards, resulting in more significant torque on your joints.
If you ride a street-focused hybrid or urban cruiser, and you’re into skating big stair sets and handrails, try sticking to ledges, transitions, and flat ground tricks as these will be a lot easier on your knees.
Regardless, when doing tricks, there’s always a chance the board will pop up and hit you in the wrong place – especially if you had previous surgery.
In short, if you have bad knees you should probably avoid hard street/park tricks and stick to mellow moves e.g. manuals and cross-stepping (see next section for more on this).
Obviously, falling is no good for your knees – I’ve had bad knee bruises with swelling even after some mellow falls where I caught myself with my hands. Learn to dive roll to avoid falling on your knees, and/or wear knee pads!
Longboarding with minimal impact on knees
Mellow carving on flat or mild slopes will not put much strain on your knees. I’ve been doing it for a long time even in times when my knees were bad. You can do gentle carving without having to bend your knees too much, primarily using your ankles for rail-to-rail transitions.
A stable surf skate e.g. a Carver can give you a nice surfy carving feel without having to strain your knees. Personally, I find this kind of surf skate (not the super radical ones) to offer nice rehab training when my knees are messed up after some aggressive kite/surf/wake/snow riding.
Another style of longboarding you can do with bad knees is long-distance pushing (LDP) on a low-riding board (see last section below). LDP generally involves steady, constant pushing with a focus on minimizing motion and effort and reducing impact.
Learning to skog (pushing with alternate feet) also makes LDP less impactful for your knees. This is a great discipline that can help strengthen your knees if done the right way. Learn more about LDP here.
How to reduce longboarding knee strain and pain
Let’s go over some of the things you can do to alleviate knee pain and strain when longboarding.
Stretching
Stretching your knees can go a long way in making your riding sessions less uncomfortable or painful. Stretching before and after riding helps make your knees (and other joints) move better and keep your tendons warm and relaxed.
You should aim to stretch a lot e.g. at least 10 minutes. I know it’s a bit of a constraint and you may not always have time for that, however it can make a huge difference on your knees. I try to do it as much as I can and it works. Longboarders need to do this just like runners do.
Examples of basic stretches include touching your toes while sitting, bringing your feet to your butt, and stretching out your leg in front of you and bending slightly forward.
Of course, make sure you warm up properly before stretching to reduce the risk of injury.
If you feel pain after a riding session, you can also put ice on your knee, and take some Advil for some relief.
Strengthening your knees
As you likely know, stretching and strengthening are the two sides of the same coin. If you strengthen the muscles around the knee, the pain can go away. This is something I’ve personally experienced, not just with longboarding, but also with twintip kiteboarding.
If you have knee pain during and/or in between sessions, unless you have a specific condition, it might be a sign you need to work out your legs more. Squats, calf raises, lunges, and inner thigh exercises can help tremendously.
I do squats almost daily – just a few minutes is enough. That’s how I got rid of a good chunk of my knee pain associated with longboarding.
If you’ve had a knee injury, you may want to take some time off to give your knees a bit of a rest, do a lot of stretching, then start to work out your legs, either at home or at the gym (leg curls and extensions).
You can also do squats on an upside-down bosu ball to help strengthen your tendons. If at first, you get clicks and pain from squatting (as was my case), you can initially try supporting yourself by grabbing a door handle or placing your hands on a chair.
Many longboarders with knee issues also find that cycling brings them amazing results for their knee pain. Riding a bicycle e.g. 10 miles 3 times per week can make a very noticeable difference.
You will progressively feel a lot less pain in your knees, ankles, and hips, and warming up will become faster.
Good longboarding form
Besides stretching and reinforcing your knees, you also need to look at your form. If you have knee pain, make sure you’re not pushing with your kick foot hitting the ground at an angle. Your pushing foot should be pointing fully forward (12 o’clock) as it hits the ground.
You also want to avoid kicking the ground with your forefoot, hit with your heel first and roll through to the toes (much like running).
Another common cause of knee pain in longboarding is extending your knee too far out when kicking, resulting in knee hyper-extension. This can result in pain after a while. Avoid locking your knees out, keeping them both slightly bent.
Finally, avoid slapping the ground with your foot, instead push gently (and firmly) to reduce the impact on your knee.
Stop doing tricks
As I mentioned earlier, skating stairs and similar stunts will wear out your knees quite fast over time. If you’re into tricks and freestyle, try to stick to bowls and mini ramps, your outlook will be a lot better!
Turning into a bowl rider, surf skater, or cruiser after a few years of hard landings can save your knees in the future.
Best longboards for bad knees
Let’s look at a few tips for choosing a longboard with the goal of reducing the riding impact on your knees.
Generally speaking, choosing a lower-riding board is the best approach to preserve your knees. If you can, choose a drop-through, or better yet a drop-down instead of a topmount for easier pushing.
In terms of setup, favor short or flipped trucks and smaller wheels, for a shorter distance to the ground.
Also choose softer wheels for more cushioning when riding – 78a duro wheels are much easier on your knees than 100+ duro street wheels. Softer bushings will also make for a smoother and cushier ride.
Prefer a midsize deck (e.g. 33″ to 38″) over a smaller or mini-cruiser. It will allow you to maintain a comfortable stance resulting in a natural knee position.
Choose a deck with some flex, e.g. bamboo or composite construction. Flex helps absorb the vibrations from the road and provides dampening when rolling over cracks and bumps.
See also: How to choose the best longboard for heavier riders?
Knee pads
Wearing knee pads is a good idea if you have weak knees and if you do more than just mellow cruising. Hard-cap kneepads provide the best protection from impact and abrasion and for doing knee slides on ramps.
The best knee pads have a deep form that cuddles your knee as opposed to a flat pad. Good examples include TSG, 187, or Scabs.
Final thoughts
While certain areas of longboarding can put strain on your knees and make things worse if you already have knee problems, longboarding is generally more joint-friendly than running and other high-impact sports.
Many older riders with bad knees and hips are able to continue to longboard with their kids. Just make sure you do the necessary preparation to minimize the risk of knee pain and injury.