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Advice needed: Avoiding knee pain while driving

I am a 'large' individual and, as such, my legs go off to the side when driving my Fortuner. I end up resting my right knee on the door when driving.

BHPian hajaar recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I am a 'large' individual and, as such, my legs go off to the side when driving my Fortuner, i.e. I end up resting my right knee on the door when driving. The issue is that this causes a lot of pain on the specific part of my knee that rests against the door. Do you all know of some kind of knee brace that I can wear, to protect the side of my knee?

I guess people might say that my driving style sucks, but I am used to it now. And I had the same issue with all the cars that I have owned

Thanks

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Short-term = padding on the doorpad or on your knee.

Long-term = get off carbs, sugar, junk food, start intermittent fasting, watch your portions, workout. All this & more in our weight loss thread. Read it, follow it and it will change your life . Many of us lost weight thanks to the advice on that thread (I personally dropped 22 kilos 4 years back, as did my kid bro earlier this year).

It's knee pain today, can become back pain tomorrow. Get fit & lose weight.

Here's what BHPian RedTerrano had to say on the matter:

The obvious one comes to mind: Foam padding on the door.

Second one I can think of is those knee protectors bikers wear. I am not sure what they are called.

Thirdly, and I am sure you have heard it before, try to lose some weight. That will do wonders not only to your knee pain, but overall health.

I have no idea what you mean exactly when you say large, but walking in waist high water could be a good start. Needless to say, consult a qualified doctor and/or expert before

Here's what BHPian SS-Traveller had to say on the matter:

Most likely, you are setting up your seat wrongly for driving. Your legs should not be going off to the side, nor should your knees be knocking on the door or the central console. You probably need to push back the seat a notch or two.

There are dozens of videos on YouTube telling you how to set up the seat correctly - the one I like is this.

Here's what BHPian COMMUTER had to say on the matter:

I drive a small car and I have I too had knee pain initially when driving. If it is purely from pressure/friction in the contact are in the knee, buy a yoga mat or gym mat, tear it up in to small pieces and paste them one over the other on the door at the point of contact. If it is internal, check if you are moving your knee while pressing the accelerator. If you do, then you reposition and relearn to use the waist to press the accelerator. This motion involves the glutes and hamstrings and is similar to climbing stairs. This worked in my case.

Here's what BHPian alpha1 had to say on the matter:

Contrary to what others are assuming, I understand that you may be a tall individual with long legs. And hence you have to rest your knees/legs sideways instead of straight ahead.
In doing so your right knee is constantly brushing against the right door.

Is the pain that you get similar to impact injury (e.g. a cricket ball hits you and causes blue bruise mark)?

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

 
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