Joint-Friendly Bodybuilding: The Ultimate Workout Plan for Lifters with Achy Knees & Shoulders

Working out is good for everybody’s body. It enhances all aspects of mental and physical health and can do wonders for your appearance and self-esteem. Paying your dues at the gym can even extend your life (1).   

All that said, there are plenty of people who work out for a much more specific reason—they just want to be “swole.”

Yes, I’m talking about bodybuilders.

If you want to build bigger, more impressive muscles, you are a bodybuilder, even if you have no plans to shave down, get a tan, and pose on stage. Gyms are full of non-competitive bodybuilders, all pushing themselves through grueling workouts.

Unfortunately, years of intense training can take their toll on your joints. Consequently, a large proportion of hardcore lifters suffer from joint pain, with shoulders and knees being the hardest hit. In some cases, this discomfort can be bad enough that it leads to missed workouts or quitting training altogether.

As a veteran personal trainer and former powerlifter in my late 50s, I’ve experienced plenty of joint pain myself and helped many clients train around theirs. Yes, there are times when continued exercise is not the best solution, and medical intervention is required. However, in many cases, training modifications will allow you to keep on working out despite aches and pains.

In this article, I share a joint-friendly bodybuilding workout designed for lifters with achy knees and shoulders.

Train Smart, Hurt Less: Proven Strategies for Joint-Friendly Workouts

Joint pain doesn’t have to kill your gains—but it does mean that you need to train differently. Use the following strategies to protect vulnerable joints while still making progress.

Warm Up Like a Pro

Warming up is non-negotiable when you’ve got joint pain. Spending time on flexibility, mobility, and improving blood flow to the affected area will reduce wear and tear and minimize discomfort. Short on time? Cut your workout—not your warm-up. Yes, it’s that important!

Use Heat Before, Ice After

In addition to your active warm-up, you can get your joints ready for exercise passively, too. Heat packs improve blood flow while enhancing tissue elasticity. A few minutes of heat therapy before you start your workout can do wonders for stiff, achy joints. On the flip side, using ice after training can help reduce inflammation and discomfort.

Focus on Tempo, Not Load

You’re a bodybuilder, not a powerlifter, so it doesn’t matter how much weight you lift. Using a slower tempo, e.g., 4-1-2-1, will make moderate to light weights feel heavy while saving your joints from unnecessary stress. You’ll also get a wicked pump. Heavy weights are not the only way to build muscle, and slower tempos are much more joint-friendly.

Pain Is a Signal, Not a Challenge

No pain, no gain makes a great meme or T-shirt slogan but it’s lousy advice when you’re dealing with joint pain. Pain is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong, and it should not be ignored. Stop what you’re doing if your workout causes or exacerbates joint pain. Learn the difference between “good” workout discomfort and the signs that you are causing harm.  

Check In With a Medical Professional When Pain Persists

Joint pain can come and go, often triggered by new exercises, lifting heavier than usual, or not paying enough attention to rest and recovery. However, persistent or chronic pain may indicate that something is wrong with your joints, and that should be investigated.

While training around some types of joint pain won’t make things worse, in other cases it’s the last thing you should do. Seek professional advice so you know what you’re dealing with.

Be Prepared to Adapt Your Workout As You Train

One of the most frustrating things about joint pain is how it can vary from day to day, and even hour to hour. While it’s always good to arrive at the gym with a plan, that plan should be flexible so you can change your training based on how you feel on that particular day. Don’t stubbornly stick to a program that causes pain—change it to avoid unnecessary discomfort.

Use Resistance Bands and Isometrics in Your Workouts

Are your joints feeling particularly cranky, but you’re still determined to train? I hear you! Sometimes it can be hard to ignore that urge to exercise, even though you’re in pain. When this happens to me, I swap barbells, dumbbells, and machines for resistance bands and isometric exercises. In my experience, both let me train without worsening joint pain.

You can use resistance bands to replicate almost all conventional strength training exercises. However, because the load comes on gradually as you stretch the band, there is much less joint stress to contend with.

Related: Physical Therapist Explains How to Prevent Joint Pain with Resistance Bands

In contrast, isometric (static) exercises involve no actual joint movement. As such, they are much less likely to aggravate existing joint pain.

Related: Isometrics for Injury Prevention and Building Strength and Muscle

While I don’t think that resistance bands or isometrics are the perfect replacement for freeweights and machines, the fact that they may allow you to continue exercise without making your joint pain worse means that they deserve a place in your training toolbox.

Fuel Your Joints from the Inside Out

When you’re training with joint pain, what you do outside the gym matters just as much as what you do inside it. Staying hydrated helps keep your joints lubricated and your connective tissues supple, so don’t skimp on water—especially if you sweat a lot during workouts.

Likewise, your diet can either support or sabotage your joint health. A well-balanced intake of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, and key micronutrients like vitamin D, magnesium, and collagen-boosting vitamin C can reduce inflammation and promote tissue repair.

Joint supplements like glucosamine, chondroitin, or collagen peptides may also help—but think of them as part of the puzzle, not a magic fix. Train smart, eat well, and your joints will thank you.

Don’t Mask the Pain—Manage It

Over-the-counter painkillers can take the edge off sore joints, but relying on them to push through workouts is a bad idea. Pain meds may hide the symptoms, but they don’t fix the cause—and they can make it worse by allowing you to train harder than you should. Use them sparingly, if at all, and only to support recovery—not to ignore what your body’s trying to tell you.

Related: Natural Joint Pain Remedies

The Joint-Friendly Bodybuilding Plan

You don’t have to train through pain to keep building muscle—this program is designed to work around it. Each workout prioritizes joint-friendly exercises, smart movement patterns, and strict control to minimize stress on your knees and shoulders.

Important: Don’t skip your warm-up. It’s your first line of defense against joint pain. Spend at least 10 minutes on mobility, activation, and light cardio before lifting. It’s not optional—it’s part of the workout!

Weekly Split

This program uses a conventional four-way bodybuilding split. As such, your training week is as follows:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Chest and Triceps	Back and Biceps	Rest	Legs	Rest	Shoulders and Arms	Rest

Workout One—Chest and Triceps

Every bodybuilder loves chest day. However, most chest exercises are not very shoulder-friendly. Bench presses are notorious for causing shoulder pain, and flyes and dips are just as bad.

Thankfully there are plenty of chest exercises that build muscle without destroying your joints. Floor presses, close-grip dumbbell bench presses, Svend presses, and single-arm cable crossovers are all great chest builders that are also easy on your shoulders.

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Recovery
1	Barbell Floor Press	3-4	6-8	2 minutes
2	Incline Close-Grip Hex Dumbbell Press	3-4	8-10	90 seconds
3	Single-Arm Cable Crossover	3-4	12-15	60 seconds
4	Supine Svend Press	3-4	12-15	60 seconds
5	Push-Up—Shoulder-Width Grip	3-4	AMRAP	60 seconds
6	Triceps Rope Pushdown	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
7	Dumbbell Decline Skull Crusher	3-4	8-12	60 seconds

Related: Bench Press Shoulder Pain: Types, Causes, Symptoms, and Tips on How To Prevent and Eliminate

Workout Two—Back and Biceps

Back workouts tend to be easier on the shoulders than those that target the chest. However, there are still some back exercises that can exacerbate existing shoulder pain. Wide grip pull-ups and pulldowns can be especially bothersome whereas narrow and neutral grips are usually much better tolerated.

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Recovery
1	Rack pull	3-4	6-8	2 minutes
2	Close/Neutral Grip Pull-up	3-4	AMRAP	90 seconds
3	Seated Cable Row	3-4	8-10	60 seconds
4	Medium/Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown	3-4	12-15	60 seconds
5	Standing Cable Face Pull	3-4	12-15	60 seconds
6	EZ Bar Preacher Curl	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
7	Dumbbell Concentration Curl	3-4	8-12	60 seconds

Workout Three—Legs

Sore knees can be enough to make anyone want to skip leg day. While squats are NOT bad for your knees, they can be problematic for some knee-pain sufferers, especially if you try to go too deep.

Replacing conventional barbell squats with box goblet squats is a great way to build your legs without making knee pain worse. Adjust the height of your box to stay within your pain-free range of motion.

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Recovery
1	Box Goblet Squat	3-4	6-8	2 minutes
2	Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift	3-4	8-10	90 seconds
3	Wall Squat Isometric Hold	3-4	20-30s.	60 seconds
4	Seated Leg Curl	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
5	Reverse Lunge	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
6	Standing Calf Raise	3-4	8-12	60 seconds

Workout Four— Shoulders and Arms

It’s hardly surprising that most shoulder exercises can make shoulder pain worse. After all, most if not all of the stress gets directed into those vulnerable, overworked joints. As such, it makes sense to avoid most overhead exercises as they tend to be the most problematic. That said, there are still plenty of effective, joint-friendly shoulder-building exercises.

	Exercise	Sets	Reps	Recovery
1	Half-Kneeling Single-Arm Landmine Press	3-4	6-8	2 minutes
2	Dumbbell Victory Raise	3-4	8-10	90 seconds
3	Reverse Cable Crossover	3-4	10-12	60 seconds
4	Barbell Curl	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
5	EZ Bar Triceps Pushdown	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
6	Supine Cable Curl	3-4	8-12	60 seconds
7	Cable Triceps Kickback	3-4	8-12	60 seconds

Follow this plan for 6-8 weeks, or until your progress begins to plateau. Alternatively, take it down and dust it off anytime that you feel your joints would benefit from a less stressful workout.

Closing Thoughts

Joint pain might change how you train—but it doesn’t have to stop you from making gains. As someone who’s been lifting for decades and now deals with a few creaky joints of my own, I can tell you firsthand: you can still build muscle and enjoy working out—you just have to be smarter about it.

This isn’t about going soft or settling for less. It’s about adapting your training to your current needs so you can keep progressing without making things worse. There are no medals for pushing through pain but there are rewards for showing up, doing the work, and finding ways to train consistently despite the challenges.

So, take care of your joints. Choose exercises that feel good, warm up like your gains depend on it (because they do), fuel your body properly, and listen to the signals it’s sending you. That’s not weakness—that’s using your head!

Bodybuilding should be a lifelong pursuit, not something you have to abandon because of avoidable injuries. Train smart, stay in the game, and the gains will keep coming.

References:

1 – Gremeaux V, Gayda M, Lepers R, Sosner P, Juneau M, Nigam A. Exercise and longevity. Maturitas. 2012 Dec;73(4):312-7. doi: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2012.09.012. Epub 2012 Oct 11. PMID: 23063021.

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