A recent study suggests that increasing the strength of your thigh muscles may protect against the pain of osteoarthritis in the knee - for women at least. 

Researchers recruited around 1600 participants thought to be at risk of developing knee arthritis based on factors such as weight, knee symptoms or previous knee surgery or injury.  Anyone who had experienced knee pain in the preceding 30 days was excluded from the study.  After 30 months, the researchers found that women with the strongest thigh muscles at the start of the study were less likely to get arthritis knee pain.  The effect, however, was not seen in men. 

Interestingly thigh muscle strength was not linked to the chances of visible x-ray damage without pain, only symptomatic osteoarthritis. More research is needed to explain why this should be the case, and of course the study may not apply to people without an initial high risk of developing osteoarthritis.  Nonetheless in the interest of prevention rather than cure, perhaps today is the day to finally dust down the thighmaster?