Hey Oxygen fans! I’m Carla, Oxygen’s Online Editor. For the next three months, I’ll be taking on Oxygen’s Best Body Challenge – join me, and get the beach body you’ve always wanted just in time for summer! Get started here.

Since I mastered the decline push-up (and by “mastered,” I mean I can do three), I decided to focus on my next goal: increasing my wall squat times. I decided to hold my wall squats for an extra 10 seconds each workout. This week, I realized that sticking to this arbitrary 10-second rule probably wasn’t the best strategy.

I was so determined to add those extra seconds to my time that I pushed through some medial (aka interior) knee pain in my first set…and my second…and my third. Oops - bad idea. My knees paid the price that night and for the rest of the week.

With weak arches and tight IT bands, I’ve felt this kind of pain before. I called it quits for the night, iced my knee and rubbed an anti-inflammatory cream on the area in question. For the rest of the week, I went easy on the lower body moves; I listened to my body instead of watching the clock and didn’t pressure myself to finish all four sets of squats or lunges.

My knees are pretty much back to normal, but I asked Deputy Editor and fitness guru Rachel Crocker for some pain-in-the-knee tips. Here’s what she said:

•    You were totally right in that any sort of pain in your joints is a cue to stop what you are doing. People like to think "no pain, no gain," but we know that mindset can lead to overuse injuries and pushing your body to the point of deterioration. The "good kind" of sore you should be looking for is intra-muscular soreness that occurs in the days following your workout - it's referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS for short), and is a dull aching pain in the muscle. Any sharp pain in your joints, especially during exercise, is a big red flag that something is wrong.

•    When I experience knee pain (the result of being born with hip dysplasia on both sides) I find it helpful to wear a knee sock, available at most drug stores. It helps to stabilize the joint so that I'm not doing any more damage as I go about my everyday life, post-workout.

•    Doing exercises to help increase the strength in the smaller muscles around your knees is a great preventative measure. For the anterior portion of your knees, try lateral band walks (see here). To target the adductors (inner thighs, and the portion you are experiencing pain in) try squeezing a small exercise ball between your knees, or band abduction exercises (see here).

•    Always, always, ALWAYS check with your doctor if pain persists!

Thanks, Rachel! Now, enough about me. How are you guys doing? Let me know in the comments!