4 Exercises To Strengthen Your Knees
By All American Fitness
**Courtesy of Johnson Fitness**
Here are four simple exercises you can do now to build strength and stability around those knees. Perform the moves below in a circuit fashion (one after the other) for three rounds, or you can perform all three sets of an exercise before moving on to the next one.
Clam Shells
Strong glutes are very important for healthy knees. Your glutes help control the movement of the knee and produce abduction and external rotation and resist adduction and internal rotation. In other words, the glutes prevent your knee from collapsing in when performing a physical activity. The knees collapse increases your risk of ACL-tears, knee tendonitis and many other knee issues.
Lie on your side with your knees slightly bent and in front of you. Rotate the upper leg up and out by just using your glutes. Don’t move your upper body and don’t push off using your toes. Your range of motion will be low in the beginning if you’re doing it right and you should feel some muscles in your buttocks working.
Perform 10-12 repetitions and hold the upper position for 2 to 3 seconds. Concentrate on contracting the glute hard. Then switch to the other side. Perform 2-3 sets of 10-12 repetitions per side.
When ready, you can add an elastic band to make this knee strengthening exercise more of a challenge.
Glute Bridge
Much like the clam shells, the glute bridge will place an emphasis on building strength through your backside.
Lie on your back with your feet on the floor and the knees forming a 90 degree angle. Now press yourself up into the bridge position by contracting your glutes hard. There should be a straight line from your upper body to your knees.
Focus on having your hamstrings less tight than your glutes with this drill.
Perform 2-3 sets of 10-15 repetitions. Once that is too easy you can perform the one-legged glute bridge by having one foot in the air. Concentrate on maintaining good form at the upper position.
Band Walks
For this knee strengthening exercise, you will need an mini looped resistance band.
Place the band around the ankles or just above the knees, squat down slightly and start walking sideways. Move one leg at a time. Don’t let the moving leg drag on the ground and do not lean the upper body to one side. Pick up the foot as you step and actively resist the tension of the band.
Take 10 slow steps to your right and 10 slow steps to your left … that is one set. Perform three sets of 10 on each side.
Deep Body-weight Squats
The deep squat is a basic human movement but often times people struggle with proper execution. It’s beneficial for relaxing the hip musculature and providing the cartilage of the knee with nutrients. It should also be noted that squatting does not cause knee pain. Squatting improperly might cause knee pain, but doing anything improperly might cause pain.
The key to a good deep squat is to sit back rather than dip down. Keep the shin bones as close to vertical as you can. If you cannot do this without falling over backwards, your ankle mobility needs work. Find something to hold on to, like a doorway, or hold a light weight out in front of you for balance.
Imagine you’re sitting down on a chair that’s far away from you. This will engage your glutes and hamstrings a lot more.
Place your feet directly under your hips pointing straight ahead. It should be somewhat of a narrow squat compared to what you’re used to doing with regular squats.
Don’t let your knees collapse inward. Track your knees over your smaller toes. If your knees keep collapsing inward you can loop a mini resistance band around your knees and work against the pressure to keep your knees from collapsing. This will help you recruit and train the proper muscles.
Resting in the deep squat position is also highly beneficial for relaxing hip muscles and improving digestion. Hold on to something if you’re falling over backwards.
Don’t stand up too quickly if you’ve spent more than a minute in the deep squat position. Push your hips back as far as you can and don’t let your knees slip forward.
Perform three rounds of a 30-60 second sit