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Knee Strengthening Exercises
~ Protect Your Knees, Make Them Stronger! ~
Knee strengthening exercises are very important to prevent injury to your knees and keep them strong for simple everyday activities.
Knee exercises can help to improve your knee range of motion (joint flexibility) especially after surgery or an injury. It's very important to
keep your knees strong so something simple like walking or standing is not a problem for you, particularly as we get older.
Everyday our knees take a toll from walking up and down stairs, running and even something as easy as bending down to pick something up. So,
keeping your knees strong and flexible will benefit you in more ways than one.
Knee strengthening exercises include working your muscles above your knees (the quads and hamstring) since these are the
muscles that support the knee.
You want to make sure you listen to your body and don't overextend OR overexert your knee muscles. Do the right workout for YOU and remember that stronger knees = stronger legs!
Since the quadriceps and hamstring muscles are the primary muscles that act on your knee joint, doing leg workouts such as squats, leg lifts, hamstring curls, etc., can exercise and strengthen your knee joint.
Knee Press
- You can either lie on your back with your legs straight and resting on a few pillows, or you can sit comfortably with your legs straight
resting on a few pillows, or you can also sit in a chair with another chair in front of you with only your heels on that chair.
- Gently contract your thighs and slightly push your knees downward.
- Hold for a second, then repeat.
Knee Circles
- Stand with your feet together firmly on the floor.
- Slightly bend your knees as if getting ready to do a squat.
- Place your hands over your kneecaps.
- Slowly create small circles with your knees, making sure that your feet don't lift off the floor, keep them firmly planted.
- Make sure to go clockwise and counter-clockwise.
Heel Slide
- Lay on your back with your hands at your sides.
- Take one foot and slide your heel (applying slight pressure on the floor) until you get it as close to your butt as you can.
- Hold for 1-2 minutes, then return your leg back to the straight position and repeat.
- Make sure to repeat on the other leg.
Plyometrics
- Plyometrics involves some type of jumping, hopping or leaping using one or both feet.
- Jumping Rope
- P90X has the perfect plyometrics workout.
- Jump Squats
- Skipping / Bounding
- Jumping over something, like hurdles or a box...you get the idea.
If you have weak knees or you're prone to injury, then you might want to think about including knee exercises to your workout
routine. Honestly, it'll only benefit you to have stronger knee muscles.
Take care of your knees, you'll thank yourself as you get older!
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