Exercise For Bad Knees

2019-02-08T11:59:31+00:00February 7th, 2019|

REHABILITATION EXERCISES FOR BAD KNEES

Suffering from bad knees? The ability to move with ease is a great gift, but often it isn’t appreciated until it’s lost. By taking the time to strengthen the surrounding muscles of the knee, you can avoid many of the little aches and pains that can develop over time. This will allow you to enjoy the daily activities you love without pain or discomfort.

The main cause of knee that I see when starting with a new client is usually that their ITB and Glute Medius is weak. These exercises focus on strengthening the main muscle groups that affect the quality of movement for your knee. Strengthening the hamstrings and the quadriceps should be seen as a dual effort instead of individual, isolated movements. These should be practiced on a daily basis (you don’t have to do all of them – chose the exercises that are pain free and can be fitted into your workout routine which should include glute activation exercise with a particular focus on the glute med muscle, which you will have seen from previous posts I have done and also videos on my website.

A few of these simple exercises completed each day will ensure you have the strength and flexibility necessary to move freely without pain. Everyone should have the ability to move without pain in the knees. This is true regardless of your age or physical ability. These exercises are perfect to complete in the comfort of your home, at the office during a short lunch break, or at your local gym. Be aware of how you feel as you practice these movements. If pain or discomfort persists or increases, contact your doctor.

It is also worth noting that – adaptations to how you stand or walk is your body’s way of coping to help keep you balanced and walking and to try to reduce the pain but it is not helping in the long run. Often it puts such an increase in pressure on the good knee that it starts to hurt too! There is no standard set of exercises as it totally depends on the person and the knee problem. However it is safe to say that improving or at least maintaining the strength in the leg and glutes and hip muscles is vital in fixing and preventing reoccurring pain.

Perform each of these exercises for the time stated below. watching the video by click here – Rehab For Knees – It is important to do these on both legs but concentrating more so on your bad knee – i.e for the first exercise you might want to do 10 reps on your bad knee and 5 on your good knee. You can also increase the time/reps once you starting to feel that you are strengthening and the exercises are becoming easy.

1. Leg Slides – place your heel on a towel and slide your leg out to straight then back to starting position. Exhale as you straighten.  – Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

2. Towel Stretch – place you foot in the towel and push your leg out keeping a tight resistance so that it is an effort to push your foot out to straight – Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

3. Calf Stretch – Place the towel around the ball of your foot and pull in extending and flexing the foot.

4. Leg Presses – Place the towel under your knee and push down on the towel as hard as you can resulting in you lifting your foot of the ground – Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

5. Leg Extension – Seated on a chair lift your leg to straight out in front of you  and lower – Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

6. Slight Lean Squats – Standing holding on to the back of a chair – slightly bend your knees making sure your knees coming over your toes and you keep your back straight. Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

7. Leg Lifts – Standing holding on to the back of a chair – lift your leg up and lower – make sure you keep your knees in alignment with each other. Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

8. Calf Stretch Step Ins – Standing holding on to the back of a chair – step your leg back – planting your heel to the ground – pause for a couple of seconds and back to starting position – Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

9. Hamstring Stretch – Standing holding on to the back of a chair – Step one foot back and lower your chest towards the ground – feeling a stretch on the back of your thigh – pause for a couple of seconds before returning to starting position – Perform for around 30 seconds or 10 – 20 reps

10. Half Wall Sits – Leaning against a wall – lower your body to a slight squat position and hold. Perform for around 30 – 60 seconds

Any questions just ask. anna@annacousins.com

Anna x