Knee Exercises

Knee exercises are extremely useful and in time will definitely have a love of benefits. But a lot of folks may just be going through the exercise routines without really knowing what muscles are being toned and strengthened. So here’s a bit of information for you .

There actually so many muscles that actually support your knee and knee joint and hence get exercised during knee exercises. The key muscles that help can roughly be put in two groups : Hamstrings and Quadriceps.

Here’s a wikipedia definitionof the hamstring

a hamstring refers to one of the tendons that make up the borders of the space behind the knee. In modern anatomical contexts, however, they usually refer to the tendons of the semitendinosus, the semimembranosus, and the biceps femoris. In quadrupeds, it refers to the single large tendon found behind the knee or comparable area.

The key reason the hamstring is mentioned alot is that it connects and controls the hip and the knee, making it extremely important during knee exercises.

Whatever knee exercises you choose to do the hamstrings are some way or the other involved. They’re used for jumping, running and walking.

Also wikipedia defines the Quadriceps

The quadriceps femoris (quadriceps, quadriceps extensor, guads or quads) includes the four prevailing muscles on the front of the thigh. It is the great extensor muscle of the knee, forming a large fleshy mass which covers the front and sides of the femur.

One important role the quadriceps play is an everyday activity - standing up.Its also crucial for squatting walking and running

It may not be necessary to go into all the intricate details on how these muscles function, but its important to note that they are important, and are usually the focus in knee exercises.

A situation where one of these muscles is developed far more than the other is referred to as muscle imbalance. Its important to ensure that the knee exercises you engage in exercise both muscles. A physiotherapist could really help you choose the best knee exercises for you.

Knee exercises done the proper way will definitely reduce the risk of knee injury and make your life a lot easier. Added to this is the fact that knee exercises also exercise other muscles as far as your back and lower abdomen. Here are a few useful tips for carrying out knee exercises and important reasons you should do a lot of these

• One of the cheapest ways to keep fit and save your self from knee pain and any other related discomfort is to engage in regular knee exercises

• The muscles in your knee , apart from supporting the knee joint also help to absorb shock before it gets to the knee. By engaging in frequent knee exercising you can strengthen and tighten these muscles and prevent injury to your knee. A combination of strengthening exercise and also stretching exercises can go a long way in helping you achieve this.

• One of the reasons stretching exercises are important , is that they help to make the knee very flexible and reduce the chances of injury. These stretching exercises can be carried out immediately after strengthening exercises or can be done independently

• The rule with knee stretching exercises is “a little at a time”. Be careful and ensure that you don’t over stretch the muscles

• While you may be tempted to start out exercising your knees alot, all at once, it is advisable to take it a step at a time. Increase the time you spend exercising gradually , allowing your body to develop the stamina over time

• Stretching exercises should be done much more often than strengthening exercises. The process your body goes through to build muscles , requires time, and if there is too much stress, you may end up with some pain or worse. The goal of knee exercises is to prevent this and not preempt it

• If you begin to notice knee pain or find it difficult to move certain parts of your leg its important that you visit a physiotherapist, who can also help you choose the right exercises.

This exercise will strengthen your trunk , lower back, hamstrings and abdomen . Its a really good exercise and will have a good long term effect as you do it regularly.

Requirements for this knee exercise :

There are actually no requirements or tools needed for this Knee exercise

Exercise Procedure :

• Find an even surface which you can lie on, comfortably
• Lie on your back, first ensuring that you’re flat on the surface
• Turn your palms upwards, and slowly draw your knees upwards, keep your feet flat on the surface as you draw your knee upward
• Now, by using only your buttocks ( or gluteal ) muscles as well as your abdominal muscles slowly lift your hips and trunks from the surface.
• As you lift ensure that you do so in a controlled manner, as well as smoothly.
• The pressure should be on your shoulders throughout this knee exercise and you should ensure that your hands aren’t doing the pushing.
• As you carry out this exercise, watch out for any cramping and reduce the strain on the muscles. You can do this by lowering your trunk.
• Repeat this a couple of times. take a short break to ease up the muscles and then go on to repeating it again
• An addition to this exercise will be to maintain the lifted position and count to a certain number before dropping back to the initial position

You will find a lot more useful information by clicking on the links on this page. Good luck and happy exercising

Bridge

Strengthens glutes, hamstrings, and trunk, including lower back and abs.

# Lie on your back, with arms by your side, palms up. Place your feet flat on the floor with knees bent.

# Use abdominal and gluteal (buttocks) muscles, slowly lift trunk and hips off floor with a smooth, controlled motion.

# Squeeze buttocks at the top, then slowly lower. (Keep pressure on the shoulders, not on the head, and do not push with the hands.)

# If you feel cramping in the hamstrings, you’ll know they’re working too hard; lower slightly to relieve that tightening.

# Repeat 8–12 times, working up to two sets.

# To advance: Hold the up position for a 3–5 count

Here are two favourite easy-to-do knee exercises that will help strengthen abdominal muscles quadriceps and also your hamstrings as well as gluteal muscles. There both pretty easy to carry out and won’t leave you burnt out, just feeling good.

Requirements for knee exercise 1

• A wall ( I’m sure you can find this somewhere )
• An exercise ball ( anything around 25 inches )

Exercise Procedure

• Back the wall,  placing the exercise ball between yourself and the wall, and resting on it. while carrying out this k nee exercise your feet should be slightly apart and you should ne standing parallel to the wall.
• Now slowly bend your knees as if attempting to sit down. Keep lowering your body until your thighs are parallel to the ground surface
• You can choose to hold this posture, keeping your abdominal muscles contracted and ensuring that your knees do not extend beyond your toes.
• After holding this pose for a while you can then begin to slowly roll up this ball until you return to your initial posture.

This knee exercises will definitely have added benefits as the knee just like other body parts cannot be exercised in isolation.

By carrying out this knee exercises regularly you are sure to develop more strength in your knees as well as other areas.

Wall Sit

Strengthens hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteal muscles, and abdominal muscles. A lower-intensity alternative to squats and lunges.

So here’s another knee exercise I’m sure will benefit you a whole lot. This exercise focuses on a few of your muscles in your knee area that may not necessarily be used in everyday motion. While a lot of knee exercises are developed with a focus on certain muscles this exercise is sure to strengthen a these lesser used muscles and help even with everyday motions and muscle activities. Some of the muscles that will get worked on in this exercise are the quadriceps and the flexors .

Requirements :

Actually this particular knee exercise doesn’t have any requirements. You’ll only need a ‘knee’. And I’m sure you’ve already got that.

Exercise Procedure :

• Find an even spot on the ground in your favourite exercise-environment ( your room , the park wherever) , make sure its smooth and flat enough to ensure that you’re not put in any awkward position while carrying out this knee exercises.
• Next lie on your back, flat on whatever even surface you may have chosen. Slowly pull up your left leg, until you’ve there’s about 45 degrees at the knee joint ( keeping the left foot flat on the ground through out the entire process )
• Now straighten the knee of the right leg focusing on using your right thigh, don’t lock the right knee, just straighten it out.
• Now begin to raise the right leg very slowly, stopping when your knees on both legs are at the same height
• You can now go on to repeating the above for both sides a couple of times. You can do it in sets of 5 for each leg, and also try to hold up the raised leg and count to a certain number.

I’m sure this knee exercise has been of some use to you. You should also try out some of the links on this page to get more useful information about knee exercises.

Knee exercises have a lot of advantages. The effect of these exercises especially as you age is much more obvious. Developing stronger and more flexible knees by engaging in proper knee exercises will definitely be a plus. Here’s a very good knee exercise :

Requirements for this knee exercise :

• A sit or chair
• Ankle weights

Exercise Procedure

• I found this really interesting exercise for the knee and thought it will be a very useful one , here are the really simple steps. It is recommended that you attach a weight to your ankles ( the weights can be increased slowly over time )

• Find a chair that leaves your thigh parallel to the ground when you sit on it. In other words the chair should be as high as the distance from your knees to the floor

• Sitting on the chair , straighten out one of your legs, parallel to the floor, ensuring that you maintain a straight back, also try to do this slowly

• Once you have lifted your leg and it’s parallel to the ground, hold it up for a couple of seconds ( as close to a minute as possible )

You can now bend your knee slowly and lower the leg. Through this process ensure that the speed at which you are bending the knee is slow. Focus on controlling the lifting and lowering of the leg as this knee exercise will strenghten your knee and improve flexiblility of the knee.

You can repeat the above knee exercise ensuring that you focus on using the knee as a ‘fulcrum’ .

This knee exercise like I said above will help make your knees much more stronger and flexible. You can get a few more knee exercises here.