Stop Knee Pain Now! 5 Exercises For Your Knees
- chelsie462
- 6 hours ago
- 10 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in August 2024. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPLcyE4zfQ
Mike: Knee pain can greatly impact your life in a negative way. But with some targeted exercises, you can help increase your mobility and alleviate some of that discomfort.
Brad: Yeah, so we are going to give you five simple exercises to strengthen and stretch the muscles to help get rid of that knee pain and get you back into action. Research has shown that painful knees are associated with weak quadriceps. Now, one of the best ways they have found to strengthen the quadriceps is an isometric hold. So that's what Mike is gonna demonstrate, a really easy way you can do it anywhere at home. Go ahead, Mike.
Mike: So this is good for anyone, even if you are experiencing some knee pain, because you're in a non-weight-bearing position. Take a pillow, fold it in half, and put it underneath you. If you have a throw pillow, you can certainly use that instead. You're going to be in a long sitting position. You can do this on your couch, bed, or floor if you're comfortable. And all I'm gonna do is push the back of my knee into the pillow. I'm going to breathe and hold for 5 to 10 seconds. After that, relax. We want you to do two sets of 10 repetitions with this exercise.
Brad: Now, this is one of those exercises where you need to relax, and it's going to take a little bit of time. For me, they're a little bit boring, but I get through them. They'll be really good for your knee, as well as getting those muscle fibers to fire the way we want them to. All right, now we're going to complement that strengthening for the quadriceps to actually stretch the quadriceps out, as well as the hip flexors. This next stretch does both. It really does a nice job of getting the rectus femoris, which is a muscle that oftentimes gets neglected with stretching. This one covers that and the hip flexors.
Mike: So you're going to need to sit on a firm surface at your house, whether that's a countertop, table, or maybe the edge of your bed is firm enough. If it's not, sometimes you can throw a pillow on the edge of your bed to make it a little bit firmer. Now you're going to lie down on your back and begin with both knees to your chest. The closer my buttocks is to the edge of the mat, the more stretch you will feel. If it seems too aggressive, you can certainly scoot up a bit. Now I'm going to stretch my left leg first, lower it down off the edge of the mat. Once I'm here, I'm going to try to bend my knee back as far as I comfortably can. I'm feeling a good stretch and pull right up here in my hip flexor region. Now I'm going to take my other leg and pull it towards my chest. Once I do that, you will see my hip flexor naturally pulling it up. Once I'm in this position, I'm going to relax. You're going to hold this for roughly 30 seconds. Breathe here. After 30 seconds, a reset. Neutral position. And you're going to switch sides.
Mike: One important thing to look at, I'm just going to show on this leg for the camera's sake, is to make sure your leg is in a straight line. Don't let it venture too far out to the side.
Brad: Very good. And the part where you pull the foot underneath, that particularly hits the rectus femoris, which is a, like I mentioned, a muscle that oftentimes gets neglected. All right, now the previous exercise and the next three are, we need to give credit where credit is due. They actually came from Rick Olderman, a physical therapist who is an expert in this field. He's written numerous books on this and taught the lessons for therapists. These exercises work the key muscles. Anything else, Mike?
Mike: You can find his information at rickolderman.com. He has programs, books, and a whole array of things. So for this exercise, we're actually going to start strengthening some of the hip muscles because they directly connect to the knee.
Brad: Right.
Mike: So we're actually going to strengthen the glute medius and the minimus outside hip muscles here. To do this, if you have difficulty maintaining your balance or you feel weak with it, certainly hold onto something for support a wall, countertop, etc. And you're going to stand on one leg. My knee is slightly bent. I'm not locked out like this. Then I'm going to kick out to the side. I'm not going to kick up way high, just slightly out to the side. Not touching the ground. And come back in. We're going to try to perform 10 to 15 repetitions. Whatever you can do on one leg. Slow, controlled motion. Make sure your posture is nice and vertical. Once you do one leg, switch sides and do the other leg. Again, 10 to 15 repetitions. Slow and controlled. If this starts to feel easy, you can actually add some resistance.
Brad: Now, I really want to emphasize the point that you want to actually have a little bend in the knee of the leg that you have weight bearing through. That makes a big difference. And again, slow, controlled motion. I'm using the band for added resistance. So I'm not doing this because that really changes it. It's not going to help. We want a good motion. Now, my balance is a little off here. I'm going to go over here and just touch here. Then I can really focus on the strengthening, and not so much the balance.
Brad: Watch my foot. If I point my toe out, which is a natural tendency, I've had a lot of patients do that. The nice thing about the band is that if you do that, the band comes off. So it kind of helps you with your mechanics as well as gives that added resistance. 10 on both sides. And that really works well. Anything else with that, Mike?
Mike: A double benefit of this exercise is your stance leg; the same muscles are working. So you may notice that after you do one side and switch to the other, it's still burning, it's still working a little bit. So, that's a good sign.
Brad: All right. Subtle exercise, but very critical. Let's go to the next one. All right, the next exercise is strengthening the hip. Specifically, the glute maximus muscle helps position the hip, which positions the knee. It all works together. We're going to show two easy ways to do it. You can do this on the floor. A carpeted floor works well. You could do it on a bed, but usually it's too soft. We're going to do it on the plif just because it's easier to film and give you a good perspective. All right.
Mike: So we should mention that we'll show a variation after this in a standing position.
Brad: Thank you.
Mike: Well, you're going to begin on your elbows, actually, and your knees. I'm going to start with my left leg again. You're going to lift it up in the air. Now, we're not going to do a full hip extension, kicking up towards the ceiling. We're not going to be way down. We're going to go kind of in the middle. This will isolate the glute max. To isolate it even more, turn your foot in, and you can start doing some little oscillating butt pumps.
Mike: Notice I'm not going through the full range of motion, I'm just picking the spot, making sure that glute max stays engaged and is firing. If that becomes easy, you can certainly bring your leg back to normal. Make sure to try to do 30 repetitions. And then switch sides. Maybe you'll notice a difference between them, but give this a try. If this becomes easy for you, you can take a cuff weight if you happen to have one. You're going to strap it around your upper thigh region like this. And then again, we're going to do the same type of exercise, and it's going to be a little more resistance.
Brad: Good. Now, if you're having problems getting into this because you have knee pain or whatever, you can do this in a standing position. I'll demonstrate. Here, you want to go to a firm surface, like a cupboard, a solid table, or anything that you can get to assist you with your balance and support the weight of your trunk. Same thing, 90-degree bend in the knee. And then we're going to go up in that mid-range, just like Mike talked about in that position. If you want to rotate it to help isolate that glute maximus muscle, there we go. And do that for 30 seconds. If you want to go into your forearms, you can. Make sure you do both legs. Now, you start out with one set, and you can go to two to three sets of 30 seconds on each leg. Once you get used to it, it goes quite rapidly. There's no problem with it. Mike, anything else?
Mike: I said repetitions. He said seconds. Pick what works for you and stick with it.
Brad: Yeah, that's right. Sorry. I don't want to confuse them. Should we go to number five?
Mike: Yes, the last one.
Brad: That's right. All right, now the final thing is you could change how you walk to decrease stress on your knees. We found that just asking people to watch how they walk. And oftentimes, most people heel strike first with a fully extended knee. That puts a great deal of impact forces through the knee, hip, and actually into the back. So we'll just say, walk on your forefoot. So you come forward and land on your forefoot, and the heel doesn't touch. That puts a little flexion in the knee. And immediately, oftentimes people say, "Oh, that does feel better on my knees."
Brad: If that's the case, you definitely want to start walking. And Mike's going to show you a good system on how to train yourself to change your walking so your knees feel better and do not have those impact forces all the time.
Mike: So when you're beginning, do this in your house first. Often, most shoes have elevated heels. I'm not saying high heels, any tennis shoes, most of today's do. So, start barefoot or in your socks. Whatever you feel safe with in your house. You're going to begin with an extreme variation of this just to know what you're doing first and get the right muscles firing. So to begin, you're actually going to take your hands, place them on your buttocks. Now, first walk around, your normal walking pattern, what you do, maybe it's heel striking, etc. I feel weird heel striking now. This is awkward. But feel how your glutes are or are not engaging. I don't feel much engagement with that. Now I go up on my toes, and I start walking, and I feel my butt muscles firing properly.
Mike: This is what we want. Get those muscles engaging like they should be, taking stress off the joints. Now, over time, you don't want to walk on your tippy toes for the rest of your life. You may look taller, but it's not really a good thing to do. So, just take shorter steps. You're not going to go out as far. Try to think about landing on your forefoot and then letting your heel touch. Over time and practice, this will become more natural. I typically walk with kind of a flat foot, I like to say. My forefoot and heel land at the same time. I'm taking a shorter stride length. It'll start to feel more natural, but begin slowly just in the house. If you go outside, do short walks. Over time, you'll get acclimated.
Brad: That's right. And again, it is awkward, but start with it. Because I know I always used to think that if I'm walking and I walk faster, I want to stride out farther, which simply gives more heel strike. More impact through your joints. It's harder on you. Shorten the stride length up, fix things. And you know, that's actually how runners do it. I changed my running pattern.
Mike: Yes, if you want to actually get nerdy in it and increase your stride length, you do, but you go shorter forward and you let your butt kick further backwards.
Brad: Yeah.
Mike: Now, this is a lot different from walking than running, but that's essentially the idea behind it.
Brad: We're getting into the weeds now.
Mike: We are.
Brad: Anyways, that was fun to talk about for a little bit. Now, do we have anything else to talk about, Mike?
Mike: If you'd like to check out more videos on how to help with your knee pain, check out the video "My Knee Hurts Here! 10 Typical Pain Spots And What They Mean." This actually identifies what your knee pain is in this video. So if you're not sure, my knee pain hurts in the front, the side, and the back. This video gets into detail about what it might be.
Brad: There you go. All right, have a good day and be pain-free in the knees.
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