6 Tips For Training With Bad Knees

Many people use the excuse of "bad knees" as a convenient crutch when defending their refusal to lunge, jog, or perform any other leg-related activity. Actually, it shouldn't prevent anyone from moving their lower body. Following these six measures listed below can help you successfully rehab your knee if you experience discomfort when exercising.

#1 Make the posterior chain stronger.
Knee stress can be significantly reduced by strengthening the hamstrings and glutes. Exercises for the posterior muscles, such as kettlebell swings and deadlifts, will support the knees and help lessen or eliminate pain.

#2 Use your full range of motion.
Partial lunges and half-squats could actually exacerbate the situation. The joint can be properly exercised and the relevant muscles can participate equally with a full range of motion. Particularly when it comes to knee stress, partial ranges can overburden the quads, which are frequently the cause of overuse. Even worse, developing strength in a limited range of motion just serves to highlight an imbalance that is more obvious and stilted once you leave these confined ranges. That might result in more harm.

#3 Be mindful of your hips.
The hip joint is dependent on the knee joint. Therefore, the knees will also be in poor condition if the hip joint is. Due to desk occupations and general underuse, the hip musculature is typically tight and weak, with inadequate mobility. Make it a routine to practice cradle walks, spiderman walks, and high knee walks on a daily basis, especially before you train, to restore mobility to the hip structure.

#4 Switch up your cardio.
Exercises like running, cycling, and rowing may seem pain-free when you do them, but they actually cause muscle imbalances that lead to the daily joint discomfort you feel. These exercises all feature repeated movements that exclusively work the quadriceps and hip flexors or put pressure on the same joints (the knee and hip). Running and cycling restrict the knee joint's range of motion, which contributes to the idea that an existing muscle imbalance gets worse. Additionally, performing rows while seated prevents the posterior chain from participating in the exercise. To keep your heart rate up in place of these, try shortening the time between sets during a strength-training session. Alternately, swim. Swimming works the entire body without any impact.

#5 Keep your shins vertical.
Maintain a vertical shin as much as you can when performing exercises like squats and lunges. The more quad-dominant a lift will be, the more forward your knees slide over your toes. In a perfect environment, as long as both feet are securely planted on the ground, a knee sliding forward over the toes is OK. The exacerbation of chronic pain could result from this, though. Your lower body workout can focus on quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes without aggravating them by using reverse lunges, deadlifts, and box squats as the main exercises.

#6 Avoid Isolation Exercises
Exercises that isolate one muscle group at a time, such as leg extensions and hamstring curls, might put too much pressure on the knee joint. Use complex exercises like squats and deadlifts to concentrate your efforts. These exercises allow all the muscles around the joint to contract, stabilizing the joint.