Get Healthy, Strong Knees With This 10 Minute Workout

photo credit: shutterstock

Knee Exercises For Stronger Joints

Knees: They’re one of the most common joints that people complain about. Many factors play into chronic knee discomfort, including muscular imbalance, excessive impact over time, age and onset of osteoarthritis. The good news is that discomfort doesn’t mean that you need to be sedentary. And in most cases, you can enhance the health of your joints through proper nutrition and tailored exercise.

After the age of 30, there is a steady decline in muscle mass and strength in our knees. This decline can be as much as five percent or more per decade if you’re inactive. Strength training can be a great solution to not only decrease the amount of muscle you lose but also increase your overall strength and lower your risk of injury and other conditions, such as osteoporosis.

The following routine is designed to help improve muscular imbalances and strengthen joint stabilizers while placing minimal stress on the knee joints. Complete this routine three times a week, with a day of rest in between. With consistency, you should notice a difference in the stability and strength of your knee joints within four to six weeks.

Single Legged Reach

1 minute
• Keeping your posture tall, stand on your right leg with your knee slightly bent and your weight on your right heel.
• Keeping your left leg off the ground, slowly hinge forward from the hips (while keeping your back straight) and reach toward the ground with your left hand.
• Maintaining your weight through your heel, slowly return back to the starting position.
• Repeat for 30 seconds, then complete the exercise on your left leg (reaching with your right hand) for another 30 seconds.

Sliding Wall Squat

1 minute
• Lean against a wall with your heels about a foot and a half away from the wall.
• Keep your upper back and hips against the wall, with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent.
• Slowly slide your body down the wall into a 45-degree squat position while keeping your toes off the ground.
• Keeping your back straight, push through your heels to return to the starting position.
• Repeat for one minute.

Supine Hip Bridge

1 minute
• Lie on your back with your knees bent so that your heels are about a foot away from your hips.
• Keep your shoulders down, core tight and toes toward your shins so that your heels are pressing into the floor.
• Elevate your hips off the floor while focusing on contracting your glutes.
• Slowly return to the floor without touching.
• Repeat for one minute.

Single-Leg Quad Activation

1 minute
• Sit on the floor with your back straight, left leg extended and a foam roller or rolled towel under your left knee.
• Keeping your toe pointed toward your shin, contract your thigh muscle while pushing the back of your knee into the rolled towel.
• Hold this position for five seconds and repeat six times (for 30 seconds in total).
• Repeat the same sequence using your opposite leg.

IT Band Release

1 minute 
• Using a foam roller, lie on your side with your right hip on top of the roller, and your right foot extended, with your toe on the ground for support.
• Using your right forearm on the ground, pull so that your leg rolls over the foam roller from your hip all the way to the side of your knee.
• Repeat this sequence for 30 seconds and complete the exercise on the other leg.

Tip: To increase pressure, stack both legs while rolling and/or use a firmer foam roller.