One of our body parts that often aches and is overused are our knees. People usually experience knee pains after doing strenuous activities like running or cycling. Some experience knee pains due to age, injuries, and other medical reasons.
While you can get treatment from your doctors and ask for a knee brace, there are also other ways for you to treat your knee pains and prevent it from happening in the future. It’s a good idea to incorporate knee exercises to your work out routine to help strengthen your knees. Here are some knee exercises you can do:
Before doing any exercises, it’s always best to warm your muscles up. You want your muscles to be ready to handle the exercises you are going to do. If you skip this, you are at risk of injuries and will not be able to maximize your workout.
Cool downs are as important as warm-ups. It slows your breathing after putting your body into so much work and relaxes your muscles. By doing cool downs, you release any tension in your body that was triggered by exercising.
One way to strengthen your knees and avoid knee pain is to build muscle around it. A great way to do that is to take walks daily on grass, on a track or on an elliptical. This way, you’ll build muscle around your knees which will serve as a natural knee brace for you. It’ll protect your knees when you are doing activities.
Another exercise you can do is called the lateral walk. This exercise targets your hip muscles and glutes as well as strengthen your hip flexors and extensors while you’re in a quarter squat position and walk sideways. By doing this regularly, you’re strengthening the foundation for your knees and ultimately protecting them.
A similar exercise to the lateral is a monster walk. When you do a monster walk you are in a quarter squat position, targeting your thighs, and you take big steps to walk back and forth. It targets the same muscles but at different points, so this is extremely good for knee strengthening and balance as well.
There are some knee strengthening exercises that don’t require you to stand up and move from point to point. Donkey kicks are great to get a full-body workout since it targets your glutes, core, arms, and helps with your balance. You’re building muscle only with our glutes and toning your thighs which help with your knee alignment.
Another similar exercise that you can do is a bit harder, but you’ll feel your body burn in the right places. Fire hydrants are similar to donkey kicks, but instead of raising your legs backwards, you're raising them to the side. This targets the side of your thighs, glutes, and even your core. Strong glutes will prevent from having bad posture and reduce your risk of back pains and knee pains.
Making an effort to take care of your body daily is the best gift you can give to yourself. These exercises will help you prevent further knee pain and can also fix this problem. Setting aside 30 minutes of your time a day to focus on your body and give it extra attention can do wonders for you in the future. Mind your knees and take care of them!
Anytime Physio is a Physiotherapy clinic in Brisbane. We specialize in effective physiotherapy, remedial massage, and pilates services. Book a session with one of our therapists today!