Received a question via the Exercises for Injuries Secret Facebook Group on how to strengthen your knees. This is a page where people who have purchased my products ask the community and me about health, fitness, injuries, or pain.
Today, I’d like to answer a question from Simone…
“What kind of exercises can be done when one can’t go down to the floor and put much pressure on knees and hands because of extreme degenerative osteoarthritis?”
Osteoarthritis is one of the many forms of arthritis and is the most common in the United States. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease caused by joint wear and tear over time. It mainly affects the hands, hips, and knees and leads to pain, aches, stiffness, decreased range of motion, and swelling. The location of this pain can make it extremely difficult for people to get up and down off the floor, which makes many exercises inaccessible. Luckily, there are exercises you can do without getting on the floor to strengthen your knees.
There are two sets of exercises that you can do to strengthen your knees.
1. Utilize the Wall
You can utilize the wall to do different types of exercises. You can do various plank movements: out to the side, stepping on the spot, or increasing the angle by stepping your feet further back. Make sure you are on a non-slip mat when performing the knee exercise.
Various Plank Movements
If you can’t place your hands on the wall, you can use your forearms or fists when doing the exercises.
Utilize the wall if you are not able to kneel or place pressure on your hands when getting in this hand position. Don’t devalue what you can with the wall to effectively strengthen your knees.
Use a Foam Roller
You can also grab a 1/2 foam roller and place it on your hands. Place it against the wall with your hands and then go through the various exercises. This is great if you can’t kneel or can’t place too much pressure on the hands or extend the wrist.
2. Utilize Loop Tubing
Step on the tubing and grip the tubing or place the tubing in your hands. Doing this would add strength to your knees.
Even if you can’t grip it, you can lift it and bring your legs out to the side.
Bringing the legs out to the side
Use loop tubing to do various exercises, such as pressing if you cannot kneel or placing pressure on your hands and wrists to make your knees stronger.
Pressing
Those are some ideas if you cannot kneel or place pressure on your wrists due to degenerative osteoarthritis. Remember, you can always find a way to work around injuries safely while strengthening your knees efficiently.
Make sure to swing by ExercisesForInjuries.com. There is a good chance I have a video, an interview, or a blog post on your injury or pain. Enter your injury or pain into the search bar on the top right of the screen. There is a good chance that I have something for you that will help you to strengthen your knees.
Second, if you watch this on YouTube, head above and hit “Subscribe.” Every couple of days, you will receive a video like this, a guest video from one of my friends in the fitness world, or an interview that I have done with one of my friends in the fitness world.
Third, head down below hit “Like,” and leave me a comment or question.
Take care!
Rick Kaselj, MS
If you are looking for a fast, simple, safe, and effective program to eliminate stubborn knee pain and strengthen your knees and Patellofemoral Syndrome, click here to check out the Patellofemoral Syndrome Solution program.
