Painful, sore and irritated knees are one of the most common ailments affecting older people. There are certain exercises that are best to be avoided and some modifications to make sure you are doing if you have knee problems. Here is a list of some of the best and worst exercises for bad knees and some modifications to make exercising safer.
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#1 – Deadlift
Begin in an upright standing position with your legs hip-width apart, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, hips, and legs. Place your hands on your hips, engaging your core. Slightly bend your knees and pivot through your hips to bend your upper body forward, ideally to be parallel to the floor. Raise back up and repeat the movement.
Deadlift
Start off with 1 set of 10 repetitions. Perform the exercise in a smooth controlled movement with a good stop at the end position. The intensity is moderate. The purpose of this exercise is to strengthen the core, glutes, hamstrings, and the muscles around the knees.
#2 – Single Leg Step-up
Begin in an upright standing position on the bottom step of your stairs or any other stable elevated surface, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, hips, and legs. Engage your core and step up with one leg, following with your other leg. Step back down, leading with the same leg to return to the starting position. Repeat the movement with the opposite leg.
Single-Leg Step-up
Start off with 1 set of 5 repetitions on each side. Perform the exercise in a smooth controlled movement with a good stop at the end position. The intensity is moderate. The purpose of this exercise is to strengthen the glutes, hamstrings, and muscles above and below the knees.
#3 – Single Leg Balance
Begin in an upright standing position, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, hips, and legs. Place your hands on your hips. Engage your core and place all of your weight on one leg as you work on balancing your body weight. Hold this position for 10 seconds. Return to the starting position and repeat the movement on the opposite side.
Single-Leg Balance
Start off with 1 set of 2 repetitions on each side, holding for 10 seconds. Perform the exercise in a smooth controlled movement with a good hold at the end position. The intensity is light. The purpose of this exercise is to strenghten the foot, ankle, calf muscles, in addition to the muscles around the knees and hips.
Worst Exercises for Knee Pain:
#1 – Squat
Bad Squat Exercise:
Avoid letting your knees pass your toes in the squat position. When the knees are past the toes, greater stress is put on your knees.
Bad Squat Exercise
Good Squat Exercise:
Begin in an upright standing position with your legs hip-width apart and your toes slightly pointed outward. Place your hands on your hips and engage your core. Bend your knees and hinge through your hips to move into a squat position. Keep your knees behind your toes and shift your hips back. Raise back up to a standing position and repeat the movement.
Good Squat Exercise
#2 – Lunge
Bad Lunge Exercise:
Similar to the squatting exercise, we do not want your knee to pass your toes as this puts greater stress on the knee joint.
Bad Lunge Exercise
Good Lunge Exercise:
Begin in an upright standing position, maintaining good alignment with your head, shoulders, and hips. Place your hands on your hips and engage your core. Take a big step forward with one foot and lower your back knee down towards the floor, keeping your front knee behind your toes. Raise back up to the starting position and repeat the movement.
Good Lunge Exercise
#3 – Leg Extension Machine
If you go to a community center or gym, the leg extension machine is designed to strengthen your quadricep muscles. Once you are in a seated position, it has a bar that sits in front of your shins. You then straighten your legs against the weighted bar. Unfortunately, leg extension machines can put significant stress on the knee joints. And as you increase the repetitions, load, or resistance, this stress is increased.
While it can be beneficial to perform squats, lunges or leg press exercises, be sure to use the proper form to minimize stress on the knee joints.
Leg Extension Machine
We hope you try out these exercises and find some relief for your knee pain. If you are looking for a guide to help fix your knee pain, check out Knee Pain Solved, here!