3 Knee Pain Exercises To Address Your Nagging Knee Pain
Knee pain exercises play a crucial role in maintaining knee health and preventing injuries. Here’s why they’re important:
- Strengthening Muscles: Knee pain exercises, particularly those focused on strengthening muscles around the knee joint (like quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves), help provide better support and stability. Strong muscles can better absorb shocks and reduce stress on the knee joint during movement.
- Improving Joint Stability: Weak muscles around the knee can lead to instability, increasing the risk of injuries such as ligament tears or strains. Knee strengthening exercises enhance joint stability by improving muscle coordination and balance.
- Managing Weight: Excess body weight can strain knee joints, leading to pain and discomfort. Engaging in knee pain exercises helps manage weight by burning calories and promoting overall fitness, thereby reducing the load on the knees.
- Enhancing Flexibility and Range of Motion: Regular knee exercises improve flexibility and range of motion in the knee joint. This allows for smoother movements and reduces stiffness, which can alleviate pain associated with conditions like osteoarthritis.
- Preventing Further Damage: For individuals with existing knee pain or injuries, targeted exercises prescribed by healthcare professionals can aid in rehabilitation and prevent further degeneration of the joint.
- Promoting Overall Joint Health: Incorporating knee pain exercises into a regular fitness regimen promotes overall joint health and longevity. Strong, flexible joints are less prone to injuries and degenerative conditions over time.
We like to start the journey of getting you out of pain and back to living the life you want with the The Reverse Step-up, which is a general term for all of the different Reverse Step-up variations we perform (Side, Patrick, Poliquin, Petersen, etc.) is performed standing on flat ground, using as much or as little assistance as is appropriate.
How far out you reach, how much you assist your balance, and how much of your own bodyweight you de-load, all determine the difficulty of the movement.
Starting on the floor, and “mastering” this level of difficulty for weeks and even months will help to serve a solid foundation of strength in not only the muscles surrounding your knees, but more importantly the connective tissues supporting your knees to help protect you from future injuries.
PATRICK STEP UP
This is a knee extensor strengthening exercise that focuses on terminal knee extension. Start by standing on a stack of weight plates, stepper, or low plyobox. Stand on the step with one leg so that the heel is flat on the step. Have the non-target leg resting on the floor just in front of the step. Extend the elevated foot’s knee to raise the bottom foot off of the floor. Extend the knee to full extension and slowly return to start position by bending the knee. By always training in a relatively pain free environment, the Patrick Step has been shown to be our most effective knee pain exercises to get blood into the affected area, and kickstarting the healing process.
Muscles Involved:
- Quadriceps
- Vastus Medialis Oblique (VMO)
Related Conditions:
- Patellar Tendinitis / Quadriceps Tendinitis
- Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome
- ITB Syndrome
- Jumper’s Knee / Runner’s Knee
- Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease
The Poliquin Step-up is one of the best knee pain exercises we know of to help get your knees healthy and stable.
We typically prescribe the Poliquin Step-up after months of exposure to the Patrick Step-up.
What is the difference between the Patrick Step Up and Poliquin Step Up?
The difference is simple: a Patrick Step Up is on a flat box, and a Poliquin Step Up is performed with your heels elevated.
As a result, the Patrick Step Up works your ankle mobility and your soleus – both KEY for Achilles and long-term knee protection – while the Poliquin Step Up does not.
HOWEVER: the Poliquin Step Up forces even HARDER contraction of your VMO, and the Poliquin Step Up has quite a magical effect for handling long-term knee tendon problems due to how it overloads the fully extended position, meaning: in a Patrick Step Up your VMO is pretty much resting at the top, whereas in a Poliquin Step Up it is still working at the top!
Due to the intensity of the Polquin Step Up, we found it unsafe to jump beginners into without first having that same degree of strength attained in the Patrick Step Up.
But once a given degree of strength in the Patrick Step Up is present, not only is it safe to match that strength in the Poliquin Step Up: your knees will feel AMAZING from doing it!
POLIQUIN STEP UP
This is a knee extensor strengthening exercise that focuses on terminal knee extension. Start by place a wedge or hexagonal dumbbell on a stack of weight plates, stepper, or low plyobox. Stand on the step with one leg so that the heel is well supported by the handle of the dumbbell or wedge. Have the non-target leg resting on the floor just in front of the step. Extend the elevated foot’s knee to raise the bottom foot off of the floor. Extend the knee to full extension and slowly return to start position by bending the knee.
Muscles Involved:
- Quadriceps
- Vastus Medialis Oblique (VMO)
Related Conditions:
- Patellar Tendinitis / Quadriceps Tendinitis
- Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome
- ITB Syndrome
- Jumper’s Knee / Runner’s Knee
- Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease
Incorporating these knee pain exercises into your training plan is vital for maintaining and improving knee health by strengthening muscles, enhancing stability, managing weight, improving flexibility, and preventing further damage. They are an essential component of both injury prevention, post rehab training, as well as a part of your long-term training program.