Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo, and today
I'm going to show you some knee
strengthening exercises. Let's get started.
So I'm going to start off with some pretty
simple exercises, and then we will
progressively get to a little bit harder
exercises. So we're going to start off in
the chair first, and just a simple kick
out with your leg is going to work those
quad muscles for your knee. And those
quads are connected to the knee cap,
which is really important to help all
that strengthening there. So make sure
you're sitting comfortably in the chair,
make sure that your back is supported so
you don't have to worry about your
posture, sitting nice and upright and
just really slowly kick out and try and
straighten out that leg as much as you
can. Pulling up your toes helps kind of
lock everything out when you come up and
then slowly come back down, so it's a
really controlled movement. You're not
just dropping your leg back down. So even
if you don't have any weights, if you go
nice and slow, squeeze at the end, you
really get a good workout in those quad
muscles. If you can do 20 or 25 pretty
easily, then you can add some ankle
weights if you have just something like
a 2-3 pound that works great, and so it
would be the same kind of thing, nice
slow controlled movement. At the end
squeezing, making sure that muscle
tightens, and then slowly come back down.
So once you have the weight on there,
make sure you're not just dropping it
down because that might cause some
injury, really control that movement both
up and down. So start off with just about
10, do a couple sets of 10, and then if
that's pretty easy, the next day then
start working your way up from there.
Then the next one is going to be for
your hip, but it's still working the knee
because they're all connected, so this
time just coming up this movement. So
those hip flexors that are all
kind of connected into the thigh and the
knee, and again that
slow controlled motion up and down. If
that gets pretty easy, again you can add
on that ankle weight and control up and
slowly back down. So even if you want to
do a count of three: one, two, three for
that control, one, two, three. That makes it
a little bit harder so you don't have to
do 20 or 30 before you get tired. If you
go really slow, that's going to really
work those muscles to help get you
stronger. The next exercise is going to
be a simple sit to stand progression. So
to start off with, it's going to be just
like it sounds. You're going to go from
sit to stand, but working on the muscles
instead of using momentum to get up. So
the best way to do that is put your feet
about shoulder width apart. You want them
to stay flat. A lot of times when people
go up and down they try to get on the
balls of their feet, but you want to keep
weight equal in the front and the back
in the heels, so when you come up you
want to lean your upper body forward to
get the weight shifted to the front. So
it's going to be coming up this way, and
then nice and controlled come back down,
but when you come back down to the
sitting, try and keep those knees behind
your toes as well. Sometimes people when
they do a squat try and come down like
this. So when you use the chair, it really
helps you to have a target. So just nice
and slow controlling it, try not to plop
down. Sometimes if you don't have a lot
of strength in the knees and the legs
and the hips, you kind of end up plopping
down, but really try and control that
coming back down getting that nice
smooth motion. If this is pretty easy
coming up and down, then try it without
actually sitting all the way down. So
your bottom is just going to tap the
chair now, but it's still going to be
there, so if you feel like you can't get
all the way back up, you can just sit
back down in the chair. So this time you
come up,
tap down, and then back up. So again still
keep your upper body fairly straight,
you're moving at your hips, you're
pushing your hips back. Like for the
women know, if you're squatting over the
toilet, men might not understand that, but
you really have to get that booty back,
and come back up. But my knees are
staying behind my toes, so it's not this.
It's coming back like that. So once that
becomes easy, then you can do the squats
without touching the chair at all. So
you're just coming down and back up
doing the squats, but I recommend keeping
the chair there just in case you get
tired and you need to sit down, that it's
there just in case, but keeping that good
form, knees behind the toes, back straight,
sticking the butt back, and then coming
down now. If the chair's too low, you can
also add a little box or something to
make it so you don't have to go down as
far. So then you're only squatting to
about here, and then you're tapping
whatever is in the chair so you can do
it building it up and taking it down
lower. If all of those are easy, then you
can go to squatting with one foot. I
suggest with that, if you're going to do
a one leg squat, have a countertop or put
the chair in front of you. So this time
you would want it in front of you
because a lot of times if people are
going to go, they're going to go forward
with the one leg squat versus backwards.
So just on one foot start off slow with
just a little squat there so you don't
have to go super far, but if you feel
like you're going to fall, you've got
something to hold on to, and you can even
start holding on still trying to keep
that knee pretty much behind the toe, and
coming up, and then you can go without
holding on.
The next one's going to be a step-up. For
step-ups, the best thing to do is
actually on a step where there's rails,
so you have something to hold on to for
balance if you need to. You can use just
a step if you've got a box of solid box
of something, some boards to make it
different heights, you can do that
because you might want to start off with
something small just like two inches. So
maybe even if you have a curb somewhere
where you can work on that would be good
too, but just make sure that you're doing
it safely, you have something to hold on
to even if it's a cane or stick or
somebody else, but make sure that if your
balance isn't great, you're using
something to hold on to. With the step up,
same thing, you want it to be controlled.
You don't want to use momentum to do it,
so I like having people start off with
their foot staying on the step the whole
time, but going in that slow controlled
motion where I tell people to count to
three. So you're going to go up one, two,
three, and then down one, two, three. So
it's not just up and down where you're
using momentum, you want to make sure
those muscles are engaging and working
and getting stronger. So again nice and
slow up and slow coming back down. So as
you can see, if you slow it down you're
only going to need to do about ten if
you can get to 20-25 really easily, then
you might want to try a higher step. If
you're having a really hard time, you
feel like you have to jump up on the
step, then make sure you take it back
down to just one or two inches to start
off with. So make sure that it's
something you can do in a controlled
motion, and then go up or down from there.
The last exercise is going to be a lunge. So
for the lunges, having the target is
going to be different for the step ups.
The higher the target is easier, the
smaller the target is going to be a
little bit harder. So if you start off
with the lunges, you might want something
a little higher a box or a little step
in between because you're going to do a
lunge, and if the target is higher you
don't have to go down as far, so you just
want to go
to where your knee kind of touches the
target. So for example, here it's just
tapping on that box, but my upper body
should stay pretty upright and my knee
shouldn't go in front of my toes, so I'm
not doing that lunge motion, I'm going
straight down trying to keep my upper
body fairly straight. So you can see if I
touch the target there, I'm not going all
the way to the floor so if that becomes
easy, all i have to do is take that out
of the way, and then go all the way down
and just tap the floor. But same thing if
the box is too hard then you just keep
building it up and you can start just
from there and have that target to tap
on. So again just starting off with 10
making sure you're going slow and
controlled, switching sides after you do
that, and then working your way up from
there. Whoo! I feel like this guy after all
those exercises. Those were your knee
strengthening exercises. If you'd like to
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And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope
you feel better soon.