hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you my top 10 seated
hip and knee strengthening exercises. so let's get started.
If you haven't already, make sure you hit the subscribe button
down there. so I'm going to start off with some very simple strengthening
exercises, and then we're gonna work our way up to the harder ones, so if the
first ones are easy, stay till the end and I'll get some harder ones for you.
the first one is just going to be a simple hip flexion exercise. so all
you're doing is bringing your knees straight up as far as you comfortably
can. so you can just rest your hands on your in your lap or out to the side if
you want to, and you're just gonna bring it up this way. I say alternate sides
even if you just have one side that's weak and you need to strengthen it. I
always say strengthen both sides so just kind of alternating back and forth
making sure you're going slow and controlled not going fast where you're
just using momentum, but really pulling it up using those muscles, those hip
flexor muscles, to bring it up. so just about ten on each side and then you can
progress from there. the next one is going to be kind of what I call a
windshield wiper. the big thing with the windshield wiper is you're doing your
movements here on the bottom part of your legs. so you're not really moving
your knee a whole lot. sometimes people try and kind of bring their whole leg
out like this, but your knee kind of stays in the plane here, and you're just
bringing your foot out almost like it's a windshield wiper. but see the top part
of my leg pretty much stays in one spot. it's moving a little bit, but it's not
swinging like this. it's really just here where you're getting that movement at
your hip and not turning at your knee right there. so you should feel it in
your hips. you should feel it in your knee as well.
so same thing maybe just ten each way. you can then switch sides and do it on
this side as well just start off with ten. if that becomes easy you can work
your way up with those. if you get to 20-25 then you can start adding the band
which I'll show you a little bit later. so the next one is going to be getting
some hip AB and adduction. so for that abduction (AB),
I'm just gonna use a band, and I'm gonna bring the band all the way up just above
the knee right at the thigh area here. and so with this you want to keep your
feet pretty close together because that's gonna allow you to come out a
little bit more. so my feet are nice and close together, and all I'm doing is just
pulling outwards almost like you're opening up like a clamshell or a
butterfly and then just really gently coming back in. so when you're using a
band, when you're using weights, you want to control. you don't want that band to
control you, so especially when you're coming back in, you don't want to just
come in like that because that might actually irritate something even more.
you really want to control that band nice and slow coming back in. so again
just starting off with ten, if that gets pretty easy then you can do two sets of
ten, three sets of ten. If you get to 20-25 and it's easy of the reps, then you can
go to a higher resistive band. so then after that you're gonna do the adduction
(AD). so just take a ball, if you don't have a ball, use something like a pillow or if
you have a foam roll you can put it in between, but now you're just gonna
squeeze inwards. so I'm just pushing into the ball trying to squeeze it. so with
this one, since you're not really doing a movement, hold that squeeze for a little
bit. so I'm gonna squeeze in and hold that for about three to five seconds.
sometimes when you're doing this if you have a little bit of an alignment issue
in your pelvis, you might feel a little pop and that's just it readjusting
itself. as long as it's not a really painful pop, or if it's just a little
painful and then it goes away, that's just your body trying to readjust
itself. so that's not a big deal, but if it's painful and it stays then make sure
you stop and then go get a doctor or your physical therapist to check it out.
so again, just about ten of these by holding it for that three to five
seconds, getting that nice squeeze. you're getting those adductors on the inside for
that one. so the next one we're going to go back to the band and now we're going
to do some of those exercises we did without the band. so it's getting a
little bit harder. you're getting a little bit more resistance. so this time
we're going to put the band on your feet. so wrapped around so you can anchor it
down with one foot while you're lifting with the other. so we're going to go back
into that hip flexion, but with this you really want to try and keep your leg in
this plane because while you're using the band, since that's anchored to one
side, when you come up into that hip flexion your leg is going to want to
come into the other side. try and keep it there. so now we're activating more
muscles. we're getting resistance with that hip flexion. we're working those
outer muscles as well, so try and keep it in the plane here and you can see my
foot wiggling a little bit because it's trying to pull it in, but my muscles are
working to keep it out. so you can alternate sides if you want to, or if you
want to do them all on one side and then switch you can. but again I'm going nice
and controlled. I'm trying to keep that band from pulling me in, and I'm not just
going up and down as fast as I can. I'm really controlling that movement. so with
these since you're activating a little more muscles, you might want to start
with five on each side and then work your way up from there because I'd
rather you have to have you do less and not be sore and painful afterwards, then
doing too much and then not being able to do something for a couple days. so
then the next one is going to be that going out motion. so now this is that
internal rotation of the hips. so when your leg goes out, your hip is actually
internally rotating and sometimes that's hard to think of because if your foot's
going out, you think it's going out or like an external rotation at your hip,
it's internally rotating. so with this one, you still keep the band at your feet
and if you're not quite ready just to go out like this. sometimes that's a little
painful for people just do a little step out. so you're actually putting your foot
down and coming back in. so you can see here just a little, put it down to kind
of support it a little bit and then coming back in, but still keeping the top
part of your leg kind of in one plane. so it's not moving the whole thing out like
that. that's changing the muscles you're working, you're rotating that leg this
way to get that internal hip rotation. so you can leave the foot
up if you want toward those muscles a little bit more, or you can place the
foot down and then slowly come back in. but again really try and control that
movement. don't let that band just pull you back in. if you're feeling a lot of
pain in tension in those hips when you're doing it, you might not be ready
for the band yet, so just hold off on that. so now with the band you're gonna
do the external rotation of it, and so that's bringing the foot inwards. so it's
almost like you're coming up to cross your leg into a figure four. so now this
time you're going to kind of come up and cross this way. so you might not get
quite as much resistance with the band. you can change the placement of your
other foot if you want to bring it in a little bit to give you a little more
resistance. so again this time you're bringing the foot up and over to get
that external rotation. so just coming up you should feel it kind of in here now
and then nice and slow coming down. you can change sides almost again just like
you're trying to cross your leg over the other, and so really just nice and smooth
getting you know maybe five to ten depending on how it feels in the hips
and the knee. so the next ones are going to be a sit to stand exercise. I really
like these because these kind of work all the big muscle groups. they work the
quads, your hamstrings, your glutes, all of those muscles, but it's really important
to do a good form with your sit to stands. you have the chair to sit all the way
down. you don't have to sit all the way down, but I always say have a chair there
just in case if you feel a little unbalanced. you want your feet to be
about shoulder width apart, and when you come up, you want to kind of lean forward
a little bit to get your momentum going. so when you're coming up, you're doing
this motion. so if you're just doing this sit to stand for exercise, you want to
come down, just tap it ,and then come back up. try and keep your knees behind your
toes and really stick your booty back to try and find that chair. so again you
don't have to touch it. if you just want to do a little mini squat you can, but
you don't have to. you can actually go all the way down kind of sit, but make it
a controlled sit, and then come back. so this works a lot of the muscles. if
you haven't done a lot of these before, I would just start off with maybe five and
then work your way up from there because it's working a lot more than you think.
you are especially if you're not going and sitting all the way back down, if
you're just kind of doing a squat by the chairs just there. so to make it a little
bit harder, you can use the band again and then bring it up around your thighs
just like you did before. so it's going to be the same concept where you're
gonna try and keep your knees separated. so the band's gonna try and pull them in.
if you go into your squat or your sit to stand, and your knees start coming
forward, that means you're probably not ready for the band, so you have to keep
that good technique or you're kind of defeating the point of using the band. so
really try and keep that shoulder width distance. all the same technique, you're
coming up and then you can see my knees are kind of wiggling a little bit,
that bands trying to pull it back in, but try and keep them out. so you don't have
to straighten your knees up all the way, you can stay in that slightly bent
position and then come back down. so just up and back down, and same thing
you can come sit like I did, or if you just want to do the squat, but if your
knees do this when you come in, then you're not ready for that band because
that's gonna cause a whole lot of other problems. so make sure if you're
looking down that you see that those knees are still staying out nice and
wide. and then the last one is going to be a sit to stand same kind of concept,
so now you're going to use the ball again. so you want to squeeze in and keep
that squeeze the whole time. I've had people ask me before does it matter the
size of the ball or the pillow or whatever you're putting in between. it
does a little bit because again you want it to be big enough where your knees
stay in about what I call that neutral position, that shoulder width apart
because if you have something smaller again then your knees are going to be
coming in, and if you have something too big it's going to be pushing your knees
out, so you want it to be about in that neutral position.
so usually a basketball a soccer ball works pretty well, but if it's something
a little bit smaller that's not gonna quite work. but so this time you want to
keep that squeeze the whole time. so start with the squeeze really try and
hold that squeeze, and then you're coming in. a lot of times people will let the
squeeze go, so really try and keep that squeeze. if you feel like the ball's
falling out, you're not squeezing. and then come down or it's just slipping on
your pants. nice big squeeze, come up, and then back
down. so the same thing just about five to start off with, then you go ten,
fifteen, if you hit two twenty or so then you're
probably ready for something else. so there you have it. so those were my
top ten seated hip and knees strengthening exercises. if you'd like to
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forget to subscribe by clicking down here. and remember be safe, have fun, and I
hope you feel better soon.