How to Keep Your Knees Safe and Strong

The knees are a common area for injury, especially in fitness activities that require a lot of bending, pressure, or unprotected movements. Even general wear and tear can lead to stressing the tissue around the knees, and any workout that is imbalanced can lead to stress on the joints. The quads, hamstrings, glutes, and ankles all need to be strong to properly support the knee, but posture and overall stability are important as well. To keep your knees pain free, incorporating cross training, stretching, and strengthening can all help. Here are some stretches and exercises to try.

Ankle Band Distractions

The ankle needs to be loose enough to hinge properly, which then works in conjunction with the knee and the hip. You can use a band to loosen up a stiff ankle by wrapping one end of the band around something sturdy (like a pole), and the other end around your ankle. Step into a stagger with the banded ankle in front of the other foot, and then bend your banded ankle knee as far forward as possible with lifting your heel off the ground. You should feel a strong stretch.

Floss Out Your Hamstrings

Find a box or something at the right height to sit on and place a tennis ball firmly underneath your hamstrings. Then flex and straighten the leg so that the ball rolls out the hamstrings. The pressure from the hardness of the ball and your body weight should be plenty.

Foam Roll Your Shins

Many people who have knee pain also have pain in their shins, so the idea here is to roll out some of that tissue. You can easily foam roll your shins by getting into a pushup position and putting your legs onto the roller. Try turning your toes inward to really focus on the right muscle group. Anywhere you find a hot or sensitive means it needs to be worked out a bit.

Strengthen Your Quads

The quads help to take a lot of the load from a landing, which is important is you’re jumping around. A great, low impact quad strengthening exercise is to sit on the edge of a table or bench with a band attached to it and placed around the ankle. Extend the leg against the pressure of the band, hold for a few seconds, let go and repeat. To strengthen the quad without using the knee, you can lay on your back and do quad clenches where you tighten the quad by pushing your knee down to the ground.

Strengthen Your Hips

Strong hips give a lot of strength in jumping and running, and they also prevent your knees from falling inward and stressing the inner ligaments when you put pressure on a bended knee. Even doing simple side leg raises can help to strengthen your hips. Lay on your side with your legs stacked and raise the upper leg to a 45 degree angle, bring back down, and repeat.