5 Exercises to Improve Knee Strength | SilverSneakers

Hi, I'm Andy with SilverSneakers and I'm going to show you 5 knee strengthening exercises you should be doing daily that will reduce pain and make a difference in your balance and stability. So the first exercise I have for you is called an X-Squat. You wouldn't have to use equipment if you didn't have it, but if you do have tubing, this is really going to be a great piece of equipment to help you with your knee strength and I'm going to show you why. So start by holding on to your handles, I'm going to hinge forward, step on the middle of the tubing and then I'm going to put my right handle in my left hand and my left handle in my right hand and stand up nice and tall. And then I'm going to take my feet about a comfortable distance apart and I'm going to bend my elbows just a little bit to give me a little bit of resistance and we'll sit back into a squat. You choose the depth, that's up to you, what's right for your knees, hips, thighs and then release and come up nice and tall. So we'll sit back, our spine is lengthened, our core is drawn in, chest is up and release. Now if that's too much resistance, you could keep your arms down. What I want you to be careful of is that the tubing isn't rounding you forward and pulling you forward. So think about lengthening your spine and keeping your shoulders back. Now why is this exercise good for strong knees? Well, often times we can have mechanical stressors in different areas of the body that can affect other joints and cause problems with knee alignment and therefore knee pain. And one problem area for a lot of people is weak glutes and weak muscles on the sides of the hips. So if we can strengthen that, often times that transfers down into the knees and helps us to have stronger knees. So we want to think about contracting through the glutes, this X position makes us have to work a little bit harder to keep our knees in alignment over my ankles, between my ankles and my hips, not caving in. And that's why I like that. Could you do this from a seated position? Absolutely. All I would do is step out of the tubing to make this transition, have a seat and then cross my tubing, sit forward in your chair, chest up nice and tall and then we'll stand up and sit down. Just make sure that you know where the chair is before you put your weight on it. Again, watch that the tubing just isn't rounding your back forward. That's something I have to think about when I'm using tubing, but I do like it as a tool with helping to strengthen muscles and then of course especially our knees. Alright so for our next exercise, let's say we say that we wanted to stay seated. We're gonna do a lateral step. Now for the resistance, I'm just gonna put my hands on my hips, knuckles down, chest up nice and tall. I'm gonna step out with the right, step in and then just step out with the other leg. But here's what you want to do to have stronger knees. You can feel the work in the hips. This lateral movement is really important for that, but you can also feel that resistance with the tubing as you push and lead through your heel, working at keeping your knee again in line between your ankle and your hip so that it's not caving in and it's not flaring out. That's really important. If you wanted less resistance, it would be as simple as getting rid of this X. Now I have less resistance and you certainly can do the same exercise without the equipment. You just don't have the same resistance along the lateral sides of the knees. That's all. That's why I like the tubing. Alright, so what if we wanted to do this from a standing position? Well, I'm just gonna make a little transition here and same thing. I step to the right and I step to the left. Nice. Let's just do four more. Bring your shoulders back and down. Perfect. Last one. Our next exercise for stronger knees is a split squat. So I'm gonna stand beside the chair so I can use it for support and balance. My right foot will stay forward. My left leg will step back and I wanna keep my weight in my front heel. From here, I'm gonna sit back into my heel. It's like a squat except that we have one leg in front, one leg behind, and then we'll push up through the glute and stand tall. So having our legs separated, one leg in front, one leg behind, makes them have to work a little bit more independently so that we focus on keeping the knee in alignment, working on stabilization around the sides of the knee joint to help build knee strength. So again, we're working from the top down and the bottom up between our ankle and our knee. And you might even feel how your knee wobbles a little bit. Sometimes I do, especially if I keep more weight on the front of my leg, less weight on the back leg. With that front leg, do keep your weight in your heel. Sit back and come up nice and tall. Now over time, the more you do this exercise, if you like this one, you might find that as you get stronger around your knee, the work becomes in the muscles through the quad and the hamstring, how they connect to the knee, and you might be able to get a little bit more depth and a little bit more range of motion. Keep your weight in your heel, push the heel, engage the glute, and rise. And we'll just do one more. You could hold on to a weight for more resistance if you'd like, and then just make sure you do the same amount on the other side. Our next exercise is a calf raise. So I'm going to start standing, but you totally can do this seated. If you're beside your chair, you can hold on for support. Push into the balls of your feet, press down through your big toe, and bring your heels down. Now, here's why calf raises are really great for knee strength. Your calf muscle connects in towards the backside of your knee. And we need to have better stability through our knees to keep them strong. And so when we build calf strength, we're working on the muscles on the backside of the knee to help us to be really strong and stable. So let's do a few more. We'll lift and release. And again, if I felt good with my balance and stability, perhaps I'd let go of the chair. Perhaps I'd hold on to weights in each hand. And if you'd like to do this from a seated position, let me just show you that option. Put them on your thighs, just above your knees. Your feet are anchored right underneath your knees. Your chest is up nice and tall. And then just lift your heels, weights in the balls of your feet, and press down. Now, the difference between a seated calf raise and a standing calf raise, I often find I can get bigger range of motion, which I think is really valuable. You know, joints don't work independently, right? We work, like, together as a unit. So if there's stiffness or weakness in your ankles, that will transfer up your body through your knees and into your hips. So as we strengthen through our ankles, we get more stability in our ankles, which makes our knees stronger and more stable. And it's a really great exercise. You can get good full range of motion and build your ankle mobility. For our final exercise, I want to use the wall. But let me show you an option first, just in case you're not ready for that progression. We're going to build strength in our shins. So have a seat in your chair. You're sitting up nice and tall. Step your feet out in front, and then lift your toes up, and then press your toes down. I want you to feel the engagement in your muscles in the front of your lower leg in your shins. Now, why is this important? When we have strong shins, they help us with deceleration when we're walking and we need to stop, when we're going downstairs, when we're stepping on and off a curb. So strong shins really help with that. In addition, it's important for impact. So when we have strong shins, that helps absorb some impact with our walking, with going downstairs. And all of that helps us to have knees that feel better with less pain. So that's your option from a seated position. If you want to progress that, we're going to use the wall. Make sure you have shoes on so that you don't slip with your feet. And once I'm leaning my back against the wall, I'm just going to take a step forward. And now on this angle, I have my upper back leaning against the wall. From here, I'm going to press my low back in, and then I'm going to lift my toes up, and I'm going to press my toes down. So similar to what we just did from a seated position, but now I have the weight of my body to provide a progression for strength as we work through our shin muscles. So let's do four more. Think about keeping your chest up nice and tall. Make sure you feel steady and sturdy through your feet. You're not going to slip forward. And then think about taking a nice deep breath in and exhale. And we'll do that one more time. All right. Now to come out of this, I want you to steady yourself, bend your knees, step back, push through your feet, lift and rise. And there you have it. For strong knees, strengthen from the top down and the bottom up to provide better alignment and reduce strain. Stay strong, and I'll see you next time.