Knee Strengthening Exercises

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2008-06-15 8:47 PM

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Subject: Knee Strengthening Exercises
  I am looking for some experience in deciding the best exercises to strengthen my knee for injury prevention.  I am currently 30 and just getting into triathlons, but when I was seventeen I injured my knee.  I am thinking that leg extension, leg curls, and squats (squats without a lot of weight).  But, I am looking for advice.  I put this question in this section because it is about a knee injury.

2008-06-15 10:08 PM
in reply to: #1467996

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Subject: RE: Knee Strengthening Exercises

First thing you have to understand is that you can't strengthen your knee. It's a joint and there is nothing in it that you can target. You have to work the muscles that support it - that will be the quad, hamstring, and calf here. If you are worried about the joint integrity I'd say stay away from those things you've mentioned - the curls and extensions especially as they depend on the knee as an unnatural fulcrum in order to push/pull weight with the foot.

When it comes to safety you can just never beat plain old bodyweight exercises. You can do just as much with 150 bodyweight squats as you can with 4 sets of ten with 75% of your bodyweight - and with infinitely more safety involved.

The other thing I'd recommend is work the flexbility of the hamstrings. A lot of knee injuries could be prevented by good flexibility there.
2008-06-16 3:17 PM
in reply to: #1467996

Illinois
Subject: RE: Knee Strengthening Exercises

I agree with Chad's response.  You have to remember your knee is a hinge joint, like a door hinge.  To keep it from being injured, you have to keep it from going in the wrong direction, like side to side.  I am a big believer in kinetic chain, meaning your back is connected to your pelvis which is connected to your hips which are connected to your knees which are connected to your ankles and feet.  To prevent injury, you have to keep all the links strong.  You have to have a strong core, strong lower extremities (quads, hip external rotators), lower extremity flexibility, and great proprioception (balance).  I am not a big fan of knee extensions or curls (what we call open chain exercises), and tend to favor squats, wall slides, and lunges (closed chain exercises).  I also recommend ACL prevention program (can usually be found online) and proprioception/neuromuscular exercises.  Hope that helps, and stay injury free.

Brian

2008-06-16 3:49 PM
in reply to: #1467996

Member
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Subject: RE: Knee Strengthening Exercises
Yea, that was a bad way of saying what I was thinking. I am looking for exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee, in turn it would "strengthen" the knee. My mistake, but thanks for the advice so far.  BBDope when you mentioned "ACL prevention program," you would not happen to have a link? If I would just search on the internet for "ACL prevention program" I should get something, correct?


Edited by Bern75 2008-06-16 3:52 PM
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