what's up guys hey Jared beckstrand here
doctor of physical
therapytonandtitan.com and these are the
best exercises to strengthen and
stabilize your knee part one let's get
into them right now
[Music]
all right you guys hey thank you so much
for joining me today here on tone and
Titan let's talk about your knees today
I hope that what I share maybe helps you
to feel better helps you out of some of
the pain that you might be experiencing
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Titan right here on YouTube Okay so
let's talk about knee pain so I've been
getting some requests from you guys
lately some of the comments that you've
been leaving in my video say hey my
knees hurt what can I do about my knee
pain what are some exercises for my knee
pain things of that nature I thought
that's a great topic for a video started
writing down a few of my favorite
exercises and before I knew it that list
was like 12 exercises long I decided to
break that up into two parts and so you
kind of get phase one here we're gonna
go over about five exercises and then
you get phase two in a later video that
are a little bit more aggressive so this
is kind of the beginner phase one
hopefully you can progress into some of
those phase two exercises if you're
looking for maybe a little bit more
aggressive exercises check the link down
below for the link to that phase two
video so okay let's get into this when
we talk about the knee and when we talk
about strengthening the knee
um I tell I I tell people you know the
knee is a pretty dumb joint like if you
think about it in the grand scheme of
things like your knee flexes and it
extends and that's about all that you
get and so really when we talk about
strengthening the knee joint we talk
about quads there's four quad muscles we
talk about the three hamstring muscles
and then you also get one of your calf
muscles that actually crosses that knee
joint that contributes to knee flexion
so really it's those three muscles that
we have to train however when we talk
about stability of the knee joint and
when we talk about where the knee joint
is in space and the biomechanics of the
knee joint and why your knee is painful
it's actually your hips and your ankles
have more of a role in where your knee
goes for example I think you guys can
see that let me check my camera here so
you couldn't see that quick camera angle
change and so while the knee only flexes
and extends it's actually the hip and
the ankle joint that are going to
control where that knee flexes and
extends so not only do we want to
strengthen the knee joint but we also
want to straight strengthen and
stabilize the hip and the ankle joints
in order to put that knee in a better
alignment so we're going to look at the
muscles of the knee quads hamstrings and
then some hip strengthening as well I've
got five they're coming your way right
now
our first exercise is fairly simple but
very important it's an isometric
contraction of the quads or a quad set
simply put you're going to sit with your
leg out straight in front of you and
then you're going to contract your quad
muscle so this one right here if I fire
that I hope you guys can see that and
then if I relax it what I tell people is
as you're sitting try to push your knee
down into the floor down into the mat
whatever it is that you're sitting on so
you're going to fire that quad push push
push hold for about a three to five
second count and then relax it's a
really simple exercise but it's really
important more of like a neural
component to it basically establishing a
mind muscle connection to that muscle so
that we can fire it voluntarily as
needed and so that's exercise number one
quad set so I'll typically tell people
to perform about 10 reps of about three
to five second holds if that feels good
feel free to do 20 if that still feels
good do 30. so up to three sets of ten
five second holds on that quad set
next one
um we're going to take that a step
further so that's a great way to fire
the quad one of those quads well a part
of one of those quads surface to flex
the hip and so we add hip flexion to
that quad set to make that contraction
even better and so that's going to be a
straight leg raise your first step is to
perform that quad set so hit that quad
set contract that quad knee goes down
into the floor and then what you're
going to do helps to sit back just a
little bit so quad set and then we're
going to raise that leg oh about a foot
or so about maybe 12 inches up off of
the table and then right back down and
so quad set so we're going to fire that
raise about 12 inches and then right
back down you've got to be able to
maintain that quad contraction so
meaning I want your knee to be as
straight as possible sometimes people
will do this they have what they call a
lag to it so they'll start to raise and
then the leg will come up you'll see
that that's a lot different I want you
to set that quad fire that and then I
want you to lift that whole straight leg
raise up off of the table so fire it
lift the whole leg up and then right
back down same thing applies here shoot
for 10 if 10 feels good two sets of 10
and even up to three sets of 10 on these
straight leg raises will be good okay
cool next let's uh let's introduce a
little bit of Bend into the knee
um to do that I'm going to perform what
we call a short Arc quad
um I've got a foam roll here under my
knee if you have a foam roll that works
great if not you can double up a pillow
or a blanket or a towel or things like
that just to slip underneath your knee
all work well
so there's a little bit of Bend in my
knee 10 maybe 15 degrees now what I'm
going to do is fire that quad muscle to
straighten my leg out you'll notice that
my knee did not come up off of the foam
roll basically I'm just using these quad
muscles to straighten my knee from that
short Arc or from that 10 to 15 degrees
of flexion all the way to straight so
it's this small motion but your focus is
right here on that quad muscle getting
that to fire getting that to contract
nice and slow up nice and slow down
you're going to do a set of 10 of those
if one set of 10 feels good do 20 if
that feels good up to about 30 reps on
that one if you need more of a challenge
you can always put a small ankle weight
on the end of your down on your ankle or
perform more repetitions and so there's
your short art quads next so we've done
a lot for your quad let's get into your
hamstrings and your hips to do that I
like to do Bridges so I'm going to slide
right down here
lay on your back with your knees bent
now what we're going to do is contract
the glutes contract the hamstrings to
lift our hips up towards the ceiling so
I'm laying down flat glute squeeze
hamstrings contract hold two three and
then come right back down so up hold for
about a three second count and then come
right back down the focus again is
smashing my butt together and squeezing
my hamstring muscles while I'm up in
this bridge perform 10 of them if 10
feels good we'll go up to 20 up to 30.
so up to about three sets of ten when
that becomes easy the maybe slightly
more advanced version of this would be
to get into even some single leg Bridges
I'm going to extend my left leg out and
now I'm just using my right hip and my
right hamstring to lift my hips up off
of the ground to lift my pelvis up off
the ground
um
a little bit more aggressive requires a
little bit more muscle control a little
bit more muscle contraction it might be
something that you have to work up into
but that's a great way to get the glutes
and the hamstrings firing up to three
sets of ten on those bridges finally we
talked at the beginning of the video
about hip strength and its role in
stabilizing the knee and so one of the
primary muscle groups that I want to
strengthen are those lateral hip muscles
or the hip abductors to do that you're
going to lay down on your side right now
I'm on my left side to work my right leg
left leg is bent right leg is out
straight from this position what I'm
going to do is contract the muscles kind
of behind my hip right here like right
on the side of my glutes to raise that
leg up towards the ceiling and then
right back down so it looks just like
that I tell people to leave with with
your heel and so if you're leading with
your toe you're probably Contracting the
wrong muscle try to try to lead with
your heel and then don't just pull it
straight up but pull it up and back
behind you so it actually looks a little
bit more like that I'm pulling up and
back as I'm performing that leg lift to
the side again that's called a side
lying abduction I tell people perform 10
of those 10 feels good perform two sets
and if two sets of ten feels good
perform three sets of 10 on that one
all right you guys so there you have
them five great exercises to strengthen
and start to stabilize that knee joint
again this is kind of phase one for
beginners if you're looking for more
exercises be sure to click on phase two
check out the description down below to
see those
um I hope you enjoyed this video you
guys if you did go ahead and leave me
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comments or suggestions or questions
about anything that we talked about in
this video please leave that down below
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right over here there's your phase two
exercises to strengthen and stabilize
that knee joint down in that corner
there's one more that you might enjoy
that you might benefit from I hope to
see you again soon thanks again for
watching here on tone and Titan
