Physical Therapy Exercises for Your Knees

When you think about it, your knees are put under a lot of stress daily. With bending the knee hundreds of times per day, carrying your weight around, and exercising, the tissue in and around your kneecap can easily become irritated. The knee as a joint is quite intricate, using bones, menisci, muscles, ligaments, and tendons which all support the knee.

Those who workout intensely but inconsistently are more prone to those who exercise regularly with moderate weight. In general, exercise can cause pain and stiffness when the structures within the knee are not functioning optimally, whether due to injury, disease, overuse, or aging. 

 

Physical activities such as running, jumping, stretching, and bending can cause a lot of stress to the knee. But what you are doing at the gym affects it too. The most common gym exercises that cause knee injuries are: 

 

 

To strengthen the knee, what you really need to do is strengthen the 4 quad muscles, 3 hamstring muscles, and the 1 calf muscle which crosses the knee joint (which contributes to knee flexion). This is because your hips and ankles are the deciders of where your knee flexes and extends. Therefore, you must also strengthen the hip and ankle joints to better align your knee. 

 

A “Quad Set”, an isometric contraction of the quads can be performed by doing 3 sets of 10 reps and holding each rep for 3-5 seconds. A quad set can be performed by sitting down with your legs straight out in front of you, then contracting your quad muscles. Essentially for this exercise, you want to imagine pressing your knee down into the floor while keeping your legs straight for 3-5 seconds, then relax. This exercise helps let you fire the muscles voluntarily by developing a mind-muscle-connection. 

 

Taking the Quad Set a step further, you can focus on firing one of the quads which serves to flex the hip. This is known as a “Straight Leg Raise”. To do this, first perform the Quad Set, then try to raise your foot about 12 inches above your table or floor. Focus on maintaining the quad connection, meaning keeping your knee as straight as possible. Often you will see people have a slight bend in the leg while they raise it, known as lag. Start with 1 set of 10, and if you feel good you can eventually move up to doing 3 sets of 10. 

 

Next, you can try “Short Arc Quads”, which implement a slight bend to the knee. You can do this by putting a foam roller, pillow, or rolled up towel under your knee so that you get a slight bend in the knee. Now, fire that quad muscle to straighten your leg out. Keep your knee touching the foam roll. Your knee should not come up off the foam roll. Focus on just flexing your quad muscles to straighten the knee from the 10–15-degree angle. You can start with 1 set of 10, then work your way up to 1 set of 20, then 1 set of 30. To challenge yourself more, you can try putting on a very light ankle weight. 

 

To strengthen your hamstrings and hips, you can do “Bridges” (or commonly called “glute bridges”). Start by laying down on your back with your knees bent. Contract your glutes and hamstrings to lift your hips upwards towards the ceiling. The focus here is squeezing your glutes together and squeezing your hamstring muscles while in the bridge position. Start by doing 1-3 sets of 10, then 20, then 30. A more advanced and aggressive version of this exercise is to extend one leg out, so that you are using just one hip and one hamstring to lift your hips and pelvis off the ground. 

 

One of the muscle groups you want to strengthen because of its role in stabilizing the knee are your lateral hip muscles, also known as hip abductors. Start by laying down on your side, with bending the knee that touches the floor and keeping the upper leg straight out. Once in this position, try to contract the muscles on the side of your glute or hip to raise that upper leg towards the ceiling and slightly back (or behind you). To ensure that you are firing the correct muscle, lead with your heel and not with your toes. This is known as a “Side Lying Hip Abduction” and you can start with 1 set of 10 and work your way up to 3 sets of 10.