​*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. My advice in this post comes solely from the personal research I’ve done and clinical experience I have. If you experience knee and joint pain, please consult a trained medical professional. Always consult a doctor or medical professional before attempting any exercise program.
I’ve recently heard from many women who are interested in learning more about how to prevent knee injuries. I personally love this topic because it was a knee injury that got me passionate about my upper body strength. I have a Baker’s Cyst or Popliteal Cyst, which is a pocket of fluid located on the back of my knee that swells and causes overall knee swelling. The cyst itself is not painful, but the swelling is very painful and causes severe mobility restrictions. I learned to manage the symptoms of the cyst with the help of an orthopedic surgeon and have found a lot of success in my methods. This blog is not specifically about treating a Baker’s Cyst, it’s about general knee health and helping women prevent knee injury on a broad level.
Women are up to eight times more likely than men to have an ACL injury or tear. The ACL is a diagonal ligament in the back of the knee which helps control the forward and back movement of the knee as well as provides rotational stability. Most ACL injuries are caused from a bad landing when jumping, a forceful twist in the knee or a lateral blow to the knee. Women are predisposed to ALC injuries because we have wider set hips than men and many women (myself included) have a valgus angle to our knees. A valgus angle is where the knee bones are more narrow set than the hips, the common term for it is “knock kneed”. This valgus angle tends to put more stress on our knees and the ligaments supporting our knees.
Sometimes, our knee is the weak link in the chain and sometimes it’s a supporting muscle, in either case, overall strengthening of the hips, quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and core will help prevent knee injuries. It’s important to strengthen our knees from a multi-angle perspective, this means, doing exercises that move our bodies in multiple planes of motion.
Most women are more “quad dominant”, meaning their quadriceps are stronger and more active than their hamstrings. This is part of my issue with having a Baker’s Cyst, my hamstrings are often under used because they’re tight and immobile.
It’s common for our hamstrings and glutes to be weak and under-used because of the amount of time we spend sitting. When we sit for extended periods of time, our glutes and hammies “go to sleep”, they stop being active because they’re not needed when we’re sitting down. The issue arises when we sit all day, every day and our glutes and hammies completely shut down, even when we’re trying to make them work. This is when our quads take over and cause a front-to-back muscle imbalance, which can cause strain on our knees. If our quads are stronger than our hamstrings, our knees will feel more pressure from the front and when this type of imbalance becomes exaggerated, our risk of knee injury is more likely.
You’ll notice in the exercises given, I explain more about what the hamstrings are doing in the movement, this is because I want you to focus on your hamstring involvement in each exercise. When we’re training for knee health, we want to wake up our sleepy hamstrings and glutes.
Below, I give you six exercises to help strengthen your legs, hips, glutes, hamstrings and core, these are not the end-all-be-all of strengthening exercises. If you currently experience knee pain and discomfort, many of these exercises might not be meant for you.
This blog is about injury prevention, if you think you have an injured knee, see a doctor. If any of these exercises hurt, don’t do them! All knee issues are unique and only a doctor can truly help you understand your condition.
Proper form is a MUST with these exercises. Poorly executed squats or lunges (or anything!) will do more harm than good for your knees, so if you need additional resources, please email me: roni@ronilynnfitness.com
It’s a common misconception that squats are bad for the knees. As I said, poorly performed squats can be damaging for our knees, but that’s true for most exercises. A “back squat”, where the weight rests on the back, is the preferred squat version for our knees, but bodyweight squats and goblet squats (shown here) are beneficial too.
A properly performed squat, with hips parallel or below the knee line and knees tracking outward, loads both the quads and the hamstrings. When we go into that parallel or below squat, our hamstrings stretch and then contract to power us up out of the bottom position.
If you’re doing “quarter squats” or squats well above parallel, you’re only loading the quads and that’s not our goal here! Drop it low, girl.
Always remember to push the knees out in a squat. There is a tendency to have that valgus angle when we come up from the bottom, use the power of your hips to drive your knees outward.
When we step back into a lunge, rather than step forward, our hamstrings take more of the load in the exercise. The common issue I see in a reverse lunge is taking a step back that’s too small and it causes the front foot rock forward rather than stay flat. The entire front food needs to push into the ground throughout the movement.
There can also be a tendency with lunges to have an inward knee angle. Keep the knee position in alignment with the foot.
We notice more hip and glute activation in the lateral lunge than a front to back lunge. The key thing to remember with this exercise is to push the hips backward, even if you don’t get to parallel with your thigh. Think of hinging at the hips and trying to get your butt to touch the wall behind you.
It's also important to keep both feet planted fully on the ground in this exercise. The lunging foot should not rock up onto the toes (that a big red flag for the knees) and the foot of the stretched leg shouldn’t tilt onto the ankle bone.
While they might seem like their own category, the glutes are part of the entire core system (read more about core strength and training here), so in working them, we’re also strengthening our lower back, spine and hips. A glute bridge is not the same thing as a yoga bridge pose, if you’re familiar with that exercise.
In a glute bridge, we need to keep our upper back pinned to the ground, so we don’t hyperextend our lower back.
This exercise is important for strengthening the hips. The biggest thing to pay attention to is having the hips stacked on top of each other during the movement, we don’t want our top hip to be either in front or behind our bottom hip. When we go to raise the leg, think about pointing the toe toward the ground, so the heel leads the movement, this will help keep everything in alignment and work the glutes more.
Also think about tightening the abs in this exercise to avoid swaying in the torso, the only movement should come from the leg.
This is a great strengthening exercise if your knee mobility is lacking. I place a towel under my knee to prevent hyperextension and the main focus is contracting and releasing the quadriceps.
This exercise isn’t included in the workout below because it’s the most valuable for those with limited mobility. If that’s you, try 3 sets of 30 contractions; this can be done on a daily basis.
Workout (intermediate): weights are optional for any of these exercises, if you’re new to training, try only bodyweight at first and gradually add weight as you gain strength.
Next week, I’m going to put out Part II of this blog, wherein I want to talk about the importance of stretching and how mobility plays a big role in our knee health.
If you’re looking for some simple, yet effective strength workouts you can do at home, grab a copy of my new FREE download. You’ll instantly get six at-home strength workouts, which include some of the exercises I detailed above. :)
A little over two years ago I injured my knee backpacking. It can be a long story (I’ll save you the details), but for the past two years, I’ve been limited with the amount of training I can do and I haven’t been able to do some of my favorite lifts. I can’t do complex strength or power lifts, no deadlifting, no power cleans, no running (I’m mostly okay with this) and no jumping.
It’s amazing how one injury can hinder the amount of activity your entire body can do. Exercises that I once thought were mostly upper body, like a deadlift, make my knee swell.
I’m sad about the activities and lifts I can’t do, and sometimes I actually cry about it. Westin has witnessed more than one breakdown from me, throwing a pity party for myself.
I often crop my legs out of a picture when I’m wearing shorts because I think my knee sleeve looks stupid. I’m also embarrassed that as a personal trainer and fitness professional, I have an injury. I feel like I should be a better representative of fitness and it makes creating programs for women challenging.
Having a knee injury has forced (and allowed) me to focus more on my upper body strength. I naturally have a weak upper body; it took a lot of time and patience to be able to do my first pushup, let alone my first pullup! If didn’t have an injury, I wouldn’t be anywhere near as strong in my upper body as I am now.
It can be easy for us to see injuries as a fat sentence ;) We get injured and we feel like there's no possible way to stay in shape with an injury. It's easy to focus on what we can't do rather than what we can do. I certianly dwelled on my injury for a while and decreased my workout frequency because I didn't understand how to work around it. But the time I've spent learning how I CAN work around it has been well spent!
It's turned into an opportunity for me to explore my weaknesses. With my injury I have been able to increase the number of pullups I can do, I’ve been able to increase my bench numbers and improve my technique. I’ve also been able to find joy and comfort in walking as exercise and stress relief. Being injured has allowed me to be more grateful for my body and the activities and movements I CAN do.
Every time my knee would swell up, I’d get super grumpy and sour and cry about anything and everything. I would lament for my missed leg workouts and complain that my butt was getting flat.
It took me a while to come to terms with my injury and realize that I have so much to work on that doesn’t involve my lower body strength!
My injury has been a blessing in that way because I looove to train legs. I used to spend more time training legs during the week than the rest of my body. But since I haven’t been able to train legs, my upper body training has not only gotten vastly stronger, but I’ve been able to add so much more variety. When seemingly your only options are back, chest and shoulder exercises, training feels restricted. But it actually allowed me to get creative and discover exercises I’ve never done before.
I still have days when I feel down about my knee. And when it’s swollen it sucks! I won’t deny that I still find myself struggling somedays to find the positive side of injury. But it does help to remember the improvements I’ve made and how much stronger I’ve become mentally and physically. #gratitude
Get in touch with me on Facebook for my 30-day workout consistency challenge, starting on Sunday (Jan 15th). It’s going to be workout videos, motivation and a great group of supportive women…and it’s free!
I hope you that you are thinking about your Bucket List layout from last week. You've got until the end of the month to submit to Better Living Through Scrapbooking to be eligible for a prize!
One way to make your life better is through scrapbooking, another way is to do something nice for someone else. Scrap about something you do or have done for someone else. A loved one, a neighbor, a charity, etc.
1. Print an element of your page (NOT a photo) using your home or office printer. This can be your title, your journaling, an embellishment, or anything else you can use on your page, but not a photo!
4. Use the following quote somewhere on your page or in your journaling: “If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. . — Bob Hope””
It is so amazing to be involved with a charity! I am sharing this layout about one of the things that is truly near and dear to my heart. Do you ever go to the mailbox and just hope there might be a card or letter for you? Of course you do! We all love happy mail. It can pick us up on a hard day, and it helps us remember that there are people thinking of us – even if we don’t know it. My layout is about just that. I send handmade cards to Operation Write Home and Share-A-Card. Both organizations are tremendous and really have found a way to help others that truly need mail.
I created a kind of unique background for my page. I found this idea in Creating Keepsakes special issue, “101+ Creative Ways to Use Your Scrapbook Supplies” (page 54). I adhered several different pieces of chipboard to my kraft cardstock. Then I painted the paper and chipboard with Apple Barrel paint. When it was dry, I covered that with gloss mod podge. Now that takes a little time, but what a unique background with a fun 3-D effect! As you can see, my layout is pretty simple from there. I created my own embellishments using vellum, flowers, buttons, and ribbons. So fun to just pile things on!!
Embellishments: Close To My Heart “Sparkles, Dimensional Elements”; May Arts “Black Wrinkled Ribbon”
Oh I always wanted to do a background like that...you've inspired me! I LOVE this page...and what a GREAT thing you are involved with:-)
I made one of these albums with Heartstrings, and I had so many requests for how to make it, that I thought I would put together a class using the fabulous Hopscotch paper. Hopscotch is only available through the end of March, so this is a great opportunity to make something and get it while it lasts!!
If you are a Close To My Heart consultant, simply place an order of $10 or more on my website, e-mail your CTMH website (girlygirlrose43@msn.com), and I will send you the directions!
Is it possible to have the instructions....I am in Australia and cannot purchase from you....or is there a link to the how too
Mike gave me an incredible deal, got the carpet on time, and his installer finished the job ahead of schedule with a "perfect" job. Can''t say enough for the team! – Gerald Webber