Knee pain is incredibly frustrating when you are an active person. Whether running, going to the gym or even walking, it holds you back.
So it’s no wonder there are hundreds of videos online dedicated to preventing this from happening. As I trained for my first marathon, the lingering fear of injury and knee pain was ever present.
To prevent this, I’ve been looking into knee exercises to strengthen my legs, which is how I came across this simple routine from coaching duo Vivienne and Mike Addo, level 3 PTs who go by Mr and Mrs Muscle online.
Vivienne told Coach that these low-impact moves will allow you to “continue moving, while building, or in some cases recovering and rebuilding your foundation.
“Knee pain can occur for many reasons: overuse, impact injury or muscle imbalances, for example. It is important to keep the joint mobile by including stretches and strengthening exercises.
“These exercises help provide support to the joint and ensure that the weaker/neglected muscles are strengthened. By strengthening them, they take more of an active role in sharing the load when we move.
“The stronger muscles or the muscles that are overworked become overloaded as a result of compensation or overuse. This is where pain and tightness around the knee joint tend to occur. So doing some of these exercises like the tibialis raises or calf raises—which are typically exercises people don’t do—can make all the difference in strengthening your legs and also your knee joints.”
I decided to try these exercises after my usual leg-strengthening workout. I followed the trainers’ recommended reps (four sets of 10-15 reps) and it took me less than 15 minutes to complete.
However, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t use these exercises if you’re experiencing knee pain already. If you are, it’s essential to get an in-person diagnosis from a medical professional, as consultant orthopaedic surgeon Ian McDermott explained when we quizzed him about runner’s knee.
If you’re looking for more ways to strengthen the muscles around your knee, try these preventive runner’s knee exercises, or add this low-impact knee-strength workout to your routine.
While you build your knee strength, you could also use this YouTube playlist of knee-friendly workouts from Mr and Mrs Muscle.
