Video

Transcript

today we’re going to talk about the five

best exercises for

recovering your knee now i’ve done other

videos on knee pain

but i haven’t done any videos on how to

strengthen the knee especially after an

injury or in the process of recovering

these five exercises not only strengthen

the muscles in the knee but provide

symmetry between the left and right knee

and also the muscles on the front of the

knee versus the muscles in the back of

the knee which is very very important

because normally a person will injure

either

one knee or an ankle

and that sets up a pattern of putting

the pressure on the opposite knee and

over time that can really create some

asymmetrical stress

so

let’s say 20 years ago you hurt your

right ankle

and now the left knee is hurting simply

because of the years of compensation

that occurred

so i am going to show you

a very powerful balancing technique

for pain and just balancing the muscles

after this video but let’s just talk

about these five exercises now just to

learn the anatomy real quick you have

this the longest bone in the body which

is also the strongest it’s called the

femur and that’s the top part of the leg

which is covered by

the front muscles the thigh muscles

called the quadriceps and then the

muscles in the back part are called the

hamstrings okay now the knee joint is

really the largest hinge joint in the

body okay so you have flexion and

extension with some slight

minor rotation

but this top femur bone is connected

with a bottom

tibia bone which is the second longest

bone in the body and so this is where a

lot of weight has to be supported on

this joint right here and then on the

side of the tibia on the outside of the

leg okay we’re looking at the viewpoint

of someone’s right knee okay going from

the front

on the outer part

of this tibia this lower bone here you

have another bone called the fibula the

purpose of the fibula is to really

stabilize that ankle to allow you to

perform all the amazing movements and

running and different

motions that you can actually perform

then we have this thing called the

patella that’s your kneecap that’s right

in front and that glides right over the

tendon that’s connected to the quadricep

femoris it’s just going to glide over

that tendon right there and then you

have four ligaments ligaments go from

bone to bone okay

a tendon goes from a muscle to a bone

and the purpose of those ligaments are

just to prevent

motion going from to the lateral outside

or the inside or the front or the back

or twisting so it keeps everything

really really nice and tight

you also have this very hard piece of

cartilage that is connected to the bone

on the top and the bottom that is called

articular cartilage and then right in

between you have this little shock

absorber called the meniscus so that’s

your anatomy a lesson of the knee joint

so let’s dive right into the four

exercises the first exercise we’re going

to talk about is the quad stretch so the

quad stretch improves

the hip flexor

which is up in the hip as well as the

quadricep itself and we’re going to be

balancing out the flexibility of your

left quadricep to your right quadricep

so basically you’re going to be standing

up supporting yourself with a wall okay

so you’ll be holding on the wall with

one hand and with the other hand you’ll

grab your foot or ankle

as you’re pulling it up into your

hamstring and you’re going to be

stretching the quadricep make mental

note of the flexibility of the right

side versus the left side because

usually you’re going to find one that is

way tighter than the other one and

that’s the one you want to work on more

and so then you’re just going to stretch

and hold for 30 seconds okay each side

and you’re just going to do that twice

okay so that’s the quad stretch the next

stretch is going to be the heel to calf

stretch for this one you’re going to

have your hands on the wall and you’re

going to move back so your toes are

facing forward

make sure the heels are flat

with your knee slightly bent

then you’re going to lean into the

stretch and hold for 30 seconds and then

when you’re done with that you’ll do the

opposite leg and so you’re going to do

this exercise back and forth just two

times so this exercise is going to

stretch the back part of your leg as

compared to the quad stretch which

stretches the front part of the leg all

right the next stretch is called the

half squat and this is more of a

strengthening exercise where you’re

going to stretch the quadricep the

glutamas muscle which is your butt

muscle as well as your hamstrings so

you’re going to get in a standing

position and then you’re going to

slightly squat downward and make sure

that your feet are shoulder width apart

you’re just going to squat down about 10

inches

at a halfway point so you’re not all the

way down to a 45 degree angle and at

this point you’re just going to pause

for a few seconds and then stand up so

you’re completely erect so basically

this is a half squat or a partial squat

and you’re basically going to do this 10

reps and you’ll do two to three sets

of these 10 repetitions we want to keep

it easy we don’t want to create too much

stress but we do want to start building

up the quadricep

the buttocks muscle as well as your

hamstring all right number four let’s

talk about the hamstring curl now with

this exercise you’ll be standing facing

a wall for support your feet will be hip

width apart you’re going to lift one

foot up bend the knee and raise your

heel towards the ceiling

go as far as you can

while keeping your upper body still with

your hips facing forward hold for five

to ten seconds you’ll do ten repetitions

two to three times all right now that

you did the hamstring curl

let’s move to number five and that’s

called the straight leg raisers now it’s

important to know that your quadricep

and your hip flexors

help raise the leg and so this exercise

will help strengthen

both of those flexors now what you want

to do is you want to flex your foot

upward so you feel your shin muscles

contracting and as you do this exercise

and get better you want to add some

weight to your ankle so you can start

off with adding a five pound weight and

then eventually going up to maybe a

seven or eight pound weight and then

even a ten pound weight but for now

we’re going to do it without weights

i would highly suggest using some type

of mat

while you’re laying down or you can do

this on the carpet so you’re going to be

laying down the floor with one leg bent

and the other leg straight out in front

of you and so now you’re going to

contract the quadricep on the leg that

is extended straight and slowly raise it

off the floor until it’s at the same

height as the bent knee then you’re

going to pause for about five seconds

and then lower the position down to the

mat and repeat for 10 repetitions do

this two to three times all right those

are the five exercises that are going to

put symmetry and strength and

flexibility into your legs which

surround your knees now the next

important video to watch is how to get

rid of knee pain okay you’re going to

like this video check it out