The Best Knee Strengthening Exercises
Doing a few simple knee strengthening exercises can go a long way to making your knees stronger therefore enabling you to get fitter, quicker.
To begin with the first exercise is very useful for those who have a condition called chondromalacia patella. That's a roughening of the cartilage underneath the knee cap, sometimes as the result of the bones not sitting properly in the 'V' of the knee joint.
Sit comfortably in a chair, you need to be relaxed. Bend your legs as you would normally sit on a chair with your feet on the ground and your legs bent at 90 degrees, tense your thigh and hold this position for 5 seconds the release, change legs are repeat. You need to do ten reps on each leg. I told you it was easy!
Be sure to breathe normally during the exercise.
Another exercise does a little more to build strength in the muscles that control bending at the knee.
Sit in a chair again, then cross your bent legs at the ankle. Push your legs forward with the rear leg then push them back using the front leg. (At first this can seem a little tricky but it is really easy once you get used to it!).
Change over by reversing the direction of the cross. If your left leg was in front, move it to the back and but your right leg in front. Do ten reps for each leg in each position.
How To Get Those Calves Working
Would you like to move onto to something a little more challenging?
For this next exercise avoid standing on a concrete or metal floor. If your balance is not to good you may be better to do the following exercise on a mat or carpet.
Making sure you are well balanced, stand up straight, toes a little apart, heels together.
Lift your heels up, balance on the balls of your feet. Try to imagine an invisible string fixed to the centre of your head pulling you straight up. Hold this position for five seconds, then lower yourself down slowly. Do ten reps of this. Eventually as you build up strength in your legs and increase your balance, you will be able to increase the amount of time you can stay on the balls of your feet.
Vary the action by bending slightly at the knee while you still have the heels raised. This will bring the thighs (quadriceps or 'quads' and hamstrings) as well as the buttocks into play. Straighten up, then lower the heels. Repeat 10 times.
If you can make sure you carry out these knee strengthening exercises a couple of days a week or better still daily, you will have strong, healthy knees in to time at all.
Do you want to get your legs in shape? If you do then check out the best leg exercises to find out how you can tone up your legs quickly. If you want to get the rest of your body into shape you can find more health and fitness tips here.
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