Joint pain Series: Blog Post #1 Knee Joint Pain
Top 5 Exercises that will help reduce Knee Pain and help you to maintain an Active Lifestyle
By Coach Ernest Allen Founder of Atlas Pro Training LLC
When trying to manage joint pain one of the easiest things to do is pop an anti-inflammatory and hope that it will relieve the pain. In most cases, the anti-inflammatory medication will provide some relief but 90% of the time it’s temporary relief, especially if you do not address the other possible issues that may be causing the joint pain such as your nutrition and exercise habits, yes I said habit and not routine because in most cases the individual suffering from knee pain is more than likely sedentary or os minimally active. According to health.gov, it is recommended for adults to attain the most health benefits from physical activity, adults need at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, like brisk walking or fast dancing, each week. Adults also need muscle-strengthening activity, like lifting weights or doing push-ups, at least 2 days each week. For more information check out the health.gov website.
Click to download the COMPLETE 2nd Edition Physical Activity Guidelines
In this post, we are going to look at 5 exercises that can help manage, reduce, and or eliminate knee pain. There are several issues that may be the cause of knee joint pain, but the most common issue is caused by strength imbalances within muscles the leg, namely the quads the muscles in the front of the upper leg or thigh leg and the hamstrings, the muscles in the back of the upper leg or thigh. Mobility issues in the two joints that are on the top (the hip) and the bottom of the leg (the ankle) also could be the cause of pain in the knee joint, or a combination of both.
The five exercises that can help you manage your knee joint pain are:
Band Terminal Knee Extensions or TKE’s
Clam Shells
Prone Hip Bridges
Spanish Squat
Single leg Kettlebell RDL’s (Romanian Dead Lifts)
There are dozens of other exercises but for the sake of time and my attention span I narrowed it down to 5 exercises, and the sequence that they are listed above would be the sequence that I would scale out in a corrective exercise circuit. These exercises address the strength imbalances I will add the mobility exercises to the next joint pain post.
1)Band Terminal Knee Extensions - the objective of this exercise is to activate and strengthen the Quad muscle in a targeted fashion.
Perform 10 to 15 reps @ leg for 1 to 2 sets
2)Clam Shells - The objective of this exercise is to activate and strengthen the Gluteus Medius in a targeted fashion.
Perform 10 to 15 reps @ leg for 1 to 2 sets
3)Prone Hip Bridges - The objective of this exercise is to activate and strengthen the Hamstrings in a targeted fashion, with the knees and hips flexed; the weak position
Perform 10 to 15 reps @ leg for 1 to 2 sets
4) Spanish Squat - The objective of this exercise is to activate and strengthen the entire leg, with the band which gives added support to the hamstrings at the weakest point of the squat pattern.
Perform 8 to 12 reps @ leg for 1 to 2 sets - stay out of the range of pain and try to keep good posture with your shoulders over your hips with a neutral chin.
5)Single leg Kettlebell RDL’s (Romanian Dead Lifts) - The objective of this exercise is to activate and strengthen the Hamstrings in a targeted fashion, with the knees and hips flexed; the strongest position - Use a Kettlebell weight that is challenging but easy to control.
Perform 10 to 15 reps @ leg for 1 to 2 sets
These exercises are not a magic bullet to pain relief but when your combine these exercise with a constant nutrition plan that is based on helping you control your body weight and limiting inflammation within the body, you can limit your dependence on anti-inflammatories and possibly eliminate them permanently.
For more information on how to manage joint pain, download a free copy of my E-Book Stay Ahead of the Game and Away from Pain, it will give you some additional ideas and tips to help you create a plan of action to manage and possibly eliminate your joint pain.
