Making exercise a regular part of your life is not just a matter of willpower. Perhaps you have a demanding lifestyle that makes it very difficult to find time and energy to exercise. There may also be other factors, such as a dislike of particular sports and/or workout environments, which could limit your exercise options. Yet another thing to take into account is that, for some people, exercises can cause pain. Indeed, one of the most common problems has to do with leg exercises: those exercises hurt their knees. This can cause a vicious cycle of people being unable to exercise their legs well because of knee pain, which in turn can make their legs less fit and toned, and therefore can exacerbate the knee ailment.
The solution, of course, is to find a way to make the legs more fit without putting pressure on the knees (all the while using other treatments, as prescribed by a doctor, to strengthen and/or heal knees). Here are some exercises to try, if you have knee problems, but are determined to work out your legs.
You might try doing leg lifts. These may be performed from either a standing or lying position. If you are standing up, you can raise the leg out in front of you, and then curl it back so your heel is toward your buttocks. You can also stand on tiptoe, going up onto your toes for a few seconds, and then slowly lowering back onto your heel, while supporting yourself against a wall. If lying down, you can stay on your stomach while lifting your heel to your buttocks. If on your side, you can raise your leg upwards, holding the position, and then lowering it again.
The third type of exercise is the contraction. It involves squeezing your muscles, rather than moving or swinging your legs. Contractions are done with the aid of a rolled-up towel. Lie on the floor face-down or face-up with the towel under your ankle. Press your leg down on the towel, doing about ten reps before switching to the other leg. The point of this exercise is to make your leg muscles stronger.
A fourth exercise, and perhaps one of the most essential, is the leg stretch. Without stretches, even a young person may find that his/her muscles start to become rigid and inflexible. There are actually a variety of stretches for the different muscles in your legs.
A stretch exercise for your quad muscles would involve you lying on your belly, and then pulling your leg backwards by the ankle towards your buttocks. A hamstring stretch can be achieved by sitting on the floor, legs laid out full-length in front of you. You then slowly bring your hands towards your feet and hold the position for a half-minute. Make sure to exert more effort in your legs rather than your arms or back.
Useful stretches can also be done from a standing position. Try stretching your calves, placing the target leg slightly behind the other. Lunge towards a wall, making sure that you feel slight burn in the calf of the target leg. Alternate leg positions to target the opposite leg.
Of course, if your special concern is your knees, you should also learn what kind of exercises to avoid, such as squats. In some circumstances, running should also be avoided as well, particularly if you do not have the right shoes. These exercises hurt your knees because they strain the joint. Avoid using weights such as large barbells when doing leg exercises.
Finally, do your best to understand and treat the source of your knee pain. Perhaps you have arthritis, gout, or other ailments. With the help of your doctor, you may soon be able to get your knees back in order and once again do many different kinds of leg exercises. In the meantime, you still have plenty of options to maintain and increase the fitness of your legs.
great artciel! this will form part of my workout routine in a quest to help lower down my weight. i’m a tad heavy and quite tired of being one for the past 30 years of my life/
As you say, when you have a sore knee or chronic knee pain it leads to a vicious cycle. You can’t do regular exercise which could lead to weight gain. This puts more pressure on the knee or knees, which leads to more pain or the original problem never healing.
A lot of people say Yoga is a good way to exercise. It also focuses on breathing which helps to oxygenate the body, even the extremities, which can help healing. Also, simply walking everyday is good exercise which can be fairly low intensity….it’s just a bit boring. Make it less boring by walking in a nice environment like a forest or park. Also, make it a habit and it won’t feel so bad after a month or so.