Your knees are a vital part of your everyday activity. Whether you realize it or not, your knees are at work at almost every movement you make. You use them to stand up and sit down, you use them when you walk and run, and you certainly use them when you climb up and down stairways. You use your knees to get out of bed in the morning and you use your knees to get into bed at night. It is of prime importance then, that you keep your knees healthy, and
strengthen them to make them better able to serve you on a daily basis.
Exercising your knees regularly is a very good way to keep them in shape and ready for action. Do not over do your workouts however and always remember to warm up before engaging in strenuous exercises. A regular routine of 2-3 times a week is enough to
strengthen your knees.
One very good
exercise for the knees is the knee extension. This exercise will engage the knees well and will give them a well rounded workout.
To execute the knee extension exercise, all you will need is a chair that is stable and high enough for you to keep your thighs parallel to the floor when you are sitting on it. It would be better if the chair is high enough to keep you from landing your feet on the floor once you are squarely sitting on it. Once you have found a suitable chair, sit squarely on it with your back straight while holding onto the chair for support. Position your thighs parallel to the floor with your knees at a 90˚ angle to them. From this position, raise your right foot slowly until your whole leg is parallel to the floor and your knees are fully extended. Try to hold this position for 5 counts before slowly lowering your foot back to the starting position. Do the same procedure for your left leg. For starters, you can just do as many repetitions as you are comfortable with. However, you should be able to work yourself up to doing at least 3 sets of 10 repetitions per leg within a month of doing the exercise.
Another
way to strengthen your knees is by strengthening the main muscle that supports them: the quadriceps. The quadriceps, or quads, is the group of large muscles that are located at the front area of your thighs. You can substantially make your quadriceps stronger, and thereby make your knees stronger, by doing quad squats.
Begin your quadriceps squat by standing on a level floor and your feet should width apart. You can have your hands at your sides or you can hold them up to help you balance yourself. Slowly lower your body by bending at the knees. Try to go down until your knees are at a 90˚ angle, do not go lower than this, and then slowly raise yourself back up. Remember to keep most of your weight balanced on your heels and not on the balls of your feet. For a more intense workout, you can hold the 90˚ position for 5 -10 seconds before raising yourself back up.
