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Knee-friendly exercises are generally meant for people with crutches, low mobility and even lower strength.
People often think they cannot exercise their legs if they have knee pain, but that's not true. There are many knee friendly exercises that can ease you into building your lower body strength and help you lose weight at the same time.
Knee-friendly Exercises to Strengthen Lower Body
The knee-friendly exercises mentioned below place minimal to no stress on the knees and focus on common areas of weakness that lead to knee pain, such as glutes and external extensors.
On that note, here's a look at five such exercises, especially for men, to strengthen their lower body:
1) Donkey Kick
This is one of the most effective and straightforward workouts for the glutes and hamstrings.
Here's how you do this exercise:
- Begin on all fours, with your knees beneath hips and hands beneath your shoulders.
- Flex your left foot, and lift it off the ground while you kick your left leg straight up, as if you were about to place the bottom of your shoe on the ceiling. Keep your knee bent.
- Consider lifting your leg with your glutes. If you feel strain in your lower back, avoid lifting your leg as high.
2) Single Leg Deadlift
This deadlift variation adds an additional stability test, requiring your core, hips, and hamstrings to work marginally more to maintain balance as you move.
Here's how you do this exercise:
- Stand with your feet together, grasp a light weight in each hand.
- Shift your weight to your left leg. While maintaining a tiny bend in your left knee, raise your right leg straight behind your body.
- Hinge at the hips to bring your torso parallel to the floor, and descend your weight towards the ground.
- Flatten your back. At the bottom of the movement, your body and right leg should be nearly parallel to the floor, and the weight should be a few inches off the ground. (You may not be able to elevate your leg as high if your hamstrings are tight.)
- Maintaining a strong core, drive through the left heel to stand up straight. and return the weight to the starting position.
- Bring your right leg back down to meet your left, but don't put any weight on your right foot; simply let your toes softly tap the floor.
- At the peak, pause, and squeeze your butt.
- Perform all reps on one leg before switching to the other.
3) Glute Bridge
Glute bridge works the entire hip and buttock region without impacting the knees. By adding a resistance band above your knees, you'll be able to target your glute medius (the muscle on the side of your buttock that helps stabilise the thigh) more effectively.
Here's how you do this exercise:
- Lay on your back with your hands at your sides, knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Just above the knees, wrap a light to medium-weight resistance band over your thighs.
- Squeeze your glutes and core, and press through your heels to elevate your hips a few inches off the ground till your shoulders and knees form a straight line.
- Press against the band to prevent your knees from caving in.
- At the top, pause, and squeeze your glutes. Slowly descend your hips to return to the starting position.
4) Banded Lateral Walk
Lateral walk with a band around the legs stimulates the butt and hip muscles, including the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus and hip external rotators. While both glutes will be active throughout this exercise, you'll feel more muscle activation in the trailing leg, as it must stabilise the moving leg.
Here's how you do this exercise:
- Start in a quarter-squat (a shallower squat) with a resistance band looped slightly above the knees.
- With your right foot, take a large step to the right, and follow with your left. Ten steps should be taken in this direction (or as many as your space allows).
- Backtrack, beginning each step with your left foot and then your right, till you reach the starting position.
5) Hip Opener
This is an excellent stretch to prepare your hips and buttocks for action. Additionally, it allows you to stretch your back without excessive rotation.
Here's how you do this exercise:
- Start with your hands flat on the floor, wrists stacked under your shoulders, and core, quads, and butt engaged.
- Step your left foot outside of your left hand to assume a runner's lunge position.
- Raise your left arm, and extend up toward the ceiling while rotating your body and following with your gaze.
- Consider rotating your pelvis, upper back, shoulders and head.
- Swap legs, and repeat.
Takeaway
Include the aforementioned knee-friendly exercises to strengthen your lower body in your workout routine if you suffer from knee pain. You can also recommend these to people you know have been struggling with their knees.
