Get stronger with knee pain
By Declan Wise
Knee pain and discomfort is a very common complaint, but also often overlooked. Often it may feel like it’s difficult to get stronger with knee pain. Knee pain can be caused by a number of things, such as an old injury, overuse, or just from normal changes through aging. Regardless of the cause, knee pain can be extremely annoying and difficult to get rid of. Unfortunately knee pain can be different between persons, with different treatment resulting in different outcomes. However, one of the most important things you can do if you are suffering from knee pain is to build a knee as strong as you possibly can. Although it may not get rid of the knee pain, but it will help keep the joint as strong and controlled as possible with the surrounding muscles. Think about it as a brace around the joint. This will help reduce the chances of the pain levels increasing or aggravating.
Muscles around the knee
There are a few muscle groups that are important around the knee which will help create a strong stable knee. Mainly, these are the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and glutes.
The quadriceps and hamstrings are located above the knees on the top and bottom of your thighs. These muscles are directly involved in your knee movement, mainly responsible for straightening and bending the knee. The calves are located below the knee. Calves are mainly responsible for ankle movements, but also has a role in bending the knee as well. The glutes, although not directly related to the knee, play a very important role in hip movement and ultimately keeping the legs controlled. Glutes are located at your hips and make up the buttocks. By strengthening all these muscle groups, it will help to keep the legs controlled and not overload the knees.
Exercises to improve knee control
Some exercises to help start building these muscles are as below.
Knee extension
Hamstring curl
Calf raise
McGill squats
Advanced exercises:
Single leg squat
Lunges
To find out more about how to get started or return to running, feel free to contact our Exercise Physiologist team.
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