Start with Knee exercises for women today
The knee’s mobility is very important because most of your movement depend on this body part like jumping, running, and walking. Tension buildup in the knee area is very common, but you can promote relaxation through knee exercises for women.
Doing knee exercises is very important as it promotes less knee pain. Those people who perform knee strengthening exercises are able to recover quickly from knee surgery or injury, and prevent recurrence of knee problems. When you experience knee pain, it means that the muscles have weakened. If this happens, you will be more prone to injuries, osteoarthritis, knee tendonitis, arthritis, and other related problems. You can read more about these problems on my post Why does my knees hurt.
You can follow the following knee exercises for women if you want to stretch and strengthen muscles around knees. These are basic exercises and are a
imed for newbies. There are also other knee exercises that you can perform which suit the advanced or intermediate levels. These exercises are aimed to strengthen the quads, hamstring, glutes, and calf. You can also do some of the combination strengthening which is aimed at all the muscle groups in the knee area.
For starters, you can do the knee strengthening exercises that are not painful, but make sure that you are challenged, as well. It is important that you know which muscles are targeted when you perform the exercises. For instance, the quad strengthening is for the front muscles of the thighs while the hamstring strengthening is for the back muscles. Strengthening the glutes is also vital because the muscles in the buttocks help with effective knee control.
Leg or Knee Massage
Massaging the knees or thighs is not as hard as you think. Ask someone to lie on his/her back with legs stretched straight in a relax position. You can use the heel of your hand or fingers to massage the knees. If you prefer to use thumb, you can follow the steps below. Be sure to warm the massage oil in your hands before applying.
• Put the thumbs above the kneecap, and gently slide it around following a circular motion. You have to do this until the thumbs meet at the kneecap’s bottom. Retrace the movement, but this time start at the bottom of the kneecap and move upwards. You have to do this a couple of times.
• Put your hand underneath the kneecap. Use the fingertips of your other hand to make circular motions at the base of your kneecap.
Knee Stretch Exercises
There are several stretching exercises that you can perform that targets the knees. You can star with the Ilitotibial band stretch. To do this, you need to stand upright and cross one leg over the other. If you have an injured leg, you need to lean on the good leg. Lean on the good leg until you are able to feel a stretch, and then hold that position for 30 seconds. You can do 5 reps for this exercise.
Another stretching exercise that you can try is the quadriceps stretch. For a balance, you can hold onto the back of the chair or countertop. Grasp the ankle with one hand as you bend the knee. Try to bend your knees as far back as possible and hold the position for 30 seconds. You can do this for both legs.
Stretching the calf is easy. All you have to do is sit with your feet upfront. You will need a towel to make a loop and place it over your foot. Pull the toes inward or towards you and hold the position once you feel that the calf muscles are being stretched.
Most people are familiar with the hamstring stretch. Sit with your legs straight and extend the arms (as if reaching for your toes) and bend at the waist. Your knees should be maintained in a straight position, and hold for 10-15 seconds. Relax and do 5 reps.
Knee Proprioception Exercises
Before doing any of the knee exercises for women, don’t forget to perform knee stretching. A lot of people overlook this and end up causing more damage to their knees. Once you’ve finished with the warm-ups, you can proceed with the following exercises:
• Toe walking – as the name suggests, you will need to walk on your toes for about 30 steps. There are three variations to this exercise – toes pointing forward, outward, and inward. Don’t rotate the legs using your ankles, and instead, use your hips.
• Heel walking – in this exercise, you will walk using your heels. This is similar to toe walking, but this time you will use your heels.
• Leg swings – stand on one foot and slightly bend the other leg/ make forward swings in 30 reps. Switch sides and do the same with the other leg. Leg swings can be performed in forward movement or sideways. You can do both if you like.
You can increase the intensity by walking faster as you perform the knee exercises for women. During your free time, you can do this knee strengthening exercises. These are very simple, and you can even encourage younger family members to join you.
The exercises help improve muscular balance, coordination, and strength. If you are prone to knee injuries, you should perform the knee proprioception exercises.
Make sure that you use special exercise equipment. There are many things that you can use depending on the knee strengthening exercises. For instance, in the leg swings, you can use ankle weights. This can increase the exercise intensity.
A professional trainer can teach you how to use other equipment like Pilates ball, balance board, steppers, elastic bands, stability trainers, and half ball. You can also do exercises with dumbbells especially with the knee strengthening exercises.
The knee exercises for women are not overly complicated and can be done with ease. Even though this is your first time to do the knee strengthening exercises, you can get it by simply following the instructions. Exercising is not enough because you should also look into knee massage and use different exercise equipment. Start exercising today!