bad knees

What do you mean by "bad?"

Squats are honestly one of the best knee rehab exercises there is. Lunges are awful anyhow, good riddance to them.

I hurt my knee last year and went to a physiotherapist. He recommended strengthening all the muscles in my legs to help support it. Squats are a big one, as well as deadlifts for the hamstrings. If you have access to a stationary bike, this may help keep things moving while being low impact for your joints.

Also, work on balance. Even if you can only stand on each leg for 15 seconds at the beginning, start there and gradually increase the amount of time. Once you can hold it for a minute or more, start challenging yourself more by leaning forward to touch the floor while keeping the leg straight.

I have what the doctor called " sand under the kneecap". Whenever I climb stairs or do squats and lunges all you can hear is gritty noises, like when you rub sandpaper together.

I have that too and I just squatted 220lbs for five sets of five reps today. Going for two plates (225lbs) on Thursday.

Squat more, with good form, and your knees will get stronger and stop hurting.

Squats. They build up the surrounding muscles. I also have bad knees but squatting, lunges etc. have definitely helped. They're not perfect - I still have to take my omega3 capsules and occasionally some ibuprofen before training - but they are much improved.

ETA: full or '*kitten* to the grass' squats, that is. Anything less than full range of motion can make it worse.

I have a bad knee as well, and my biggest exercise to keep that knee stabilized is squats. I did have to adjust my form...a normal stance just HURTS and twists my kneecap all wrong. But, a wider stance with my toes pointed out just a bit more is golden. I can actually tell if I've been slacking the squats...I'll have more knee pain.

BTW, I squat heavy too....anywhere from 150-200 lbs depending on my goal for my workout that day.

PS I still can't do lunges...those can just go crawl in a hole and die somewhere.

I have what the doctor called " sand under the kneecap". Whenever I climb stairs or do squats and lunges all you can hear is gritty noises, like when you rub sandpaper together.

I have that too and I just squatted 220lbs for five sets of five reps today. Going for two plates (225lbs) on Thursday.

Squat more, with good form, and your knees will get stronger and stop hurting.

I have that as well as a host of other knee issues, and recently hit 4x315 on my squats. The only time my knee bothers me anymore is when it's super cold outside.

Bump. To read later.

I am young and have bad knees from being overweight and exercising improperly in the past. I've noticed that squats and holding martial art stances strengthened my knees. You must remember to not let your knees pass your feet while doing lunges and squats. Be careful.

Not sure what level of pain you have, but one exercise I do for my knees is to bend my leg up (top of my leg parellel to the floor) and then straighten out my leg until my knees feel better. I often have to change what the workout I am doing so that it won't cause me pain later. Also, I find mixing in stretching, yoga, and pilates to whatever tough workout I'm doing helps prevent knee pain. So, for example, I'm doing Insanity right now and I have to modify it a LOT for my knees, foot, and shoulder. And every couple I have to switch out for a pilates or a yoga workout. Despite these modifications I can see a HUGE difference in my body.

When I used to run more, I found that doing 20 or so minutes on a recumbent bike each day helped strengthen my knees and decrease the pain of running.

There's a book I have at home called "Stretching" that has knee stretches I used to do after each run.

Also, I haven't tried this, but a friend of mine with knee and back issues likes Asylum.

Are you tipping forward while performing these movements? I have genetically bad knees and have had surgeries on both. I did a lot of resistance band training for rehab along with leg press. I believe a lot of strain is put on the knees when you're not sitting on the heels of your feet. It cause all the weight to shift forward instead of being over your center of gravity.

If you have access to an indoor pull the resistance and cardio from swimming would not only help your legs, but your entire body without the impact of gravity.

I don't have any knee pain while lifting anymore, but I will put on knee sleeves to run.

Weight loss is the fastest way to deal with your condition, OP. Squats are good too, always parallel, just do air ones and move to add weight to the bar very slowly. Just a few reps. Definitely add biking. Fish oil daily. If your knees really get in the way and are too painful, you may consider knee gel injections (viscosupplementation)

Very few people have bad knees. A lot of people have weak leg muscles and are overweight which causes their legs/knees to ache when they try to use them. The answer is usually to lose weight and start working on building up those leg muscles. Start out doing 10 squats, 10 lunges, etc until you can do more.

Try a knock-knee, arthritis, chronic joint inflammation combo (all genetic)... that's a pretty good example of bad knees. The constant pain going up and down the stairs and the nightly throbbing pain that wakes onr up at night is a fairly valid proof that bad knees do exist.

Squats. They build up the surrounding muscles. I also have bad knees but squatting, lunges etc. have definitely helped. They're not perfect - I still have to take my omega3 capsules and occasionally some ibuprofen before training - but they are much improved.

ETA: full or '*kitten* to the grass' squats, that is. Anything less than full range of motion can make it worse.

*kitten* to grass are great but not for everyone. They actually srsly injured my knees (popped, inflamed, swollen) and sent me straight to the doctor. Even though I had good form doing them. As I said they're just not for everyone.

Parallel isn't for everyone either too. The reason why parallel can be more dangerous than sub parallel is where change of motion happens. If you change direction at your knee a greater strain is going to be placed there. If you change direction below the level of your knee then the strain of changing direction won't be as great on the knee joint.

Squats are a great functional exercise, but they are not a good starting off exercise in my opinion. You need to start off with exercises that teach the fundamental pattern first like dumb bell squats... much safer for beginners.

*kitten* to grass are great but not for everyone. They actually srsly injured my knees (popped, inflamed, swollen) and sent me straight to the doctor. Even though I had good form doing them. As I said they're just not for everyone.

I would be interested to hear an actual explanation of how this happened. Once you get below parallel, you're transferring the load to the hips. I'd be curious to hear how your knee was injured squatting glutes to boots.

I don't know how hers happened, but I can tell you what happens with my patellas. They are extremely hypermobile (EDS), and so they don't track like a normal person's. If I have too much weight on and bend my knees, when they track strangely it causes more problems than when I don't have weight on. Highly repetitious knee-bending stuff inflames mine just as much, symptom-wise (I have a small ROM that seems fine, though).

I do work the muscles around my knees, and that is crucial. But I don't do squats or lunges any more. Oddly perhaps, kneeling movements work wonderfully for me to work them. I think it's because it literally pins down my kneecaps I do a move that's like a Russian Hamstring Curl but with the quads (so you lean back, not forward) and that has really strengthened the muscles I was missing hitting in my knees.

Find a good physical therapist and have them create a workout for you and critique your form. (Form is critical) Do wall sits or swimming if you need to strengthen your legs enough to do proper squats.

Squats have helped me more than anything else. I do not go below parallel due to previous injury and some sort of mobile knee joint crap. Doctors typically sound like Charlie Brown's teacher until you explain to them that "I have the checkbook. If you want paid, you will explain that to me again in English that I can understand."

Just my $0.02

Find a good physical therapist and have them create a workout for you and critique your form. (Form is critical) Do wall sits or swimming if you need to strengthen your legs enough to do proper squats.

Agreed. I used a program designed by a PT that started out with wall sits and using weight machines for hamstring curls and leg extensions with a light weight, building up to box squats, then body squats, then dumbell squats, and finally barbell squats. I find that a wider stance helps my knees track better with a squat and I agree with above that *kitten* to grass is easier on my knee itself rather than stopping at parallel, but you have to listen to your body and do what is comfortable.