How to Make Knees Strong
- Thread starter ehsen
- Start date
Yes, in two words: leg presses. They are far safer and ultimately more effective than squats, and can really ramp up the strength of your quads and the amount of force you can therefore put into a variety of kicks. But you'll need to belong to a gym to get access to the machine.
The right machine should be one where you can load the free weight wheels onto either side of the long bar for them on the machinein other words, a machine where the weights you lift are the same iron wheels you use for benches and so on on a barbell. Do very short range repsdon't release the clamps that keep the weight from dropping below the startup position just push up from their. A full range is neither necessary nor desirable, and is just plain risky once your weights start getting very high. Start with four 45lb wheels a side. Try to move up a wheel on each side evey couple of weeks. Start by doing a once a week workout. By the time you get up to seven wheels a side, make it once every three weeks. You will need that long to recover fully, and you don't get strength gains without a full recovery. Aim for one to two hundred short range reps total in a three minute period.
Backup plan: if you can't get access to a leg press machine, just sit against a wallwithout a chair. Try for a full minute in a seated position, then, when you get there, up it to two. When you get to two, drop back down to one but lift one leg up, so you're in a chairless, seated position balanced on one leg. It's not quite as effective as the leg press machine, but it will definitely add strength to your legs.
The right machine should be one where you can load the free weight wheels onto either side of the long bar for them on the machinein other words, a machine where the weights you lift are the same iron wheels you use for benches and so on on a barbell. Do very short range repsdon't release the clamps that keep the weight from dropping below the startup position just push up from their. A full range is neither necessary nor desirable, and is just plain risky once your weights start getting very high. Start with four 45lb wheels a side. Try to move up a wheel on each side evey couple of weeks. Start by doing a once a week workout. By the time you get up to seven wheels a side, make it once every three weeks. You will need that long to recover fully, and you don't get strength gains without a full recovery. Aim for one to two hundred short range reps total in a three minute period.
Backup plan: if you can't get access to a leg press machine, just sit against a wallwithout a chair. Try for a full minute in a seated position, then, when you get there, up it to two. When you get to two, drop back down to one but lift one leg up, so you're in a chairless, seated position balanced on one leg. It's not quite as effective as the leg press machine, but it will definitely add strength to your legs.
Leg presses are an excellent choice to add some overall strength to your legs.
My knees are in great shape and I attribute it personally to doing alot of free squats without weight. I have observed dramatic improvement in my ability to squat and overall body strength since I began a free squate, push up and sit up exercise program over ten years ago.
Shaderon
Master of Arts
I've found my leg strength has increased with leg presses but my Instructor/Trainer swears by squats done with weights. I do mine on a Smith Press (A machine which the barbel is kept in place by vertical mounts) and it does help a great deal. But I would start out with leg press, if you don't get the technique right on squats you can do more harm than good.
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Taijiquan done correctly.
Everyone has given great advice. However I was just told by my sister (who is about to graduate from CSUS as a sports med major) that most likely my knee joint problems stem from the fact that one muscle group in my legs is stronger than the other.
So take into account that you're strenghthening one muscle group dont neglect the others (the whoe pro/antagonist thing). Many people have lower back issues because while they do sit ups they do not make sure their lower back is equally strong, resulting in an uneven and strenous situation.
Oh and lots and lots of stretching! I'll try to look up some of the stretches my sister had me do, but they will help as well.
Just my thoughts
-Josh
*edit: When I asked my sister which kind of excercises I should do she mostly reccomented isometric (non weighted) exercises. Weights can be good, but also very bad especially when joints are concerned, so look into isometric alternatives, and dont underestimate them because no weight is involved.
So take into account that you're strenghthening one muscle group dont neglect the others (the whoe pro/antagonist thing). Many people have lower back issues because while they do sit ups they do not make sure their lower back is equally strong, resulting in an uneven and strenous situation.
Oh and lots and lots of stretching! I'll try to look up some of the stretches my sister had me do, but they will help as well.
Just my thoughts
-Josh
*edit: When I asked my sister which kind of excercises I should do she mostly reccomented isometric (non weighted) exercises. Weights can be good, but also very bad especially when joints are concerned, so look into isometric alternatives, and dont underestimate them because no weight is involved.
Hack squats are a good one too if you can get to the machine. Anything that strengthens the hip flexors will help with the knees. The hip flexors insert into the knee and add a great deal of support and stability to the knee if they're strong. If they're weak the knee has to work a lot harder to stabilize the weight of your body. Remember that we try to move from the center in the martial arts for a reason. The knee is further from the center and shouldn't be relied upon as a stabilizer as much.
Hack squats are good, and regular squats are good to except for one thing, which is the danger of spinal compression. When I used to do squats, I had a futuristic plastic device that sat across my shoulders and upper back, with a barbell-deep groove in it calledfor reasons that were obvious when you looked at the shape of the thinga Manta Ray. It distributed the load much more evenly across my back, and I got up to fairly heavy, very limited range squats with itin excess of 400lbs. With squats, whenever you get past the first third of the range going down, you're no longer working the quads around the knee, so a limited range squat was fine for my purposes. But herniated disks run in my family, and a couple of times I thought I had really damaged my spine just from the compression effect of that much weight going mostly straight down my vertebral column. At one point, I decided that much as I might enjoy a month or six weeks in traction, I just hadn't been a good enough person to deserve it, and switched to leg presses.... 
kidswarrior
Senior Master
Leg presses are an excellent choice to add some overall strength to your legs.My knees are in great shape and I attribute it personally to doing alot of free squats without weight. I have observed dramatic improvement in my ability to squat and overall body strength since I began a free squate, push up and sit up exercise program over ten years ago.
This is what I do, too, Brian. Do Furey's Hindu pushups & squats, tho, as opposed to western counterparts. Find this goes easier on tendonitis and stretched ligaments I have from decades of military pushups and sprained knees.
Also, to answer ehsen's original question more specifically: My knees were a mess when I started Asian MA. The forms that I thought ridiculous in the beginning (why are we dancing?) were actually what strengthened my knees over time, so that it looks like I'll be able to practice my art for life, instead of looking forward to canes, joint replacements, etc. Now I don't mean I'll ever be doing any high kicks, but can get by without 'em anyway. :ultracool
kidswarrior
Senior Master
Actually, body weight moving against gravity is involved. This is the same principle involved in walking for exercise. There is a reason that Xue Sheng's recommended Taijiquan has worked for hundreds of years, even tho' I don't personally do that brand of kung fu--yet.
Well I know for 50,000 dollars you can buy a new pair and they are suppose to be stronger then the original ones. Other wise knees lifts will help alot.
Karambit
Yellow Belt
Light squats on a smith machine are good, as well as leg presses.
The smith machine will keep your back alighned pretty vertical during the lift. Warm up with some stationary bike or light leg extentions to encourage blood flow to the quadriceps,for about 10 mins.
When squating lower the weight slowly around 2-4 secs and explode on the way up.Try not to go lower then legs parallel to the floor as this will put unecessary stress on the knee area.Forget about ego and stick with a weight that you can do 10-12 well controlled reps with.Also avoid using knee wraps, as this defeats the purpose,by not allowing the knees to adapt and strengthen to increased loads and intensities.
Stretch constantly and supplement with EFA's,Glucosamine+Chondroitin and a good Cal-mag supplement.
The essential fatty acids from fish and flax oil will keep the joints lubed and mobile.the gluc and chondroitin combo will strengthen ligaments,tendons and connective tissue, and a good cal-mag supplement will fortify bone density and strength.
IMO I would avoid hacks or lunges,as they have the potential to put the knees at a greater risk due to certain positions and angles :ultracool
The smith machine will keep your back alighned pretty vertical during the lift. Warm up with some stationary bike or light leg extentions to encourage blood flow to the quadriceps,for about 10 mins.
When squating lower the weight slowly around 2-4 secs and explode on the way up.Try not to go lower then legs parallel to the floor as this will put unecessary stress on the knee area.Forget about ego and stick with a weight that you can do 10-12 well controlled reps with.Also avoid using knee wraps, as this defeats the purpose,by not allowing the knees to adapt and strengthen to increased loads and intensities.
Stretch constantly and supplement with EFA's,Glucosamine+Chondroitin and a good Cal-mag supplement.
The essential fatty acids from fish and flax oil will keep the joints lubed and mobile.the gluc and chondroitin combo will strengthen ligaments,tendons and connective tissue, and a good cal-mag supplement will fortify bone density and strength.
IMO I would avoid hacks or lunges,as they have the potential to put the knees at a greater risk due to certain positions and angles :ultracool
BlackCatBonz
Master Black Belt
good ole stair climbing!
Not the kind you do on a stair climber at the gym.....I'm talking living on the 10th floor of an apartment building.
It's low impact, uses your body weight, after a few flights it starts to work muscles needed for balance, and stabilizers.
Walk on your toes only while climbing.
Not the kind you do on a stair climber at the gym.....I'm talking living on the 10th floor of an apartment building.
It's low impact, uses your body weight, after a few flights it starts to work muscles needed for balance, and stabilizers.
Walk on your toes only while climbing.
Try that static `sitting' exercise I mentioned in my first post as wellI know for sure it works (I did it at one point every day for a couple of years back in the 1970s as a conditioning exercise for skiing, before I'd even heard the expression `free weights' or `weight training', and it produced terrific results).
Whatever you do, though, it's important to keep increasing the overload as your strength increases. Otherwise, you're just doing maintenance, you aren't gaining strength after a certain point. With the seated exercise, when you can do two legs or two minutes easily, that's the time to drop down to one leg for one minute, then work your way backup to two. When you can do that for each leg, ramp it up to three. When you can do that easily, get a backback, stuff some book or bricks into it, and do the exercise with the backpack sitting on your lap... that kind of thing. Each time you make the conditions tougher and get back to your previous level of performance, you have tangible evidence that your strength has increased.
As I say, I found it very effective (and quite demanding, but you get what you pay for, so to speak). Keep us posted on how you're doing!
My knees never improved until I gave up the artificial motion and stability of machines and learned to squat and deadlift. Start light, learn proper form and your knees and back will thank you. If you squat to a proper depth or deadlift, you'll get your hamstrings as well as your quads.
Also, Google "Terminal knee extensions" and "Bulgarian Split Squats". TKEs, which can be done with a rubber band or cable machine are great for knee stability. BSSs are good for both stability and overall quad development.
Also, Google "Terminal knee extensions" and "Bulgarian Split Squats". TKEs, which can be done with a rubber band or cable machine are great for knee stability. BSSs are good for both stability and overall quad development.
Keith Kirkendall
Yellow Belt
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The three circle standing qigong is a good one if done correctly. Leg lift exercises are good for strengthening knees. As you progress, try adding ankle weights gor the leg lifts...all four directions for leg lifts is optimal.
