5 of the BEST Exercises for Knee Pain

Five of the best home exercises for knee pain presented by a doctor of physical therapy. Perfect for beginners and those experiencing acute pain in their knee. Strengthen and stabilize your knee joint with 5 simple exercises for your quads, hamstrings, and hips.

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As a physical therapist, I love to help people feel better and share all my physical therapy exercises and strengthening tips and tricks on my channel.

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What do I do if I have knee pain?

Increasing the strength and function of the muscles that act on the knee joint is a great way to decrease pain, and improve function.

Now when we talk about the mechanics of the knee, it’s a relatively simple joint. It flexes (bends) and extends (straightens) and that’s about it.

The muscles that are primarily responsible for these two actions include the quadriceps, hamstrings, and one of your calf muscles.

Increasing strength and function in these muscles has been proven to have a positive effect on decreasing knee pain.

However, as a doctor of physical therapy and a trained movement specialist, we are taught to find the CAUSE of pain, not just the location. Often times knee pain is simply a manifestation of faulty mechanics either higher or lower in the leg.

It’s actually your hip and ankle that primarily determine where your knee joint bends and straightens and therefore play a bigger role in the mechanics at the joint.

Improving strength and stability in these areas is vital in knee rehab and decreasing pain in the knee joint. Presented in this video are the best exercises to increase strength of the muscles that flex and extend your knee as well as those that play a key factor in knee joint mechanics and function.

Why do my knees hurt?

For more information on why your knees might hurt, be sure to check out this post.

The BEST Exercises for Knee Pain you could do in physical therapy:

Here are the knee strengthening exercises that you will find in this video:

QUAD SET: a simple, sustained contraction to the quadriceps muscle to increase strength and voluntary firing.
STRAIGHT LEG RAISE: adding hip flexion to the quad contraction is an effective way to strengthen the knee.
SHORT ARC QUAD: adding slight flexion and contracting the quad into terminal extension can be an effective means of strengthening as well as getting the knee joint used to moving again.
BRIDGES: Great way to increase glute and hamstring strength without introducing potentially painful motion at the knee.
SIDELYING HIP ABDUCTION: arguably the most important hip muscle in terms of knee health and biomechanics.

These are also great warm up exercises for knee pain!

Calling all mamas!

Introducing my all-new Mommy Tummy Fix program!

We all know that in order to tone the the inner thighs that we need to do some exercise, but tightening the tummy? Yep – that requires more than just crunches and planks.

That’s where this program comes in.

A six-phase workout plan designed specifically to flatten your stomach and help you to heal up diastasis recti. This is the same progression I use with my postpartum patients in my physical therapy clinic to get science-based, proven results you can’t help but notice.

Six phases of workouts to ensure your continued progression
Large color photos and clear instruction regarding performance, sets, and reps of each exercise to ensure proper performance
The exact same workout plan my wife used for her amazing results

The best exercises in a simple-to-follow progression to tone and strengthen your abs correctly and ensure maximum success. Progressive workout routines = progressive results.

Make it happen,

Jared

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5 of the BEST Exercises For Knee Pain