knee strength info

[fields#20]

i need to gt my knees stronger any tips or exercise i can do a home and weight room ?

[CoachAaron]

There are a number of stabilizing muscles for the knee. Some are located in the front (quad area) and some in the back (hamstring area). Let's start with the front.

A major stabilizer of the knee is the Vastus medialis, specifically on section of it called the vastus medialus oblique (or VMO). The quad is made up of 4 muscles, the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, rectus femoris, and vastus intermediaus. You can't see the vastus intermediaus in the pic below as it is a deep muscle, the others are superficial.


There are few good ways to work this area. In my opinion, the best is a backwards sled pull. It satisfies many performance principles, such as being ground based, multiple joint, uses strength in movement and strength balance, and is a great way to do some unilateral training.


A movement called the peterson step up is a good way to specifically hit the VMO. Different from a regular step up as you start on the ball of your foot with the heel up, also the foot should be slightly positioned slightly outwards.
Here's a good explanation of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciwao8Hclfo

Other exercises that are good to work the quad stabilizers include standing lunges (barbell or dumbell), split squats, and regular step ups. Some exercise to avoid are leg extensions, leg presses, hack squat machine . . .basically any machine exercise.

My next post will focus on hamstring stabilizers.

[CoachAaron]

Another really good peterson step video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR_s1...eature=related

[Eman]

Coach,

I noticed that you warned about the leg exrensions. What's up?

[Big Sully]

Originally Posted by Eman

Coach,

I noticed that you warned about the leg exrensions. What's up?

Yeah, now you got my attention because my leg workout consists of a mix of exercises such as... Squats, Leg Press, Leg Extensions, Hack Squats, Leg Curls, Dead Lifts, Dumbell Lunges, calve raises, standing calve raises, squats on a bosa ball etc.

I don't neccessarily train specifically for knee strength as I do for overall leg strength.

Big Sully

[Velocita]

I wouldn't say a leg extension is necessarily a bad exercise. Its just not a very sport specifc dynamic exercise.

[CoachAaron]

Any of the machine exercises do not work balance/stabilizer muscles, so they are a waste of time as there is no carry over to on the field strength. You play on your feet, train on your feet (ground based performance principle).

The leg extension works the wrong muscles for sports performance and knee stability by isolating the rectus femoris (you want to hit the "vasti" muscles and adductor, abductors as well). The leg extension also creates a very undesirable shearing force within the knee. There are really no redeeming qualities to the leg extension, or leg press for that matter. I can't understand why commercial gyms continue to have these pieces of equipment . . . encourage your gym to sell them and buy some platforms and bumper plates.

There are a million and one exercise physiology studies that have proven these statements to be true. Here is an excerpt from an article on the subject from T-Nation:

Let's take a step back and examine our risk-to-benefit situation now:

Leg Extension Risks:

1. Increased patellofemoral joint reaction force, knee movement, and joint stress in the most commonly used range of motion.

2. Reduced hamstrings activity.

3. Reduced VMO activity and late onset of firing.

4. Non-existent hip adductor and abductor contribution.

5. Increased rectus femoris firing.

6. Constant ACL tension.

7. Higher patellar ligament, quadriceps tendon, and patellofemoral and tibiofemoral forces with the most commonly utilized loading parameters.

8. Increased lateral patellar deviation.

9. Insufficient involvement of surrounding joints to ensure optimal functioning.

10. Poor training economy (no carryover to closed-chain performance from open-chain exercises).

Leg Extension Benefits:

1. Will give you a good pump, but not even close to the benefits you'll get from squatting and single-leg movements.

2. Uh, wait, there's really only one benefit — and it's pretty weak.

Whether you're a patient or not, the take-home message is the same: if you want more bang for your training buck you should be squatting, not doing leg extensions. Factor in the additional loading that squatting allows, and it should come as no surprise that you'll see better gains in size, strength, and functional capacity.

You can see this entire article here: http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1306675 , it's by Eric Cressy, a very experienced and well respected strength coach.

[CoachAaron]

Another good one I forgot to mention is terminal knee extensions. These are commonly used as a rehab exercise, but also a good prehab exercise as well. Terminal Knee extensions can be done with cable resistance, band resistance, or manual resistance as shown below.

[fields#20]

thanks coach a big help to me

[fields#20]

oh i walk on my knee with no probs for the past few weeks.with no brace. i get a little popping at the top of the knee thats it.but it doesnt hurt

[CoachAaron]

We've only discussed ways to strengthen the knee joint on the front side, now lets discuss the backside. The hamstring is a major knee stabilizer as well and a crucial muscle to strengthen as it has real carry over to sports performance. The hamstring is made up of 3 muscles, the biceps femoris, semitendonousis, and semimembronousis.



The hamstrings work in two ways to move the leg, hip extension and knee flexion. Hip extension happen when you push against the ground while running or while pushing against an opponent. Knee flexion moves the foot up, closer to the but.

Hip Extension:


Knee Flexion:


Ok, now how do we use those movements to strengthen the hamstring, and thereby, strengthen the knee joint.

For hip extension, you best bets are lifts you are probably already doing in the gym. These include squats (at or below parrellel), dead lifts, and power cleans. When doing squats, make sure you are going low enough to get the hams involved, a half or quarter squat is all quad and doing them can cause a muscular imbalance. A good way to be sure you're getting low enough to fire the hams is to box squat.



Another good depth finder on squat that I use at Beineke S&C is putting a bungee chord low accross the power rack, you squat until your but hits the bungee chord.

All deadlifts are good for strengthening the hip extension movement. I find the snatch grip deadlift is one of the best, as the wide grip gets the hips lower.



Or just doing the snatch lift is great too:


Or a tire flip:


A few of my other favorites for hip extension include the romanian dead lift, good mornings (especially with a safety squat bar), back extensions, dumbbell swings, and explosive med ball throws (straight up for height).

Knee Flexion:

The king of knee flexion exercises is the glute ham raise (or GHR). Unfortunately, very few commercial gyms have this piece of equipment, which is why you should go to an athletic S&C studio, like Beineke S&C instead. Here's a pic of some of my guys from the offseason training group doing the GHR:


The next best knee flexion option is a standing leg curl:


And of course there is the lying leg curl, that you see in must gyms. There's also a few things you can do on a stability ball:


That about covers it. As you can see, there are a lot more choices for hip extension than knee flexion, but as long as you continue to use the periodization application (systematic change in training) you'll be fine and have a good strong knee joint.

[CoachAaron]

Much better now that we can say snatch on the board.