Exercises That Are Knee Friendly

Hi M.,
Sorry to hear about your knee issue:( I do thrust to tighten my glute/thigh area. Lie on your back with your feet on the floor, keep your hands down by your ankles, upper back/shoulders pushed against the floor pick your butt up off the floor and squeeze then lower. I usually do 50 at a time (to feel the burn), then bring your knees into your chest to stretch. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi M.,

The ones that pop into my head first are leg raises, either standing or lying down. Stand with your opposite hand on a chair and raise your straight leg to the outside, front, back and inside. Or lie down on your side and bend your top leg and place that foot on the floor. Lift your bottom leg a couple of inches off the ground. Then mostly straighten your top leg and lift that leg to the side. You can change how your foot is pointed and isolate different muscles. Oh and bend your leg so your foot is behind you and lift your leg to the back. As you do these, you can add an elastic band or leg weights for resistance. Good luck, if I come up with any others, I'll let you know. (I have 2 bad knees!)

M.,

I have used a rubber band to exercise for a long time and have always found it to be the best. Low impact and you have as much or as little resistance as you want. This link is to the program I started to use years ago and I still use the rubber band and exercises. It really does tone up all areas of your body. http://www.mybodymakeover.com/

I'm sure you can just buy the rubber band in a sporting goods store but you can also buy this program copy the exercises and send the program back. This way you have the exercise and as long as you can find a rubber band that works for you your all set.

Good luck,
L. M

I can feel your pain, as I have had 8 knee surgeries in the last 12 yrs!!!!!OUCH....I just started taking an aquatic step class at the YMCA..your body gets all the benefits of a regular step class..without the strain on your knees. I absolutely love it!...good luck!

Would walking work for you? That is the most effective for me and I have knee issues as well. Regular brisk walking keeps those buns and thighs in tone. It's amazing how such a simple thing can do so much. (Now, if I could just cut down on that eating part, too! UGH!)

Good shoes with support are also the key. I use SuperFeet arches in my shoes and that is incredibly helpful. I no longer have back troubles once I started using these. They help properly align your arches, which affects your knees, back, posture, etc.

If walking is too much for you, then keep to the elliptical and go for the water therapy. Eventually, I would think you should be able to get to walking which is great for your buns, thighs, as well as bone health.

Good luck!

I'm a PT by trade I it is quite hard to exercise with an injury. You can exercise in the water if you have a pool available to you. Also any exercise where you keep your knee straight would be fine. The good old Jane Fonda floor exercises come to mind. Also any straight leg standing leg lifts would be good. Good luck to you.

I also do the thrust exercise mentioned below for butt toning; once you're comfortable with that try raising one foot off the ground, toes pointing up and keep your knees next to each other; now thrust up with your butt (you'll really feel the burn targeted to that one glute....now switch). Another I do for my quads - sit on the floor leaning back on your hands, stretch one leg out straight on the floor in front of you and bend one knee keeping foot flat on floor, now lift the straighted leg up in down slowly about 8-10 inches (I do 20 each leg then repeat).

Hi M.,

If you have access to a pool, that is the best place for anyone with joint issues. To specifically target the hips and thighs, hold onto the edge and kick (both facing the ceiling and the water). Bicycle peddling and scissors (moving leg out to the side) are also great to tone. You can add paddles to your legs to increase the resistance. Remember strength and resistance training tones muscle but unless it is done to aerobic capacity does not burn fat, you'll still need your elliptical for that. Good luck.

S.

what about jumping jacks or jumping rope. great excecise and calorie burner

I have problems with my knees (petello femoral syndrome) as well so my dr. gave me a handout full of exercises to add to my routine. My knees felt good even after doing them and I could feel a burn in the leg area and even up to the rear in some of them. Some of the more common stomach & butt toners I had to change up a little bit to make it easier on an old back injury and my knees.

I do crunches instead of sit ups but I put my lower legs up on a chair or couch. It still give you a good tone for the stomach but has a lot less impact on your lower back. I also do the knee touches to my elbows but I do it as a quick alternating to each knee while laying on my back on the floor. Then there are leg raises. You lay on your back and keep your legs raised approximately 8 inches off the floor for 10 seconds. It is really hard to do but it helps toning those areas as well. I also do an overhead reach with my stomach musles tightened and that helps with the stomach. Walking, as always, is a good low impact toner for the lower half of the body. I find if I try to keep my stomach muscles tight as much as I can throughout my entire routine, just about any of my exercises can help with my stomach.

It's been a while since I've been able to do my routine due to surgery on my toes so I'm drawing a bit of a blank on the knee exercises cuz a lot of them help strengthen the muscles around the knees and I even feel a little bit of a burn in the rear area. I also feel as though I am forgetting a few of the stomach toner exercises that I do.

I also find the "3 hour diet" to be the most effective diet for me. All it really is is eating smaller meals every 3 hours. You can still eat anything you want (I have spurts where I eat a lot of chocolate and have still lost weight) just smaller portions. You generally start an hour after you get up with breakfast and eat every 3 hours after that until an hour before bed. I have done great on it even though I have been unable to do my exercises for a few months now. I have either maintained the weight loss I had experienced or continued to loose weight. Admittedly, being a woman, I did have some points where my weight went back up by a little bit but would go back down within a week or two (never more than 5 pounds that I would shed after my female issue had completed it's course).

I'm a physical therapist so know tons of exercises. Some I would recommend (which would be good for your knee too) are straight leg raises (doing them in 4 different directions). You can also add weight at the ankle to them or do them standing with theraband around your ankle to give resistance. You can also use theraband looped around your lower thighs and push outward. squeeze a ball/pillow between your thighs to work inner thighs. Lie on back and do bridging to work butt or can lie on stomach, knee bent, and lift leg up to ceiling to work butt. Also standing on 1 leg for 30-60 seconds with knee slightly bent is good too. Hope these help!

The Great Body Guaranteed system has some excellent 12-15 minute workouts specifically for the buns and thighs. PM me for more info. I'd love to be your free fitness coach to help you get started.