Strength Training for the Knee

Repeat this exercise 10 to 20 times, five times per day. Strength ? Quadriceps, Short Arcs. Non-weight Bearing. 1. Lie flat or sit with your leg straight.

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Strength Training for the Knee

This handout is to help you rebuild the strength of the muscles surrounding the knee after
injury. It is intended as a guideline to help you organize a structured approach to
strengthening the knee.

Precautions When Exercising
• Avoid pain at the patellar tendon
• Avoid pain and/or crepitus (grinding) at the patella (kneecap)
• Build up resistance and repetitions gradually
• Perform exercises slowly, avoiding quick direction change and impact loading
• Exercise frequency should be 2 to 3 times a week for strength building
• Be consistent and regular with the exercise schedule

Before Staring Your Workout
• Warm-up prior to exercising by stationary cycling, elliptical machine or treadmill
walking uphill
• You are "warmed - up" when you have started sweating
• Gently stretch all muscle groups next (see attachment for recommended stretches)
• Do exercises involving multiple muscle groups first and individual muscle groups
last
• Do aerobic workouts after strength workouts
• Cool-down by stretching after exercise

Progressive Resistance Exercise (PRE) Principle
• To build muscle strength and size, the amount of resistance used must be
gradually increased
• The exercises should be specific to the target muscles
• The amount of resistance should be measurable and gradually increased over a
longer period of time
• To avoid excess overload and injury, the weight or resistance must be gradually
increased in increments of 5 to 10 %
• Resistance can be increased gradually every 10 to 14 days when following a
regular and consistent program
• Adequate rest and muscle recovery between workout is necessary to maximize the
benefit of the exercise
• If the PRE principle is followed too strictly, the weights potentially will go higher
and higher
• At a certain point, the joints and muscles will become overloaded and injury will
occur
• This eventuality can be avoided by refraining from using excessive weight during
strength training