Don’t go week in your knees!
Joey lost his lady love because he couldn’t kneel down to propose her and if he would he would need her support to get up… well a famous aphorism …all is lost in love and war but don’t go week in your knees unless otherwise from being in love.
The knee as we all know is the strongest and one of the most important joints in the human body. As we all know knee issues are on the rise. These issues may be because of one or many things like over use or injury, damaged cartilage, arthritis or simply not strengthening before exercise.
I have encountered many people who run in marathons without proper strengthening of the leg muscles which in turn put pressure on the knee. More over running on a hard surface without proper shoes causes extra concern.
At the age of 14, I had a knee injury causing knee effusion (accumulation of fluid around the knee) which caused my knee to pain and post the joint aspiration it still pained and made crackling sounds every time I walked up and down the staircase. So running or deep flexion was a far stretched idea. Thankful to my genes I did not put on weight which would have been a nightmare. Where some people do and then cannot do most of cardio activities due to pain here the BUNGEE workout comes to your rescue post your basic strengthening
Over the years and through my learning I have developed better and stronger knees to support my daily activities and exercise.
Some of which you can incorporate:
- Knee presses: Place your palm or a towel under the gap of your knees and press the knee cap downwards reducing the gap. Make sure you press and release gently. In 10 counts repeat 3 times.
- Leg raises:
- Straight leg raises: (SLRs) Lie down on your back and raise you leg up and down. Repeat with the next.
- Sitting raises: sitting on a high chair use leg weights and lift you leg up and down from your knee joint.
- Pillow presses: Sitting on the chair grab a pillow and place it in between your thighs and press it and release it repeat this for 16 counts.
- Leg abductions: Holding the chair stand up and raise your legs sideways Repeat 16 counts each leg.
These simple exercises can be done anywhere but importantly before you do your regular exercises even if you have a knee problem or not.
So… go get going and kneel down!!
- Moushumi Nagarkar.
From The Pep Up Studio Desk.