Exercises for Bad Knees

Hi, I'm Chris Freytag. If you perhaps have knee issues or you're just getting started with exercise and you need to strengthen your knees before you jump into lots of squats and lunges, here's some exercises you can do that put less body weight into the knees and still work the lower body including the glutes, starting with deadlifts. I'm gonna turn sideways and I'm going to keep my feet about hip width apart. You're gonna hinge over from your hips, slightly puffing out your chest, pushing your buns back and slightly softening your knees if your hamstrings are tight. Come all the way over, come down as far as you can and then when you come back up, you wanna squeeze through the hamstrings and the glutes. Pull up through the hamstrings and the glutes. Come all the way over and all the way back up. If you can go down further than I am, then go for it, all the way over, all the way back up and you could add weights into your hands. Another great exercise, standing glute squeezes. Balancing on one leg with your abdominals nice and tight or holding onto something and really squeezing those glutes. Make sure you use both legs. Now coming down to the floor, we can go into bridges. Again, another way to use the lower body without putting tons of pressure on the knees. You're gonna come all the way down, heels on the ground, and lift into a bridge. Squeeze your glutes, pull your knees together and then you can even lower and lift and you're gonna feel your quads, hamstrings, and glutes working without a lot of pressure to the knees. Turning onto your side, a side-lying leg lift. Right here, stack your hips on your forearm and just lift that leg up. You're gonna feel it in your hips, in those glutes, and even a little bit in those inner and outer thighs. And then on all fours. Now, if your knees are sensitive, you could place a mat underneath your supporting knee. You could place a weight into the back of your knee or do this without a weight on all fours, abs tight, and squeeze through your glute as you lift that leg. These are all exercises that will put less pressure on your knees, help to strengthen your lower body, and prepare you for more squats and lunges. So when you're working out with Get Healthy U TV and you encounter squats and lunges and they're little too much for your knees, substitute in one of these ideas. Bottom line, I want you to get a good workout.