Exercise for Bad Knees?

[SEA81]

Hey guys, I was hoping you could help me with a little problem I'm having. I have terrible knee pain from an accident, which has left me unable to do any kind of squats or anything for legs/butt. Is there any sort of alternative? It seems like every single exercise for this part of your body requires some sort of squatting!

[shaun]

There is not much you can do if you have a serious knee problem. It's hard to give advice if we don't know the specifics of your problem. Can you not do body weight squats or jumping squats? You could try exercises like step ups and glute ham raises.

[SirTenenbaum]

Perhaps swimming would be a good form of exercise. The amount your knee bends during swimming is quite small (except for breaststroke), but it can still be a good workout for your legs. It's better than nothing.

If you wanted to do cardio without using your legs (if your injury is that bad), you could simply do freestyle without kicking--it's fantastic!

[Popatar]

For the hams you could do deadlifts, stiff leg deadlifts, glute ham raises (only do them on the ghr machine, other methods put pressure on the knees).

These exercises have you bend at the hips and less at the knees. For quads you can try walking lunges (play with long vs short steps). You can also try wide stance squats, it puts more pressure on the hips and less on the knees. Do not do any sort of leg extensions.

[Stefano13]

Whether you are rehabilitating your knee form after surgery or after an injury, progression of exercises should be slow and pain free.
Stretching exercises should be pushed into slowly and held at the first point of discomfort. Strengthening exercises should be done with a light enough resistance or weight to complete 3 sets of 20 repetitions. Exercises should never increase pain or swelling, even the next day.
Also i suggest you to do water aerobics.

[Isabellas2007]

If you have access to a pool kicking in a bicycle motion in the pool helped me. I know this is hard to do if you do not have this type of access, but the water helps keep you buoyant and will prevent you from having to hold your weight. Without this it can be impossible to get the exercise you need for your bad knees.

[fitnessk]

I would think that lower body weight training would be difficult. I do agree that swimming could be a good option to exercise your legs without causing stress to your knees. You could also give elliptical machines a try. I do hope your knee/knees are able to heal.

[shaun]

The best way to judge what exercises are good and bad for your knees is to listen to your body. If you feel pain, stop. If the exercise doesn't cause pain or aggravate your injury in any way, keep doing it. Everybody is different, different exercises will work for different people.