“With bad knees, what exercises can I do for leg development?” – Tony FriendI can definitely empathize. I have also had knee issues from years of wrestling in high school and college, and bad technique in the gym early on. But, even with knee pain, you can still train hard and make progress.The goal with your program is to find the best leg exercises for your individual limitations and those that don’t cause any pain. Once you’re able to get these nailed down, then you’ll be able to enjoy training again and not be forced to do exercises you shouldn’t being doing.
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Change Your Mindset
First things first – you need to change your mindset. Not every exercise will be right for you – at least right now. Many lifters who have knee issues aren’t able to perform back squats, but they keep squatting – many times with bad form. They don’t want to lose the gains they’ve made in leg development over the years. The shift in mindset is realizing that you can still gain leg mass without squats or by using a squat variation that doesn’t hurt.The best squat variation for you is one that allows you to maintain tension during the lift without causing pain. When your body senses pain, it inhibits (shuts down) contraction of the muscle groups surrounding the area that is painful.That is why lifters who have pain in their knees have weak quads, hamstrings, and glutes and typically collapse in the hole when they are squatting down. When you have weak muscles surrounding a joint, the joint becomes unstable – which makes you more susceptible to another injury.
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Bodyweight Box Squats
Instead of performing full squats with a barbell, try performing a bodyweight squats to a high box. This means squatting to a box above parallel – i.e., your hip is higher than your knee. See if you can maintain tension in your legs all the way to the box and stand back up.
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Barbell Squats To Box
Using a high box when you squat will keep you in a good strong range where you can keep your chest up, hips back, and knees out. As you get stronger, you can progress to squatting with a barbell to a high box, which gives you the option of slowly lowering the box over time. Resolve yourself to the fact that you may never full squat again, but you can squat to a box and make great progress.
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Strengthen Posterior Chain Muscles
Next, focus on strengthening your posterior chain muscles – calves, glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, and lats – and activating your quads. This will keep your knee safer and add more stability to the joint. Incorporating sled dragging variations (all directions; forward, backward, side-ways), iso-hold lunges, step-ups to a short box (with dumbbells), hip thrusts, glute bridges, and dumbbell RDL’s – will get all of the muscles surrounding the knee stronger with hundreds of contractions.
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Foam Rolling
Finally, consistently foam rolling the calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes and all of the muscles that surround the hips, will keep your lower body muscles relaxed. When you have a knee injury, the ankles, knees and hips become tight and immobile which can affect how well the muscles that surround these joints work. Foam rolling acts as a form of self-massage to relax these muscles so they contact better and do their jobs. Meet the Lift DoctorJim Smith is a highly respected strength and conditioning coach and Fitness Advisory Board member for Schwarzenegger.com and numerous national publications. Owner of Diesel Strength & Conditioning, Jim has been called one of the most “innovative strength coaches” in the fitness industry. Jim’s FREE gift – The Mass Report – has been used by thousands of lifters and athletes to build muscle faster and break through training plateaus.
“With bad knees, what exercises can I do for leg development?” – Tony Friend
I can definitely empathize. I have also had knee issues from years of wrestling in high school and college, and bad technique in the gym early on. But, even with knee pain, you can still train hard and make progress.
The goal with your program is to find the best leg exercises for your individual limitations and those that don’t cause any pain. Once you’re able to get these nailed down, then you’ll be able to enjoy training again and not be forced to do exercises you shouldn’t being doing.
Change Your Mindset
First things first – you need to change your mindset. Not every exercise will be right for you – at least right now. Many lifters who have knee issues aren’t able to perform back squats, but they keep squatting – many times with bad form. They don’t want to lose the gains they’ve made in leg development over the years. The shift in mindset is realizing that you can still gain leg mass without squats or by using a squat variation that doesn’t hurt.
The best squat variation for you is one that allows you to maintain tension during the lift without causing pain. When your body senses pain, it inhibits (shuts down) contraction of the muscle groups surrounding the area that is painful.
That is why lifters who have pain in their knees have weak quads, hamstrings, and glutes and typically collapse in the hole when they are squatting down. When you have weak muscles surrounding a joint, the joint becomes unstable – which makes you more susceptible to another injury.
Bodyweight Box Squats
Instead of performing full squats with a barbell, try performing a bodyweight squats to a high box. This means squatting to a box above parallel – i.e., your hip is higher than your knee. See if you can maintain tension in your legs all the way to the box and stand back up.
Barbell Squats To Box
Using a high box when you squat will keep you in a good strong range where you can keep your chest up, hips back, and knees out. As you get stronger, you can progress to squatting with a barbell to a high box, which gives you the option of slowly lowering the box over time. Resolve yourself to the fact that you may never full squat again, but you can squat to a box and make great progress.
Strengthen Posterior Chain Muscles
Next, focus on strengthening your posterior chain muscles – calves, glutes, hamstrings, spinal erectors, and lats – and activating your quads. This will keep your knee safer and add more stability to the joint. Incorporating sled dragging variations (all directions; forward, backward, side-ways), iso-hold lunges, step-ups to a short box (with dumbbells), hip thrusts, glute bridges, and dumbbell RDL’s – will get all of the muscles surrounding the knee stronger with hundreds of contractions.
Foam Rolling
Finally, consistently foam rolling the calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes and all of the muscles that surround the hips, will keep your lower body muscles relaxed. When you have a knee injury, the ankles, knees and hips become tight and immobile which can affect how well the muscles that surround these joints work. Foam rolling acts as a form of self-massage to relax these muscles so they contact better and do their jobs.
Meet the Lift Doctor
Jim Smith is a highly respected strength and conditioning coach and Fitness Advisory Board member for Schwarzenegger.com and numerous national publications. Owner of Diesel Strength & Conditioning, Jim has been called one of the most “innovative strength coaches” in the fitness industry. Jim’s FREE gift – The Mass Report – has been used by thousands of lifters and athletes to build muscle faster and break through training plateaus.
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