by Dwayne Ivey

Created on: May 10, 2010

How to strengthen and protect your knees!

How can you protect your knees? What exercises strengthen your knees? What stretches will aid in the strengthening and recovery process? Learn the answers now!

If you have had knee problems or are in the process of contemplating knee surgery, the following question mostly likely has crossed your mind: How do I strengthen my knees? Throughout the years, I’ve encountered this same question probably over a hundred times by everyone from your neighborhood doctor, to those you might expect such as seniors, or to those you may not expect, like those under 30. You will need to identify what your knee problem is, what muscles are linked to protecting your knee joint (and learn how your knee joint works,) and you will also need to know what exercises and stretches to perform to aide in the recovery of an ailing knee or what exercises to do to be proactive in knee protection.

Before I get into the meat of the exercises and stretches that you can do to aide in the protection of your knee(s), I will briefly discuss the knee joint and how it works.

First, the knee is a joint. Therefore, the actual structure of the knee does not contain musculature that can be “strengthened” directly as most people perceive. The knee itself, can not actually be strengthened. It is the surrounding musculature (and ligaments & tendons) that actually give the knee its protection and that will help prevent knee injuries from occurring in the first place.

There are ligaments (attachments that bind bone to bone or bone to cartilage) and tendons (attachments that bind muscle to bone) that have elasticity to allow the knee to function properly. If these are damaged in any way; strained, torn, ripped, or broken, then the knee will fail to work properly and knee surgery is eminent. A surgery will be needed to get the joint to work again, and relieve the injured person from ongoing pain. Rehabilitation can be ongoing and be as long as 12 months or more.

Knee ailments are common and the degree of severity varies greatly from a basic knee sprain, to that of a complete knee replacement. Many people are familiar with hearing that another NFL player blew out his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL), and some have heard the just as common Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) horror stories. The ACL is one of the primary knee stabilizing ligaments in the center of the knee. It prevents hyperextension and excessive rotation of the knee. The PCL works

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