Hi, friends! Welcome to Made Fit TV. I am your host Jennifer DiDonato, and this is episode number 59. Made Fit TV is everyone's source for health and fitness information and entertainment and it's where fit bodies don't just happen, they are made. They are made by you, with a little bit help of me, through these podcasts, because I know you can do it.
So, today I am inspired by myself, inspired by everyone else around me. Talking about knee pain. I started experiencing knee pain last year. I love to run, I got fitted for great shoes. I don't have any shin splints anymore. I have been dealing with those buggers for very long time. Finally, I am free of them.
But now, I am starting to feel the knee pain and I am 25-years-old, turning 26 soon, getting up there. But, it's not because of anything in particular that you maybe doing, and maybe something you are not doing, strengthening the muscles that support the knee.
Now, knee pain comes from a variety of causes. It could be set into your lifestyle number one. You are just kind of hanging around not doing much, and then all of a sudden you just jump into a fitness program, then you got overused. Maybe you are overusing that muscle, overusing that joint, improper use, also it could be from arthritis, which a lot of people get as they age, and also from surgeries. You know you are recovering from a surgery, even after physical therapies sometimes you really feel the pain in the knees.
So, today's podcast is going to be strengthening your sore and weak knees. And if you don't have weak knees or sore knees, someone that you may know, may have it. So, have them check this out, because I think, it may give you a little bit of insight into how to prevent or help limit the cause of the knee pain.
So, first of all, I want to read an email that was written to me, that prompted to me to do this podcast. I have been waiting too for a long time, I am sorry you guys, I am just going to around do it now. But this is from Margaret.
Margaret emailed me, she is from Morehead City, North Carolina and she says, I am 57-years-old and have knee problems. Going through menopause, now I have a weight problem. I am trying to find an exercise program for my age. I tried to bouncy programs, but after a time I give up. I need to get rid of these pounds. Please help me find an exercise program right for me.
Perfect example you guys, either if you are aging and you are deciding, you want to get into a program, or you have been out of the loop for a very long time, you have put on some pounds, that adds stress to the knees.
So, even if you have done nothing, that is going to cause knee pain. So, the thing that kind of sucks is that, once you get that motivation internally, the mental and emotional motivation to actually do it. Sometimes your body isn't ready, it doesn't match.
So, what I want to do is get your body ready, with some movements that are simple to do at home with no equipment at all. But first, I just want to tell you, want to make sure that you consult a physician or consult your doctor, make sure that you are okay, for coming out of surgery to do these movements.
Okay. So, the first thing we want to do is we are strengthening the muscles. The muscles are what hold the bones in place. The joints also hold the bones in place. So if your muscles and your joints are not conditioned, they are not strong enough, that's going to mess with your bones and it's going to create pain and some discomfort and some injury. Sometimes serious injury.
So, what we want to do is try to prevent that. So the quads, the quadriceps right here. The reason why they are called the quads, they are very important to your knees and your knee function and your knee strength, because the quadriceps are all the muscles are attached to the knees, but you say quads, okay, well, what is the quads? Well, I am just going to break it down for you. Okay. The first muscle is a rectus femoris, which runs along the center, a rectus femoris, I know everyone pronounces it differently. That is the main muscle that runs along the center.
Now, in the inner, which connects to the patella, which is your knee cap. That is the vastus medialis, okay vastus medialis. Now outer, more laterally, is a vastus lateralis. Okay. So, we have got medial, and we have lateral. And then finally, the other main muscles, it runs across the thigh, it goes from the outer, about your hip into the inner, which kind of connects to the patella, as well is the sartorius.
Okay. So, these are all the four muscles that make up the quad, quad means four. So there you go. Alright. It's like the guy from 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding'. There you go!
Okay. So, we are going to start with the first movement, it's going to be a shallow squat. Now you can take something, whether it be a stick, a twig, whatever you find outside, or if you don't need it, you don't have to, for support.
Shallow squat, a squat you want your feet facing forward, but hip with apart okay. You want your knee caps, so your knee is facing forward, your toe is facing forward, you don't want them to wave, or you don't want them to lock inward, we don't want anyone of this. This is going to be bad for your knees.
What we want to do is try to retrain your legs to work properly and have your knees be sensor. So, you are just going to do a shallow squat. Stick the butt out, squat through the heels okay. And you can use this just to help you, I mean, this is for people that are maybe 60, 55, 60 years and older, who have never done these movements before. So, this could be good for someone that you know, your family.
Okay. Typically a squat I am showing you guys, typically you are going down real low, I don't want you to, I want you to go about 45 degrees and back up. And if you can't even go down this low, then go even shallower, just a little bit, just a little bit to really to start to wakeup the muscles and to condition them. Okay, real nice and simple.
Alright. The other movement I want to show you is an Assisted Single Leg Balance. Once again, you are going to take a stick, if you need it, if you don't or a bar, that's fine. Broomstick, yeah and you can mop the floor, while you are doing it.
So, we are going to stand on one leg, your foot is facing forward knee cap straight, chest nice and high, and I just want you to hold this for as long as you can. You are going to balance. Balance is really important and I want you to hold on to something, if you can't do it by yourself. If you can't, if you feel yourself wavering, that can be really traumatic for the knees and the joints and the ligaments on the knees, you don't want to tear anything.
So, make sure you are holding on to something, and hold this maybe for about 30 seconds and rest and switch legs. So, you want to make sure that you are not overdoing it and you are not wavering too much, because that can create the tension and may injure you. And you can also incorporate some dips, some single leg squats, just little dips, just like that to strengthen the knee, about three sets of ten on each knee, just to start off.
The other movement I want to show you guys is on the ground, both of these are on the ground and this is a Floor Bridge to a Leg Raise. Floor Bridge, I have shown you before, but this is cool because, you don't need any equipment and it's not as advanced, because you can make this advanced if you want to, or you can make it simple for beginners.
Your feet are going to be parallel to each other, toes facing forward, what I want you to do is you are going to have your hands back, nice and flat. You are going to raise the butt, and bring it back down, raise the butt, and bring it back down, about three sets of ten, you can work your way up to more. But what you can also do is incorporate a leg raise with this. So, you raise it, bend the leg and bring it back down. Raise, bend the leg straight and back down. And this also works on the stabilization of the joint around the knee as well.
So that's another good movement. But try not to try the single leg lift unless your knees have been, unless you have been doing the floor bridge for a couple weeks. Do it three days a week, about three sets of ten, maybe increase the set every week to one more set 4, 5, 6 whatever.
Okay. The final movement I want to show you is the Leg Raise and what this does is it's going to strengthen the hips and the quads, which will help the knees. You are just going to lay like you were before on your back, and one leg is going to be bent at about 90 degrees and all I want you to do -- I will try it this way -- all I want you to do is just raise this leg even to the knee, and bring it back down, just before it hits the ground, back up again, and back down, about three sets of ten.
Make sure your back is nice and flat. And what this is doing is just strengthening the quad. This is something important to make sure that you are gaining that stability, gaining that strength to support the knee, because then you'll find, as you are getting up off the floor, like I just did, it's going to be a lot easier, it's not going to be so painful.
So, let me know what you guys think of these movements. Like I said, start off with all these movements, three sets of ten, and do it about three days a week, maybe Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday or even give it two days in between, just in case, just to be safe.
And then each week just add another set. So, you would get up to eight or ten, just add sets so you can strengthen and then you can incorporate, more advanced movements, if you feel you can, if you are not feeling any more pain, in my other podcast, like the really, really good leg workout, or gosh! I have a bunch of other leg exercises, podcast that you can see, on madefittv.com. Yeah, just go to madefittv.com and go to the Archives and it will have all lists, of all the past podcasts that we have done. Yeah, we will link it up on this one you guys.
So, email me, tell me what you think, comment on this. Let me know how these movements feel for you or tell me about any other injuries that you have had for your knees, or why you are feeling knee pain, and I can email you and maybe give you more specific information on workouts that you can do at home.
So, you can also chat with me on Facebook. I am Jenny DiDonato, and also JennyDiDonato on Twitter. Twitter is a great way to contact me as well. We are also on iTunes, Made Fit TV, just click on it, subscribe. You can also rate as well. Let us know what you think about it and we are everywhere else too, but the best place you can find us is on madefittv.com, you can just subscribe to our videos on the Subscribe button and then we will email you.
So, thanks so much for joining us today, on madefittv.com. If you want to a T-shirt check it out on our store yeah, Made Fit Gear as well, on madefittv.com. So, we will see you next time. Keep those in knees healthy you guys, take something to drink as well, glucose to me, those knees, those joints. Alright have a good one.
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