Knee Injury Prevention Exercises

Regardless of whether you are a serious athlete or simply somebody who likes to go on a walk from time to time, you don't want to get a knee injury. Despite this, knee injuries are common in people of all ages. However, many of these injuries can be avoided by doing the proper exercises to strengthen your knees.

  1. Stretching

    • The more flexible you are, the more successful you will be at fending off potential injuries. The stretches you do are not required to be anything out of the ordinary, but they should focus on your hips, calves and thighs. Do simple stretching exercises such as standing toe touches and hamstring pulls.

    Warming Up

    • It is always a good idea to warm up before you exercise. This is particularly true when doing knee-strengthening exercises. The warm-up does not need to be difficult; it should simply get your blood flowing. One good warm-up activity involves taking a quick 5-minute jog or brisk walk. This gets your body loose and the blood flowing.

    Building Strength

    • The more strength you are able to build in your hips and thighs, the more support you will have for your knees. Squats can help build the strength needed to help prevent knee injuries. To do a squat, stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Keep your chest straight and high, but move your buttocks outward. You should not bend forward. The knees should be behind the invisible vertical line coming upward from your toes. As you squat, focus on making sure that both your knees as well as your feet are pointed ahead of you. Do this exercise about 20 times. For an advanced form of this exercise, squat while standing on just one leg.

    Building Agility

    • Agility exercises also can strengthen the knee against potential injuries. One good agility exercise involves running in and out of a line of cones to a point ahead of you and then turning around and running back. You should run this course as fast as you can and make your turns tight and close to the cones.

    Staying Aligned

    • Work on staying aligned when you exercise. Whenever you are doing jumping exercises, it is important that you keep your chest aligned with your knees. Likewise, your knees should be aligned with your toes when landing a jump. Keep your toes straight when you land, and work on landing softly by bending at the knees and hips.