People who are nearing their 30s (athletes or not) know what it means to name your knees “the good and the bad one” instead of “left and right”. This coping joke comes from the fact that knee injuries are by far the most common injuries out there.
That’s why we must talk about knee bulletproofing, and how to tackle it, even if you just started addressing the issue. We prepared a list of helpful exercises you can implement right now, so let’s get right into it.
Table of Contents
Knee Issues Come From Above or Below
Before we begin, let’s take a minute to address the not-so-obvious solution to knee pain – injury prevention.
Knee issues often come from joint disbalance while moving and exercising. Your ankles, knees, and hips need to align properly to distribute the force that comes from exercising (from running to lifting). Simple enough, but you’d be surprised by the number of athletes who don’t understand the biomechanics of the lower body.
To keep things simple – knee injuries are often a consequence of bad ankle or hip alignment. So, when the time comes, instead of just dealing with the pain, you should focus on treating the cause of it. Usually, it’s in the ankles/feet or the hips.
That’s why we say that knee injuries come from above (weak or tight hips) or below (weak or tight feet and ankles).
To tackle these issues and help you with knee bulletproofing, we must address the joints and muscles around the knee.
5 (Graded) Exercises To Put You On A Knee Bulletproofing Path
The following exercises are ordered from least to most challenging. One thing to keep in mind is – do not to work through pain. Some discomfort is to be expected, but you won’t do yourself a favor, nor speed up the recovery, by forcing your way through a knee flare-up. These are knee-bulletproofing exercises, not a magical way to avoid knee pain caused by faulty biomechanics.
Essentially, the concept of knee bulletproofing is targeted injury prevention that focuses on the joints and muscles above and below the knee.
Each exercise has a link to detailed instructions, so make sure to check them out if you want to go into finer details.
Let’s start from the ground up:
1. Short Foot Single-Leg Stance Exercises
A large number of amateur athletes don’t even realize the importance of strong and mobile feet. One of the best ways to test and address the capability of your feet is the short foot single-leg stance exercises, or SLS for short.
By improving your foot strength and stability, you make sure that your knees have the right support from below.
Another way to do this is by investing in a nice pair of barefoot shoes. Minimalist footwear is here to help you reclaim your foot abilities which slowly degrade through cushioning that modern shoes offer. At Hybrid Athlete, we believe that going barefoot is the best way to go, and minimalist shoes come closest to that. Also, concrete hurts, and not all gyms allow bare feet training.
2. FHL Calf Raises
Next up, we have the flexor hallucis longus (FHL) calf raise. This muscle originates under the knee, goes over the ankle, and inserts into the base of your big toe.
A tight, underdeveloped, or misused FHL will almost certainly transfer to a knee problem if you don’t address it. So, here’s how to do FHL calf raises:
- Facing a wall, stand with your feet apart (neutral stance) and point your toes forward
- Stretch your arms forward and lean into the wall
- Stand away from the wall so that your feet just lift off the ground
- By pushing through the balls of your feet, plantar flex the ankle
- Hold for a moment. Feel the contraction in your calf muscles and the flexion in your big toes
- Go back down and repeat
3. Tibialis Raises
Tibialis raises refer to the activation and strengthening of the tibialis anterior muscle, located on the front of your shin. This muscle is often overlooked when it comes to lower-body training, and, at Hybrid Athlete, we are trying to change that. In short, the main reason to target the tibialis is its stabilizing role – it helps with foot dorsiflexion, ankle inversion, and overall foot-knee stability.
Tibialis raises can be done using your body weight only, but to progress, you might want to consider getting a tib bar. Here’s how to do 3 tibialis raise variations:
4. Hip Flexor Raises
Now, let’s move to knee bulletproofing which includes the joints above the knee – the hips. To put things simply – weak or tight hip flexors are unable to provide adequate support to counteract the forces that come from the ground up. The knees are next in line to handle it, and since there is no balance in the chain, the resulting force causes, you guessed it, knee pain through wear and tear.
Hip flexor raises also come in many forms. For beginners, we recommend either doing hanging hip flexor raises or even better – using the ankle straps for dumbbells.
Here’s how to do hip flexor raises with the Hybrid Athlete ankle straps:
- Use the strap system to firmly attach both your foot and the dumbbell
- Stand on a slightly elevated surface with your other leg (this can be done on a flat one as well)
- Square your hips and brace your core
- Leading with your knee, raise your leg up toward your chest
- Hold for a brief moment
- Repeat
5. Sissy Squats and Reverse Nordic Curls
There’s no better way to end the knee bulletproofing exercise list than with sissy squats and reverse nordics. Both of these exercises utilize the whole ankle-knee-hip chain, forcing you to evenly distribute the forces, and teaching your body to take the pressure off your knees.
Now, the sissy squat is not easy to get into, especially if you want to do the ascending part as well. For starters, the descent can do wonders for your knees and hips, so do not dismiss it if you can’t do the whole exercise. Start with a pad in front of you to land on. Here’s how to tackle sissy squats:
- Stand straight, with your feet pointing forward, shoulder-width apart
- Tuck in your ribcage and try not to overextend your back
- Now, descend by pushing your knees forward and propping on the balls of your feet
- Descend until you have control
- Fall to the cushion, stand up, and try again
The reverse Nordic (not to be mistaken with the Nordic ham curl) utilizes the same muscle chains, without the risk of falling on your knees. Here’s how to do a reverse Nordic curl:
- Kneel on the floor (use a cushioning pad if needed)
- Engage your core and squeeze your glutes
- Without hinging at the hip, lean back in a controlled manner. Keep your core tight
- Once you reach a full stretch, bring yourself up without hinging at the hips
Knee Bulletproofing - Take It Slow, But Stay Consistent
There we have it – a quick knee bulletproofing guide to help you start, advance, and progress.
If you already experience knee discomfort on a regular basis, remember to take it slow while avoiding exercising through pain.
At Hybrid Athlete, we take injury prevention seriously. There are a lot of knee bulletproofing exercises out there that you can benefit from. So please feel free to browse our library of knowledge and find everything you need to build a bulletproof body.
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