Great Lower Body Workout for Knee Injuries

Yesterday was my first workout after my appointment with my sports medicine doctor about my knee. I wanted to start strengthening my leg muscles ASAP to help overcompensate for my weak knee and I was told I cant run, steps, squat, or do lunges. So I had to get creative with what I could do given the fact that squats and lunges are the go to leg exercises. No weighted exercises on a bent knee doesn't make it easy, but its not impossible either...


I did a 10 min warmup on the spin bike and got in 4.5 miles.



Then I did the following exercises 3 times through:


1. Straight leg raises: sit with your back and butt up against a wall and lift your entire leg without bending the knee - this requires your quad to do all the work- 25 each leg (this was the closest pic I could find). This sounds easy, but it is VERY difficult if you are all the way against the wall and doing it right - unless you have insane quad muscles!

 

 

 

2. Side straight leg raises: 25 each leg

3. Fire hydrants: 25 each leg

 

 

 

4. Backwards leg lifts, go from all fours to lifting the leg up - don't set the knee down in between sets, just get it back close to the ground- 25 each leg

 

 

 

5. Deadlifts with 35lbs - 25 total

 

 

 

 

6. Calf raises holding 35lbs - 25 total