2 Best Knee Exercises with Resistance Bands | Knee Exercises

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Hi. My name is Eric Sampson, and I want to talk a little bit about some exercise options for the knee with using a resistance band or a stretch band. What’s interesting about a stretch band or a resistance band is it has a unique quality to it. As you are pulling the band, using it for your arm or your leg or your knee, the resistance actually increases the more you pull, and at the same time the muscle is shortening. So you have this double amount of tension if you will.

That’s different from your Nautilus equipment or your free weights. The free weights obviously it depends upon your position against gravity. So the weight is much lighter over here and much lighter down here than in the middle. With your Nautilus equipment, it’s actually the same resistance throughout the range of motion.

This is unique. It has the shortening quality of the muscle with the increased tension. I just want to go over a couple of exercises that are great for the knee that you can use to supplement your workout.

So the first one I want to look at is trying to work on using your hip muscles. On the lateral side it’s called your hip abductors. It’s an important muscle to strengthen for runners and for people that are in the exercise population as a supplement to the exercises they’re doing for their knees.

So why don’t you come and lie down on your back. I’m going to wrap this around her ankles, keep it down here by her ankles, and you’re going to lie flat. The key is to keep your knee straight. So you’re going to tighten up your quad muscles while you’re actually exercising, and the goal is to try to basically spread your legs apart just like so. So keeping your knees straight, you’re working on your quadriceps, and then by pulling the band apart, you’re working on your lateral or your hip abductors. Very important muscle for balance and for strength and for runners who need to have a muscle absorb the weight and the punishment with every step they take during their distance. Maybe 2 sets of 10 on alternating days as an adjunct, again, to the workout.

Another exercise that works well for the exercise population for knees is to go on your side. These are called the clamshell. This is a nice one. You wrap it up by your thighs and the lower part of your thighs and get on your side. From here, you’re trying to just simply lift up the top knee off the bottom knee. That’s why it’s called the clamshell again. Again, if you hit 2 to 3 sets of 10, maybe on alternating days as an adjunct to the workout you’re doing at the gym, it will be a nice balance to the knee rehab and the knee exercise program you’re doing.

As a protocol, you can sort of build it up to a thicker band. They come in colors from red up to blue and black. So you can sort of increase the resistance with the colors.

These are just a couple of the many exercises that are available with using the resistance band in your rehab or your knee exercise program.