How to work out lower body when have mild knee pain

[workingToBeFit]

Hello, I would like to get some suggestion on how to work out when I have intermittent knee pain. I want to work my legs, hips, abductors, adductors, calves, quad and hamstrings, but need to avoid squats and lunges for now as they are both very uncomfortable. I have most of Cathe's DVDs. Any recommendations for what to do at this point, e.g. which Cathe DVDs might be doable in this situation, or how to modify while I am in recovery mode from this? The knee pain is due to disuse, a lot of sitting at a desk all day, and lack of exercise during the pandemic.

 

[Debinmi]

Hi workingToBeFit.

Last summer I had an irritated ITB, so had to change up LB workouts. Luckily Cathe has many options for what you need as many LB dvds have chapters for floor work and barre work. (I wouldn't do ball roll-ins tho as they strain my knees). I combined chapters from many dvds to create workouts, and avoided heavy weights. I also did the Gaiam Strong Knees dvd each week, adding weights/bands to many of the exercises.

Good luck!

 

[ashaw]

I'm in that exact same situation now. I hurt my knee almost 2 weeks ago while doing the low impact sprinters on Cardio Slam. The knee that was hurt wasn't even the weight bearing one at the time. But, after icing it over that particular weekend, taking all last week off from exercise, I'm on day 2 of the P.volve program. I'm not here to promote another trainer or program because if not for the knee problem I'd still be jumping and pumping along with Cathe. The P.volve program is basically functional movement rooted in physical therapy. They call it "Prehab". I'm doing the 21 day Butt Lift dvd and I've done standing and floor work using gliders, ankle weights and the p.ball which is a large elastic band that looks like a Boss Band with a small ball attached to it. You put it near the top of your inner thighs and do squeezes. Its too soon to say if I think I'll see any difference in my butt. But I'm just happy that I've worked my lower body without any issues for the past 2 days. With that being said, I don't want to abandon the upper body gains I've worked so hard for, so I'm doing one body part per day using ICE Muscle Meltdowns. I have a lot of options for short upper body workouts with ICE, LITE and even the 4 Day Split series. I've had all the P.volve equipment for almost 2 years, but made excuses not to use it because I wanted to lose a few more pounds before doing a workout that doesn't have a true cardio component, but because of my knee I had no other choice and I'm thankful that I can at least do something and I'm not feeling any discomfort. There are other P.volve workouts and I even have a free 3 month trial that I've yet to activate.

Also, as mentioned above, Cathe does have workouts with options for doing floor work and barre type workouts.

Back in 2007, when I had to quit running because of a knee problem (not the knee I injured during Cardio Slam), I eased back into lower body workouts, I was doing Jari Love dvd's back then and for the lunges and squats, I wouldn't use any weights and wouldn't go as deep. I'm hoping to eventually see if I'm able to do high impact stuff again because I have a ton of Cathe dvds, in fact, I'd just gotten a few new ones in the mail the day before I hurt my knee. I might reserve P.volve for recovery weeks or just to change things up. I have their slant board workout which looks like fun and I do want to try more of their workouts while I'm in this waiting period.

Hope this helps and I hope you feel better!

 

[Braille]

It sounds like you are kind of starting to work out again after having gotten out of the habit? Been there, done that. If that's the case, I'd start with floor work for the legs and walking. If your knee does okay at a brisk walk, add some of Cathe's lower impact step, using NO risers to start with. Then, bring in some barre. I don't know how "difficult" your knee is, but if I haven't kept mine moving for awhile, my standing leg throws tantrums after barre workouts, if I bring them into my rotations too soon. I find step to be a nice transition for me, because the 4" step-up seems to strengthen my knees without taxing them like lunges and squats can do. Then, I bring back Cathe's "normal" killer lower body workouts with no weights, light weights, and then move up to where I should be with weights. This is the strategy that's always worked for me (the 2 times I've stopped working out). I've sworn that I won't stop again, but that's what I said the last 2 times! Both times, we were in the middle of moving. So, as long as I stay in this house forever... lol

 

[jennifer319_2013]

I would suggest if you have knee pain is to ice the knee at night.

If you are thinking of doing exercises that helps with knee pain is to do step aerobics. Step actually helps with building the muscles in the knee and the whole leg. But, I wouldn’t advise doing jumping jacks or anything bouncing.

Also, I would suggest doing yoga. It actually helps with knee pain.

I had severe knee pain and the only thing that helped was ice, step, yoga and walking.

I wouldn’t suggest running. It made my knees worse.

Hopes this helps.

 

[Linda1]

ICE To The Mat- TS Premix- No Stability Ball