If you’re dealing with knee pain but don’t want to neglect your workout routine, there’s some good news: You don’t have to forgo your usual lower-body exercises. Just focus on doing low-impact moves that target your leg muscles without putting a lot of pressure on your knees.
When you overdo high-impact exercises, like running and jumping, it tends to stress the patellar tendon, which connects your kneecap to your shinbone. That can lead to a condition called patellar tendinitis, or jumper’s knee, says Mayo Clinic. It’s a common cause of knee pain.
You can help treat this kind of pain by exercising your quads, calves, glutes, and hamstrings. Strengthening these areas lessens the load on your knees and helps stabilize your joints.
You see this whenever you do a squat or a lunge. These moves pull your knee down and allow your calf muscle to lengthen. They also slow down your ankle and knee as they bend, lessening the impact on them. Your quads get stronger, and it gets easier to do hip bends that activate your glutes, further safeguarding your knees.
Here are seven low-impact leg exercises to try.
1. Reverse Lunge