5 Exercises for Knee Strengthening with Osteoarthritis

Strength training is hard with knee pain. Trust me, I’ve had three knee surgeries, and often struggle with it too. This week, we are providing resources for people that are looking for osteoarthritis treatment at the gym safely and effectively.

The exercises we’ll be covering in this video are:

• Kitchen sink squat
• Heel rock back
• Bentover row, and
• Knee blocked squat.

Knee Blocked Squats 

 Too much force through the knees is often a cause of knee pain. We can use the prop of a box, door frame, or chair to encourage a backwards weight shift. This recruits the hamstrings and glutes to do their very important job. I like to try this exercise with folks that have knee pain with squatting, going from sitting to standing, and rising from the toilet.

Heel Rock Back Exercise 

Fractures occur when a load into the bone outweighs that bone’s ability to bear weight. This happens only in two ways:

The first is through acute trauma that occurs from a fall, specifically onto a wrist, hip, or femur. This can happen at any age, but with the addition of osteoporosis, that bone can now sustain less force and create a greater fracture. In my clinic with folks that have osteoporosis, our first line of defense is minimizing the risk for falls. The lower the risk for falls, the lower the risk for fracture that will, on a month-by-month basis, decrease our opportunities for bone-breaking events.

The second way a fracture occurs is when the load exceeds the threshold for remodeling. Our bone strength gradually weakens regardless of our of the age we’re at any time after about 35. If that strain imparts the load in the wrong direction at too high of a force, a stress fracture occurs. So fractures occurring by osteoporosis most often occur in the spine, and these spinal fractures are called vertebral compression fractures. They occur in the rate of nearly 700,000 a year. They’re only diagnosed based on x-ray imaging, so I imagine the prevalence is likely a little higher than is captured in the data. So enough the bad news, what’s our solution?

You have some time to start working on your bone integrity and minimizing the negative effects of osteoporosis. In future videos, we’re going to understand your treatment options, including pharmaceutical and injection options. Find your partner in bone health, whether it’s a physical therapist or a primary care physician. With the spine, we do want to be careful; if you’re osteoporotic, you’re already going through a disease state. So paying special attention to your deficits and impairments is really important.

Stay tuned for future lifestyle solutions to maintain bone integrity!

– Patrick Donovan