The knees are arguably our most important, but also most injury-prone, joints. Nearly every activity that we are on our feet requires performance from our knees, the connection between the lower and upper legs. As with all our joints, proper care before, during, and after activities is key.
Like the shoulder mobility series I posted in September, many of these knee mobility exercises and stretches are inspired by Coach Sommer of Gymnastic Strength Training, yoga, and Pilates. It can be done in order as one session, or any one of these movements can be interspersed between lifting. I do these in between sets when doing major leg lifts (particularly squats or lunges), as a warmup to running or plyometrics, or on rest/stretch days.
There are a combination of true mobility exercises along with some static stretches. Generally I suggest dynamic mobility exercises as your warmup or in-between strength movements, and saving static stretches for the end of your workout or on stretch days. Click on any of the exercises for the best video demo I could find on-line (it will pop out a new tab or window on your browser):
- Deep squat stretch
- Inside squat
- Outside squat
- Deck squat
- Twisting squat
- Cossack squat
- Side-to-side squat
- Speed skater squats
- Shoulder bridge leg curls
- Natural leg curls
- Seiza sit
- Curled seiza
- Frog stretch
- Knee tuck
- And finally a nice 5-part series from the fringes of the jui-jitsu world: 5-stretch series