Weak Knees - Any suggestions?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

My knees are weak.

When I was a kid I had trouble with my kneecaps popping out when my legs got fatigued. Saw several doctors who came up with various theories which were completely inconsistent.

Grew up and my knees are perfectly fine unless I’m doing a lot of physical work and they’ll get the same problem.

So yeah, any asana that would be suited to strengthening my knees?
Anything else you’d recommend?

Just to be clear, this isn’t a major problem, it’s a non-factor in daily life. It’s just something I want to improve.

#2

Weight lifting doesn’t help? Things like leg extensions and leg curls?

#3

balance board is good for the knees I think. And maybe asanas that inquire alot of balancing.

#4

My spouse (also my yoga student) has the same issue. From my experience I can say that:
All standing asanas are good for the knees.
Strengthening hamstrings is good too.
Try to avoid lotus poses, pigeon, caw face, hero, and other knee twisting or knee folding poses. You may approach them when your knees feel better.

#5

Tighten the thigh muscles in tadasana (firm them onto the bone), lifting the kneecaps. Also lift the inner arches of the feet while grounding the outer edges of the feet. Keep this in any standing pose, including forward bend, tree pose, etc.

#6

[QUOTE=Aaron;32216]My knees are weak.

When I was a kid I had trouble with my kneecaps popping out when my legs got fatigued. Saw several doctors who came up with various theories which were completely inconsistent.

Grew up and my knees are perfectly fine unless I’m doing a lot of physical work and they’ll get the same problem.

So yeah, any asana that would be suited to strengthening my knees?
Anything else you’d recommend?

Just to be clear, this isn’t a major problem, it’s a non-factor in daily life. It’s just something I want to improve.[/QUOTE]

It really depends on what type of knee injury you have. Do you have a patelo-femoral problem or a femoro-tibial problem? Is there an angulated knee cap? Is there a tendon laxity?

Each injury has to be treated differently, so it is important to assess which injury are we talking about in order to recommend. For example, a patelofemoral problem will inevitably prohibit any exercise or pose with a knee articulation angulation over 90?, so the available asanas would be different…

#7

It really depends on what type of knee injury you have. Do you have a patelo-femoral problem or a femoro-tibial problem? Is there an angulated knee cap? Is there a tendon laxity?

Each injury has to be treated differently, so it is important to assess which injury are we talking about in order to recommend. For example, a patelofemoral problem will inevitably prohibit any exercise or pose with a knee articulation angulation over 90?, so the available asanas would be different…

Consider it just weak muscles. I only put in the history part in case it jumped out at someone as something obvious.

For what it’s worth, everything I’m doing in attempt to strengthen my knees as is involves bending at least 90? in order to put enough stress on them to encourage them to strengthen.

Tighten the thigh muscles in tadasana (firm them onto the bone), lifting the kneecaps. Also lift the inner arches of the feet while grounding the outer edges of the feet. Keep this in any standing pose, including forward bend, tree pose, etc.

Could you elaborate on this?
It’s not often that tightening muscles is a good option. And firming the quads (I don’t know if the hamstring actually effects the knee cap directly) onto the bone sounds odd since as far as I know it’s only attatched at the ligaments on either end (knee and upper leg/hip).
So are you suggesting something to do with improving the health of my ligaments, or is my knowledge of anatomy worse than I thought it was?

Try to avoid lotus poses, pigeon, caw face, hero, and other knee twisting or knee folding poses. You may approach them when your knees feel better.

My knees feel fine, it’s just when fatigued that they are a problem. I’m attempting to stress them under controlled conditions (in exercise) in order to prevent them from being unable to handle stress outside of controlled conditions (life in general).
Straight legs are easier on the knees, but other than possibly in reducing stability (i.e. standing on one leg) and forcing my knees to stabilise themselves, bent knee positions are required for improvement.

#8

Tighten the thigh muscles in tadasana (firm them onto the bone), lifting the kneecaps. Also lift the inner arches of the feet while grounding the outer edges of the feet. Keep this in any standing pose, including forward bend, tree pose, etc.

Could you elaborate on this?
It’s not often that tightening muscles is a good option. And firming the quads (I don’t know if the hamstring actually effects the knee cap directly) onto the bone sounds odd since as far as I know it’s only attatched at the ligaments on either end (knee and upper leg/hip).
So are you suggesting something to do with improving the health of my ligaments, or is my knowledge of anatomy worse than I thought it was?

Maybe you’re overthinking it?
If you stand and try to lift your kneecaps, you do it with the thigh muscles. Hold them firm, and they will strengthen.

I don’t know much about anatomy, I just know what has helped my weak knees, and no they don’t pop out like yours do, but any strengthening of the muscles around the knees is going to help them.