« Mountain Hardware Napali 50 Backpack Review | Main | Deuter Guide 30 SL Backpack Review »
Keeping Your Knees In Good Health – At Home Exercises – Part 1
By Editor | July 30, 2010
No matter what activities you do, your knees are a big part of those activities, like just going for a walk in the city, hiking on the trails or snowboarding. So it is recommended to try to keep your knees in good health all year round. If you don’t it makes you more succeptible to injuries, below are a exercises and other things you can do at home to improve
and maintain your knees.
Squats and Crunches
Squats and crunch exercises help strengthen the muscles surrounding your knees, which is necessary for supporting your knees. Squats and crunches help build strength in your ankles and ankles, along with trunk muscles improve balance, minimizing stumbles and awkward steps that can strain or rupture knees. Try doing lunges, squats and even stomach crunches 3 times a week, 3-6 weeks before your outdoor excursions to be really fit. Do 3 sets of as many reps as you can with a minute rest in between.
Reduce and ReFuel
When planning your excursions, find ways to reduce the demands on your knees. Try avoiding long distance routes, multiple mountain passes or long hours of rock hopping…these can be tough on the knees. Make sure to schedule time for resting and unexpected delays. Also, make a note in your trip plan to bring extra snacks and water to refuel and boost your energy ,muscle recovery and keep well hydrated.
Keep It Light
Try packing as light as possible for your trips, less weight on your back means more stability and less pressure and pounding on your joints. So, leave the camp chair and other luxuries behind your knees will thank you for it.
Break In Your Boots
Plan to wear the same lightweight boots you train with on your trips. This way you will break in the hiking boots, as well you will have a better comfort level with them so when you hit the trails you can hike a full-day without any problems. A lightweight hiking boot is recommended because they put less strain across your knees.
Feet Support
Not enough support for your feet while doing extensive walking or hiking can cause twist and lateral movement of your feet which causes strain on ankles and the inside of your knees. The best way to counter this is to put insoles that provide sufficient padding to absorb the pressure. If the bottoms of your feet are flat (pronation) it is recommended you buy custom orthotic insoles.
Bookmark at:StumbleUpon | Digg | Del.icio.us | Dzone | Newsvine | Spurl | Simpy | Furl | Reddit | Yahoo! MyWeb
Topics: Articles, Camping, Hiking and Backpacking, General | 2 Comments »
Keeping Your Knees In Good Health – At Home Exercises – Part 1 ……
I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…
I couldn’t agree more with this blog and the importance of keeping your knees in good shape. I like hill running, but that really is rough on the knees…