The knees are made to withstand an enormous amount of pressure. These synovial joints support 80% of the body weight when standing while for every 4 kilos that the knees gain weight, they support 18 kilos more when walking.
“For every pound of weight you gain, your knees will have four more pounds of force on them, and even more of that when you go up or down stairs,” says Dr. John-Paul Rue, an orthopedic/sports medicine specialist at Mercy Medical Center. in Baltimore.
According to the Arthritis Foundation (AF), an additional 10 pounds of weight can add between 15 and 50 pounds of pressure to a joint. Therefore, the main problem with knees is that, despite being very strong, they are also very exposed and prone to injuries and ailments of all kinds.
Specifically, pain in this part of the body is a common symptom in people of all ages. It can start suddenly, following an injury, or following exercise. It can even start as a mild annoyance and then gradually worsen, according to the specialized health portal MedlinePlus.
exercise for the knees
The gym is one of the places where knees are most abused. It is necessary to monitor the technique and the weights that are handled so that these joints suffer as little as possible.
To warm them up and end up having iron knees that won’t give in to anything, just one exercise. This is the backward sled drag, which is excellent for shielding the knees.
It is an exercise that has very little impact on the joint, makes the blood flow increase a lot in the area and raises the heart rate. Bottom line: Your knees will burn from the effort as they get stronger. Ben Patrick, a personal trainer and knee expert, is a strong advocate of these back drags.
How to do it?
- To be able to perform this exercise you will need a gym sled. It is true that not all centers have one, so you can use pulleys or help yourself with a gym partner and a towel.
- With the equipment prepared, the sled must be tied to a harness. The same for the pulleys while the partner will hold each end of a towel, which will surround the person involved at knee height.
- Then, when everything is ready, you should start walking backwards.
At first sight it is an exercise without too many complications. However, you have to be aware of several variables that will make the exercise more or less demanding. The intention of this walk backwards is to find the right rhythm to notice the work in the quads, hamstrings and calves ofAfter a couple of rounds, according to the magazine The sports world, in their health and wellness section.
On the other hand, it is not advisable to consider it as an exercise with which a certain number of repetitions must be achieved. In this case, you should work for five minutes in a row and progressively.
It starts out easy and increases the pace, the length of the stride and the weight of the load. These three factors are the ones that will directly affect the work, although it must also be taken into account that the material of the floor plays its role.
How many times to do the exercise?
The ideal for this exercise is do it three times a week for five minutes. On one of these occasions it will serve as a warm-up prior to a leg session. The other two times that this backward drag is performed, it would replace a few minutes of running or cycling to warm up and start sweating before training.