Knee Pain: 5 Exercises to Strengthen Your Knees and Reduce Knee Pain with Mountain Ice Sports Recovery Gel

Any sort of exercise can help you stay in shape and maintain good cardiovascular health, but knee pain is a common result of regular, strenuous exercise. Physical activity can put stress on your legs through repetitive impact and motion, long practice hours, and limited recovery periods. Read on to learn about 5 exercises to improve knee stability and strengthen the muscles around your leg, and how Mountain Ice Sports Recovery Gel can improve your training experience and recovery time!

1. Squat

How It's Done:

1. Place your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart with your toes pointed slightly outward and your hands clasped at your chest.
2. Send your hips back and then bend your knees to lower yourself down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Keep your chest lifted.
3. Press down with your heels and engage your glutes to lift yourself back to the starting position.
4. Repeat for 3 sets of 10 reps.

Why It's Done: Improves knee mobility and strength by strengthening larger lower body muscles around the knee, like the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps.

2. Reverse Lunge

How It's Done:

1. Place your feet hip-width apart.
2. Step back with your right foot while bending your left knee, lowering it to the floor. Make sure you flex your left hip as you do this. Some people like to place an exercise slider or towel under the right foot and slide back instead.
3. Press your left heel into the floor and push upwards to lift yourself back to the starting position.
4. Repeat for 1-2 sets of 8-10 reps on each side.

Why It's Done: This exercise improves your balance safely, allowing you to stay anchored while increasing your knee's stability.

3. Lateral Lunge

How It's Done:

1. Start in a normal standing position, then step your left foot outward far to the left.
2. Sending your hips back and bend your left knee until your hamstring is about parallel to the floor. Make sure your right leg stays straight.
3. Push off with your right foot, lifting yourself back into the starting position.
4. Repeat while alternating legs for 1-2 sets of 20 reps.

Why It's Done: Much of our leg movement is done forward and back on what's known as the sagittal plane. Training the frontal (side to side) plane strengthens muscles around the knee while decreasing the risk of overuse injuries. As a bonus, lateral lunges put less stress on the knee joint as normal squats and lunges.

4. Split Squat

How It's Done:

1. Stand 1-2 feet in front of a step, box, or bench.
2. Reach your right foot back and place your toes on the step.
3. Bend your left knee to lower yourself, as low as possible, in a controlled fashion.
4. Push with left foot to lift yourself back to a standing position.
5. Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps per leg.

Why It's Done: This resistance training exercise strengthens lower leg muscles and helps improve your knee and hip stability.

5. Step Up

How It's Done:

1. Stand in front of a step, box, or bench.
2. Step up with your right foot.
3. Lift your left knee toward your chest, making a 90-degree angle with your hip and knee.
4. Return, with controlled movement, to a starting position.
5. Repeat for 3 sets of 8 reps on either side. Many people like to add dumbbells for additional challenge as they become comfortable.

Why It's Done: This exercise improves posterior chain movement that helps you practice deceleration of the leg, improving your control and stability.

How Can Mountain Ice Sports Recovery Gel Help Reduce Knee Pain?

Knee pain and injuries are extremely common for athletes and tend to develop gradually due to repetitive stress on the legs combined with poor or limited downtime after exercise. Mountain Ice Sports Recovery Gel is a unique formulation of high-quality, all-natural ingredients designed to reduce muscle, joint, tendon, and ligament soreness and strain after exercise! Our ingredients have been specially chosen to reduce inflammation and strain after physical activity:

• Menthol: Its cooling sensation numbs pain, providing immediate relief, while it widens blood vessels to improve circulation and deliver more oxygen and nutrients to damaged areas.
• MSM: Prevents breakdown of connective tissue like ligaments and reduces inflammation.
• Spearmint: Soothes pain and muscle contractions, reducing stress on the foot.
• Aloe Vera: Anti-inflammatory plant that promotes faster muscle recovery.
• Camphor: Cooling pain reliever that reduces swelling from injury and increases circulation.
• Vitamin E: Reduces muscle soreness and encourages muscle rebuilding, strengthening the foot's support.
• Green Tea Extract: Powerful antioxidant that reduces the oxidative stress that can cause inflammation.
• Arnica Flower: Relieves inflammation and muscle soreness while improving circulation.
• Turmeric: Inhibits inflammatory response while promoting deep absorption of ingredients, fighting pain at its source.

Are you looking for pain relief from knee strain or injuries? Click here to try Mountain Ice Sports Recovery Gel today to get back on your feet!