Quad and Hamstring Exercises for knee pain

4 Exercises to Isolate the Quad and Hamstring Muscles and Reduce Knee Pain

If you’ve been struggling with knee pain while squatting, your quad and hamstring muscles may be to blame. You may not have prepped your body with enough quad and hamstring exercises before squatting. Let me explain.

If your quad and hamstring muscles aren’t ready for the demands that squatting places on them, your knees will bear the load that these muscles aren’t able to tolerate, and that leads to pain. This is also true of many other activities like walking, running, and stair climbing.

But strengthening the quad and hamstring muscles with specific exercises allows these muscles to do more of the work of squatting and take pressure off your knees.

If you read my most recent post on how to modify your squat to reduce knee pain, isolated quad and hamstring strengthening is something you’ll want to do while you modify so you can get back to your regular squatting routine.

Use these isolated quad and hamstring strength exercises to build their ability to bear the load of squatting and reduce your knee pain.

Exercise #1: isolated quad strength – Straight leg raise

I use this quad exercise in the clinic a lot for patients with acute knee pain or who have recently had knee surgery. Why? Because they aren’t yet able to do more functional quad strength exercises like squats, lunges, or step ups. The straight leg raise is a great way to start building quad strength and reduce knee pain.

Tips:

-Squeeze your thigh, pull your foot towards you, keep your knee as straight as possible.

-Lift to the height of your other knee.

-Do as many reps as you can.

Exercise #2: Isolated quad strength – Knee extensions

The knee extension exercise is a great one to train the quad muscles to turn on if they have been painful or lazy. I use this quad strength exercise for patients who are lacking knee extension (they aren’t able to straighten their knee all the way). If you are lacking knee extension, this exercise is best done after stretching your knee but it also isolates the quad muscles perfectly during any workout.

Tips:

-Prop your toe on something 4-8 inches high to work through a larger range of motion.

-Hold the straightened position for 5 seconds.

-Do as many reps as you can.

Exercise #3: Isolated hamstring strength – bridges

The bridge is an underrated exercise. It works the hamstrings, glutes, and core. Maybe it’s underrated because people fail to progress the bridge. If you have decent strength in your legs, you may find the double leg bridge too easy. But progress to a single leg bridge and work to keep your hips level, and you will definitely feel the increased challenge.

Tips:

-Pull your core in before you lift, squeeze your glutes (butt) at the top, go down slowly.

-Progress to a single leg bridge as able but be sure to keep your hips level.

-Do as many reps as you can.

Exercise #4: Isolated hamstring strength – banded hamstring curls

This exercise moves the hamstring muscle through a wide range allowing you to work on both concentric and eccentric strength. (Big words I know, just know that it helps you move in bigger ways with more strength.) Start this one with a light band. This exercise isolates the hamstring muscles so much that if your band is too thick, you may get a cramp in your hamstrings or not be able to move through the whole range.

Tips:

-Place the band around your ankles, lift the heel slowly to form a 90 degree angle, slowly come back down.

-Keep your core in to avoid arching your back.

-Do as many reps as you can.

Bonus exercise for isolated quad and hamstring strength: knee curls and extensions on weight machines.

The knee curl and leg extension machines are in most gyms. Sometimes these machines are disliked by physical therapists because they aren’t functional. But if your goal is to increase your quad and hamstring strength with isolated exercises so you can get back to squatting without knee pain, these machines are for you. I recommend you do these machines with one leg at a time to make sure you are isolating the quad and hamstring muscles in each leg. You may notice one leg is stronger than the other, these machine are a good way make them equal.

Knee pain while squatting can be frustrating in the least and debilitating at the worst. And if you ignore it, this pain can lead to significant injury that doesn’t just effect your workout routine but effects your ability to do daily tasks like walking and climbing stairs.

Sometimes knee pain while you squat means your muscles aren’t ready for the load that squatting puts on them. Use these isolated quad and hamstring exercises to prep your body for squatting and reduce your knee pain.

Want to read my series on reducing knee pain from the beginning? Start here!

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