Leg and Knee Strength Videos

Working from a rotationally stabilized shin, these muscles can be used to rotate and otherwise control the hip bone.

Since the sartorius, recturs femoris, tensor fascia latae/IT band and Gluteus maximus/IT band all pass over the vastus muscles, activating the vastus muscles (as well as the adductors) can help to take out the slack from these muscles making rotation control of the hip bone relative to the thigh (or vice versa) easier.

One reason for doing this is to help anchor the front of the hip bone. Doing this, gives the muscles that attach at or near to the ASIC and pubic bone an anchor point.

These muscles include shorter hip muscles like: iliacus, pectineus and gluteus minimus.

They also include long hip muscles like: the sartorius, rectus femoris, tensor fascia latae and gracilis.

Because these long hip muscles cross the knee joint, creating an upward pull on the inguinal ligament may be part of effectively dealing with knee pain.

One method involves adding tension to the IT Band by activating the Vastus Lateralis muscle.

Another method involves anchoring the bottom end of the IT Band by either activating the Tibialis Anterior directly or by activating it indirectly by stabilizing the heel.

While it's generally not recommended to do this exercise if you have knee problems, I've been using it despite my knee problems. And that's what I talk about in this video, how to do the Peterson squat safely even if you do have knee problems.

The main thing is to do it slowly and within a comfortable range of motion.

So that you can gradually extend that range of motion, in this video I talk about the various muscle control actions that I use to make my knees pain free.

Next some exercises where you can exercise both your glutes (hip extensors) and your psoas (hip flexor).

Even if you don't have collapsed arches, these exercises can help improve foot awareness.

If you have true flat feet these exercises probably won't work to reshape the foot, but may help improve foot awareness.

In this case, use the calf muscles to keep the heels lifted, particularly the gastrocnemius which cross the back of the knee joint to attach to the femur.

One advantage of squatting with both legs is that I can go all the way down (butt to heels).

Note that I'm doing this to help deal with knee pain. However, I'm also doing it slowly and carefully.

Check out previous videos below on adding tension to IT Band, Inguinal Ligament Tension, Hip Rotation using long hip muscles.

The first is a simple balancing on one leg foot touch. The idea is to touch the lifted foot lightly to the floor.

The second is a knee touch, lowering the back knee to the floor just to the point that skin contact is made. Both exercises help you practice body awareness.

I've included a simple modification for the split squat knee touch.

Because this is an active calf stretch the tibialis anterior muscle is strong exercised. You may find that it stretches your hamstrings also.

It could be thought of as an exercise for getting up off of the floor without using your hands.

It can be a fun exercise to use as part of a seated warm up.

It also includes a variations that exercise the arms as well as the legs.

For knee strength and stability, the key point is activating the gastrocnemius muscle prior to lifting the back leg.

It also includes tips for comfortably shifting weight to one foot and moving into the low position of the pistol squat.