Knee Pain Exercises: 3 Moves to Strengthen Your Knees
Don't be scared to exercise if you have bad knees.

Got bad knees? Too scared to injure them while working out? Many people are prone to knee injuries. Good thing Rob Sulaver has the perfect workout for you. This workout features three exercises that will protect your knees while you move.
Exercise one is Romanian Dead Lifts. These are weighted exercises, so if you're new to this air on the lighter side until you have the correct form. Dumbbells in hand, stand with your knees shoulder width apart. Bend over at your waist, keeping your legs and back straight and the weights close to your legs. Return to start by pushing your hips through and bringing yourself upright. This should stretch your hamstrings and tighten your glutes.
Exercise two is the elevated push up. Place your hands on a bench or raised surface, and start in plank position. As you do your push-ups, keep your core tight. Make sure that your arms are tight to your body. This will work your chest and your triceps.
The third exercise is straight leg lifts. Lying on the ground, lift your chest slightly by tightening those upper abs. Alternate lifting and lowering each leg scissor motion. Each leg should be straight and the motion should be controlled to work your core and hip flexors.
Perform 10 reps of each exercise for three rounds.
Rob Sulaver is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, a certified sports nutritionist, and a certified personal trainer. He is the founding trainer of Rumble Boxing in New York City.
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[MUSIC]
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Aching knees ain't a problem.
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Today, we've got a workout coming your
way that's not gonna aggravate your
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problem area.
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[MUSIC]
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Welcome back to Just Get Started,
my name is Rob Sulaver.
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Now obviously, if you've got an injury,
get it checked out.
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Go to a specialist,
don't be a hero, heal up and
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you can get back to your fitness routine.
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But if you've got some minor aches and
pains, I've put together an awesome
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workout for you today that is
not going to bug your knees.
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Three moves coming your way.
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Exercise one, RDLs,
okay I'm grabbing 25 pounds,
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feel free to grab something
lighter if you're new to this.
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Right here.
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Proud chest.
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Coming down squeezing that booty up top.
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One more time!
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You should feel a nice stretch in the
hamstrings in the back of the legs here.
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Exercise number two, elevated push ups.
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Hands on this bench.
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Tapping that chest.
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Driving up.
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Working the chest, and the triceps.
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Exercise number three.
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Flat on the bench here,
legs nice and straight.
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Thigh, to thigh.
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Boom, working the core and
those hip flexors.
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Those are your three exercises.
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We're doing each, ten reps.
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We're doing the whole thing, three rounds.
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Let's get into it, shall we?
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Exercise one,
grabbing these 25 pound dumbbells, here.
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Perfect form starts with
that perfect setup, right?
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Rolling those shoulders down and
back, keeping that chest nice and
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proud, keeping these weights nice and
close to our thighs.
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Coming down nice and low,
driving those hips up at the top.
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Notice, all of this is
happening at the hips.
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Not a whole lot is happening at the knees.
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That's why this is so lovely.
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If you've got achy knees,
we can get that big business
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lower body involved without
aggravating our knees.
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Nice and low, driving up to the top.
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Again, you should feel a nice stretch
in the hamstrings at the back of
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the legs here.
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[SOUND] [SOUND] Last
wrap all the way down.
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Boom.
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Exercise number two step into
the back of the bench here.
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[SOUND] Hands just outside the shoulder
width spine nice and long.
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Tapping that chest on the bench and
driving up here.
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Again, perfect set up here.
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Elbows tracking about 45 degrees to
the midline of the body here right?
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So, we don't want them way out here.
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We don't need them scraping the rib cage.
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Split the difference right.
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Got to Goldilocks it right in the middle.
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Boom!
Let's bring this home!
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Two.
Perfect form to finish up and one.
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Excellent.
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Last exercise here flat on the bench,
leg up, squeeze that core.
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Good set up!
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That's one.
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Two.
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Straight legs.
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I like to think about reaching
through my heels here, the whole time.
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Keeping those legs nice and
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long, makes this exercise even harder and
I'm giving a little squeeze up top.
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Right?
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Really engaging that core the whole time.
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You should be feeling it at this point.
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Last two reps.
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Last rep!
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Boom!
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And boom.
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Excellent.
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Let's get right into round two all right?
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Grabbing these dumbbells.
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Remind yourself of that good set up.
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Round two.
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We're really working on our breath okay?
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Good inhale here helps support
the spine the whole time.
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And we're exhaling on top.
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Beautiful.
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Again listening to your hamstrings.
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Listening to your body,
seeing how low you can get here.
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Boom, driving out of the hole.
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Nice and low.
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Long spine the whole time.
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Keeping those dumbbells nice and
close to our shins.
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Last rep here, bam.
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Excellent.
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Right into our elevated pushups.
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That heart rate's soaring right?
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One exercise right after the other.
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That's what the circuit training does for
us.
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Tap that chest [SOUND] and drive out.
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Got that good setup going.
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Let's check in with
the breath on this round.
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Good exhale on the work right?
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So we tap that chest [SOUND].
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There's your breathing to
help support this movement.
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Helps us be strong and explosive.
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Last rep.
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Beautiful, ten good ones.
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Third exercise, second set, here we go.
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One [SOUND] Two, [SOUND] three,
[SOUND] four again.
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Checking in with that breath [SOUND] five,
[SOUND] six, yeah seven.
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Last three, eight, we got this.
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Nine and ten, beautiful.
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Third round always our strongest round.
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Finished with me here.
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Love in this because we all have aches and
pains right?
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But we're not letting that
become an excuse right?
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RDLs baby.
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Chest set up.
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Ace.
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Again all this activity
happening at the hips.
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Driving them back, almost like we are
closing a car door with our butt, right?
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Nice and low.
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Breath is awesome.
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Torso is strong.
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Full range of motion.
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Feeling it in the hamstrings,
last two reps.
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Last rep.
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Boom.
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Excellent job.
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Push ups.
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I'm feeling good.
Are you feeling good?
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Let's finish together here.
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Tapping that chest on the bench,
and driving out.
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Again.
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I love pairing up lower-body
exercises with upper-body exercises.
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We get the whole system working here.
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It's challenging.
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It's awesome.
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Makes us strong.
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Gets us lean.
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Two, last one!
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That was it, that was ten.
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See how fast that happened?
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It's like we were having so
much fun, it just flies by.
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Last exercise, last set.
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One, one, two, two, three, three.
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Finish with me here.
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Burn out that core a little bit.
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As always, if you wanna make
these workouts a little harder,
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feel free to amp up the weights.
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Feel free to amp up the reps.
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Bam!
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Excellent job, whoo.
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Awesome circuit today, guys.
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We got some lower body work that didn't
get into a whole lot of knee flexion.
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We got some upper body work
with those elevated push ups.
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We got some core work, we hit it all.
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That's what just get started is all about.
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Eliminating all our excuses,
making sure something like ache and
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a pain doesn't hold this back.
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And you know what?
We got even more fun coming your way.
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I'll see you soon.
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And just get started.
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[MUSIC]