Bend Your Knees “Plié-ease”
Thank you Stacey Futterman and 5POINT!
When performing your standing LE home exercises, try a set with knees bent. Flexing the knees allows the hip musculature to up-regulate as the hips will need to propriocept and stabilize more over a bent knee than compared to an extended knee. When performing on an extended knee, be mindful that you are drawing energy up the LE and creating the most space between the hip joint and ankle joint. This will prevent “locking” into the knee joint and sagging into any available hyperextension of the knee.
Try the Standing Abduction with Theraband exercise, performing one set with bent knees.
Set Up:
- Lasso a blue to green theraband around your lower thigh.
- Legs in parallel, hip width apart. Be sure to have your ribs stacked over your pelvis, spine in neutral; kneecaps directing over the second toe, heels are grounded on the floor.
Exercise:
- With legs in parallel, repeat the assessment exercise, now with both knees slightly bent. Perform 4-8 reps.
- Progress to deceleration control, by taking 3 counts to flex the knee, then extend the knee in 1 count. Perform 4-8 reps.
- Then master acceleration control by extending the knee in 3 counts and flexing the knee in one count. Perform 4-8 reps.
Reassessment:
- Perform the assessment choreography again. Do you notice a difference in your graded muscle activation, balance and control?
- Now try the Tuesday Tip from 8/25/15 with knees bent. Then, try performing other LE standing exercises with knees bent for one set. What are your movement outcomes?
Did this MoveCoLab Tuesday Tip help? Share your findings with us at info@movecolab.com
