The knees are one of the parts of the body that a lot of people have problems with, knee pain, knee injuries, other chronic, nagging aches and pains. The strength of the muscles around the knees are really important to keep your knees healthy and safe. Unfortunately, our knees are stuck between our ankles and hips. If you are experiencing knee pain, chances are there is something else going on with your legs, either down at your foot or at your ankle, or up at the hips that’s a contributing factor in the pain and problems you’re experiencing at your knees. Here are some tips for doing a double-legged Hamstring Curl Exercise to help improve knee strength, and reduce knee pain and problems. This is a simple exercise that requires no special equipment. What’s important is that you maintain great form and work in a pain-free range of motion.
Two Leg Hamstring Curl Exercise
One of the most important muscle groups that need to get stronger to keep your knees fit and healthy are your Hamstring Muscles. This double-legged Leg Curl Exercise is great exercise to strengthen your knees and Hamstrings.- Start by lying down in your stomach.
- Bring your legs together in a parallel position so your knees are facing straight down to the floor.
- You can put your hands underneath your nose and rest your head on your hands.
- Lengthen your tailbone to your heels, while pulling your lower belly in to help support your lower back. Then firm up your Glutes to help hold that nice, long back position.
- Squeeze you inner thighs together to keep the legs close next to each other and help you work the medial portion of the Hamstring muscles.
- With control, bend your knees using the Hamstrings muscles along the back of the thigh to bring the heels in towards the butt.
- It doesn’t matter how far your legs bend, but how well you keep both legs squeezing together and the pelvis close to the floor.
- As you are able to maintain the legs together and hips still, work on increasing the range of motion that the knees are bending in for more of a challenge.
- Repeat this exercise for 5-10 repetitions. 1-3 sets.
Important Tips to Remember
- If you start to bring your legs in and your lower back arches, you stopped using your Hamstrings and your lower back muscles took over to do the work. Keep your back still! This is very important for lower back safety.
- Be sure that your legs stay squeezing together. If your legs come apart when you bend the knees, you are using more of the outer portion of your Hamstrings, instead of training the whole Hamstring group for balanced muscle development.
- Keeping your inner thighs and inner Hamstrings working by holding the legs together will help improve leg and knee alignment and keep your knees tracking safely.
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