Don’t let knee pain prevent you from your weight loss goals. Cat Kom and Bethany are here to demonstrate some exercises you can complete without placing too much pressure on your knees and hips.  One thing to remember is that everyone is different so if modifying or altering the exercise is necessary for your condition, please listen to your body.

If one knee is in pain, perhaps you’ll benefit from Straight Leg Lunges.  Through this exercise, most people generally reduce the discomfort of the injured knee while keeping the other leg actively moving.

Try some Dead Lifts or some Sissy Squats to take pressure off of the knees.  For sissy squats you place dumbbells (or anything you can find) under your heels.  And how about some bridges to strengthen the glutes, hamstings and quads, and test out different variations of bridges.  There are a ton!  You’ll find there name doesn’t really add it, they’re tough, but in a good way.

As demoed in the video you can also do some Up and Over’s and/or the Pilates Leg Series to strengthen those ligaments and tendons around the joints, or test out the good ol’ KettleBell Swing to help with the core, hamstrings and glute strength without taxing those knees.

Spinning is another great option to strengthen ailing knees and hips.  Physical Therapists recommend it to their patient a lot! It’s low impact and not only strengthens and leans out the legs, it also strengthens the heart and lungs!

To sum it up, although most exercises aren’t off limits, high impact physical exercises like running and jumping (plyometrics) are likely good ones to avoid, but you can (and should) still do many things to keep up the muscle tone in that lower body that is so prone to atrophy every day we get older. So just because your knees are calling mercy, don’t punish your entire body!

Watch the full video to see different variations for every exercise and to catch a special appearance from another specialized Studio SWEAT trainer!