I will preface this by saying I am NOT a doctor, I am a coach, take that as you may. Now that that’s out of the way, below are 3 exercises and 3 stretches you should use to bulletproof your knees once and for all! Note that these movements may need to be regressed or progressed depending on your abilities. With it affecting 1 in 4 adults, for many, knee pain is THE issue.

But, before we get into the movements, let’s talk a little bit about your knees. First and foremost, our knees are joints, so there is technically no way to “strengthen” them. The knee is a hinge type synovial joints making flexion and extension its main movements. Without giving you a full on anatomy lesson, what’s most important for you to know is that your entire leg musculature is responsible for ensuring the health of your knees, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, calves, tibiales, everything. Weakness in any one of those can manifest in weakness, pain, or worse, injury. I know that’s probably not what you want to hear and sounds overwhelming but it’s the truth. If you don’t want you athletic career cut short by injury or pain, you best consider including these exercises in your program.

Now, in my opinion, it’s less important to know the specifics of your knee pain but rather focus on the solution, and as I mentioned above, the solution is strengthening. Doctors will tell you to RICE, rest, ice, compression, and elevation, but I call bullshit. Rest is really the last thing you need, and not that it’s helpful, but it most definitely should not be your first tactic. It’s only a small portion of treatment. Injury and pain aren’t like paper cuts, you don’t just put a bandaid on it and wait for your body to figure it out. YOU have to figure it out and do the work, and the work is strengthening through progression and regression until you’re bulletproofed and protected.

So, without further adieu, here are THREE of our TWELVE movement standards from our the knee ability portion of the Bulletproof Blueprint Program.

1. VMO Slant-board Squat (Standard: 100% BW x 8-10 reps)

2. Tibialis Raises (Standard: 25% BW x 8-10 reps)

3. Bodyweight Step Down (Standard: full bodyweight step down)

Here are TWO of our SEVEN flexibility standards from our knee ability portion of the Bulletproof Blueprint Program

1. Couch Stretch (Standard: shoelaces to wall, back to wall, no strain)

2. 90/90 Stretch (Standard: head to heel, no strain)