Alrighty, y’all. Today we’re gonna talk about some great prehab exercises that focus on your quads! These are beneficial for anyone who is stronger in their posterior chain than their quads to try to “even out” (I’ll explain that more in a sec here), but these are also great for anyone who’s been dealing with pain in the front of your knee, particularly the spanish squats - start with those, and then try the others, keeping the range such that pain doesn’t go above 5/10 (with tendon issues, we actually WANT to feel like a 1-2/10 to know we’re actually challenging the tissues enough to make a difference!). In FACT - I periodically have patellar tendonitis flare ups (I’ve had 3 knee surgeries, one of which was an ACL surgery where they cut out part of my patellar tendon to use it for my ACL - they now know that causes some frequent tendon issues long term). One of those flare ups started this morning working on squat cleans - a few sets of spanish squats, and I was able to finish my training pain free!

Ok, so now onto when you may need to do these even if you aren’t dealing with any pain:

One of the faults I see often with squats is when the hips shoot out of the bottom. You maybe have heard some coaches jokingly call this “stripper squats” or the more politically correct term is “good morning squats”. Well, what’s likely happening is that person is stronger/ more dominant in the posterior chain (glutes/hammies/low back) versus their quads. Therefore, they shoot their hips up to get in a position where they can take advantage of that extra strength to get the weight back up. If it’s really obvious, it’ll almost look like they finish with a good morning versus a squat pattern.

Ideally though, what we wanna see is the chest and hips rise at the same rate, utilizing a full leg drive to get the weight up. If you tend to squat with the hip dominant pattern noted above, it can be really beneficial to do some training to bias the quads to make them have a more balanced ratio compared to the posterior chain. The movements listed here are great for that, along with belt squats which allow you to really load up your squat but the weight is positioned in a way where it’s tough to allow this hips-shooting compensation to happen.

My 4 fave rehab movements for building up your #quadsquad status:

Spanish Squats

Biggest thing here is to keep tension on the band the whole time, esp at the bottom! Shins should be perpendicular with the floor and the tension from the band will help unload the knees (for the anatomy nerds like me, this happens via anterior translation of the tibia). You can hold a weight goblet style (like I am in this video) to counterbalance as well.

Sissy Squats

Biggest thing here is to maintain a straight line from shoulders - hips - knees (ie don’t let your hips bend back). Props if you can make it allll the way to the floor and back up without losing position!! I used to be able to, so apparently I need to work on these again!

Theses are pretty difficult, so by all means, attach a band/strap to something in front of you to hold on so you can use that to assist - as much as needed, but as little as possible.

Skater Squats

Bend one leg up and “lunge” back as shown with that knee touching just behind the stabilizing foot. Note that the knee touches the ground first, not the foot like it would in a lunge.

If you struggle with balance on these, try holding a weight out in front of you to counter balance. You can also scale these a bit and have the knee go a little back versus all the way behind the knee

Reverse Nordic Curls

Start in a tall kneel position. Make sure to place something soft under your knees if needed. You want to maintain a solid line from your knees - hips - shoulders as you slowly lower yourself back as far as you can control. Once you have to break at the hips and let them bend, come back up to the start. This is a little nerve wracking the first time you ever do it, so give yourself a couple reps to get comfy with the movement! Big thanks to Jinx here for the emotional support (even though I’m pretty sure he was just in it for pets)

Alrighty, hit me up (in the comments below or on IG @moveonthedaley ) with any questions you have about these! And if you feel like you want a little more idividualized guidance on dealing with knee pain, schedule a discovery call with me!