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- Exercises targeting the lower body can enhance the strength, stability, and mobility of your knees and hips.
- Banded clam shells, Bulgarian split squats, and golbet squats are a few exercises that can strengthen your knees and hips.
- Being consistent with completing the exercises is more important than where you add them into your workout schedule.
Your hips and knees are two vital joints that help you navigate daily life—they deserve the care and attention to keep them functional and strong. You can challenge both joints with a variety of exercises to enhance their strength, stability, and mobility.
1. Banded Clam Shells
This exercise challenges a variety of hip muscles, including the gluteus medius and minimus, both of which assist with hip joint rotation. Banded clam shells help stabilize your hips and prevent your knees from collapsing inward.
Here's how to do them:
- Place a resistance band around the tops of your knees and lie on your side with your knees at 90 degrees.
- Keep your feet together and your knees parallel while you open your top knee toward the ceiling, making sure not to push your hips forward or back.
- Once you reach the top, pause for a second, feel the glutes contract, and then gently bring your knees back together, controlling the tension on the way down.
- Complete all your reps close to failure/fatigue on one side before switching over.
2. Bulgarian Split Squats
The Bulgarian split squat is a single-legged strength exercise that targets the muscles around your hip and knee joint. It challenges a variety of muscles, the major ones being the quads and gluteus maximus. This exercise also challenges your balance and stability and helps correct any strength discrepancies between sides. To make Bulgarian split squats harder, you can hold dumbbells in each hand or by your chest.
Here's how to do them:
- Place the top of your back foot at the edge of an exercise bench with your front leg on the floor and your torso facing forward.
- Simultaneously bend your front knee to load the leg while bringing your back knee straight down toward the floor.
- Once you reach the bottom of the movement with your front hip close to 90 degrees, press through the floor with your front foot and come back up to stand before completing more reps on this side.
3. Goblet Squats
A foundational strength move, the goblet squat trains your entire body with an emphasis on your leg muscles, the prime movers being your quads and glutes, both of which support your knee and hip joints. Choose a weight that you can hold at your chest, comfortably challenging but still allowing you to maintain good form.
Here's how to do them:
- Start from a standing position with your core braced and weight at your chest.
- Simultaneously bend your knees and hips to drop into the squat, aiming for a depth your mobility allows.
- Once you reach the bottom of the squat, press through your midfoot and stand back to the starting position, keeping your core braced.
4. Step Ups
This exercise is another single-legged variation that targets all the muscles needed for strong hips and knees. You’ll work your quads as you step up and then your glutes as your hips extend at the top. You can do step ups with or without weights; just make sure you perform the movement slowly and controlled. You can modify these by lowering the box to make it easier or raising it to make it more challenging.
Here's how to do them:
- Place your front foot on the box with your torso tall and core tight.
- Press through your front foot and step onto the box, keeping the front leg primarily loaded, and stand up fully at the top.
- Slowly—and with control—lower yourself off the box and try to place the back foot on the ground as quietly as you can, so the front-loaded leg remains the one challenged.
5. Hip Bridges
This one is primarily a hip exercise that targets all of your glute muscles. You can do these loaded with weights or single-legged for a greater challenge. Regardless of which variation you choose, make sure you keep your core braced and your spine neutral the entire time, as overextending the lower back is a common mistake.
Here's how to do them:
- Lie on the floor with your feet planted and your hands by your side.
- Now, brace your core and press your lower back into the floor.
- Then, push through your midfoot to raise your hips into full extension, being sure to stop before your back begins to bend.
- Feel your glute squeeze at the top, and then slowly come back down before completing more reps.
How To Add These to Your Routine
When it comes to training your hips and knees, you don't need to dedicate an entire day to leg training alone. You can safely add these to any day of your workout, even if it's just a few sets.
The key to gaining strength in any muscle group is consistency over time, so where you place these in your routine is less important as long as you do them throughout the week at some point. The frequency and intensity will be entirely dependent on your needs and goals.
If you need help structuring workouts that are right for your body, get in touch with a coach.
