Last September I had major surgery in my knee, called micro fracture. The good news is my knee feels better than it has in years, the bad news is I am completely out of shape and my leg looks like a bag of jello!
I have been a good boy doing my PT and have stepped up to weights…finally.
So here’s the question, my therapist says that leg extensions with any weight are bad for you and your knees?
Does anyone out there have any advice or thoughts on this?
Thanks
Slow, fat and stupid 
Depends on your knee, but not necessarily. The best way to strengthen your knee is to strengthen the muscles around it. I would stick to compound movements at first. Leg press, squats etc. As you strengthen, then you can move to isolating movements, ie leg extensions.
Also, try some modified lunges. To whatever degree you can do them. Reverse lunges may be easier on the knee as well. Lateral movements will also strengthen your stablizer muscles, doing a low side step (as if you were guarding Kobe Bryant) shuffle.
I hope that helps. There are a lot of things you can do other than leg extensions, which aren’t necessarily bad for you.
Stay Away! Most starting positions on leg ext. machines place to much stress on the knee, especially for someone with knee problems. Even with healthy knees, stay away. Start with compound movements involving BOTH legs for 3-4 weeks, then move to single leg/ functional exercises. Leg exercises that involve you sitting down, will do you no good. Train your legs in the manner in which you will use them, standing. Provides much more of a benefit to the rest of your body as well. Good luck.
I think one of the worst things about leg extensions is that they take all of your stabilizing muscles out of the picture. I always find that they put too much stress on my knees, so I just don’t do them anymore. Plenty of other ways to work your quads.
Cycling is best for the knee w/high revolutions.
The rapist is correct about them being bad for your knees because of all the tension is puts on them. The other factor is that there is always a better exercise to do instead - squats.
Do some really light weight, high rep count sets with proper form (check youtube to see what it looks like). Don’t use a backbrace but maybe just push the bar by itself for a while and get your theighs parallel to the ground. Kind of pretend you at trying to sit on a small chair behind you and get a good forward lean on the way down while keeping the back arched back, not forward.
As an athletic trainer, I can tell you that there is no research indicating leg extensions are good for you. In fact they place a tremendous amount of force on your knees (and most people perform them incorrectly anyway). I would listen to your PT and avoid this lift. As for the suggestion to do squats instead…I would definitely switch to FRONT squats instead of placing the weight on your shoulders. With the weight on your shoulders every time you go down for a rep, you are putting 8X the force of your body weight and the weight on the bar in your knee joint. If you have a history of knee injury, I would avoid this force if possible. By moving the weight to the front of the body you reduce the force to 6X which is much better for the body.
Last September I had major surgery in my knee, called micro fracture. The good news is my knee feels better than it has in years, the bad news is I am completely out of shape and my leg looks like a bag of jello!
I have been a good boy doing my PT and have stepped up to weights…finally.
So here’s the question, my therapist says that leg extensions with any weight are bad for you and your knees?
Does anyone out there have any advice or thoughts on this?
Thanks
Slow, fat and stupid
Your knee is most stable when your foot is planted on the ground. Isolated leg movements are not the best for the joint but for most of us this isn’t a problem. I’m not familiar with you surgery or your case so I can’t say either if you should avoid them or not. If you do choose to do the leg extensions remember to work on your hamstrings so you don’t develop muscle imbalances.
Last September I had major surgery in my knee, called micro fracture. The good news is my knee feels better than it has in years, the bad news is I am completely out of shape and my leg looks like a bag of jello!
I have been a good boy doing my PT and have stepped up to weights…finally.
So here’s the question, my therapist says that leg extensions with any weight are bad for you and your knees?
Does anyone out there have any advice or thoughts on this?
Thanks
Slow, fat and stupid
What makes you think this tiny little tidbit of information is enough for anyone to make a recommendation that trumps your PT?
Sorry to hear about the knee. I had a meniscus tear several years ago, which wasn’t fun. Listen to your PT though. Elliptical machines are good for knee rehab.