If Your Knee Feels Unstable, Do These 3 Things Before It Gets Worse

Dr. Alyssa Kuhn, arthritis specialist, shows us how:

Strength, support, & control

Knee stability depends on three components working together:

1. strength (your muscles being strong enough to do hold you up)
2. support (weight-bearing confidence)
3. control (balance and movement coordination)

Weakness in any one area can make your knee feel as though it may give out—or indeed, it may actually give out!

So, to ensure you have those three things:

• Chair stand: sit at the edge of a chair, stand up tall, then sit down with control, progressing by lowering yourself slowly over a three-second count (without* using your hands!)
  • *If you need to use your hands at first in order to have good form, then so be it; do prioritize good form. However, if you must use your hands, use as light a touch as possible, and try to work up to not using your hands (including: not using swinging momentum, either)
• Stand-and-march: stand up from a chair, march one knee up, march with the other leg while balancing on one leg at a time, then sit back down with control.
• Weight-shift stepping: place most of your weight through the leg you’re training while lightly stepping the other leg forwards, sideways, and backwards, returning to the middle after each step. You can progress this one by passing a small weight around you in a circle. How small a weight? It should be very manageable to you, just enough that the balance is the hard part, not holding the weight up.
• Balance-beam stance with arm swings: stand with one foot directly in front of the other, shift most of your weight onto the back leg, then add controlled arm swings while maintaining your balance. Again you can progress this by adding weight to your hands.

Throughout, the main idea is to build strength, support, and control separately first, then progress to the combined exercises once the individual movements feel comfortable and controlled.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

The Best Exercise to Stop Your Legs From Giving Out ← a different approach, with a single exercise, and this one has to do with correcting the golgi tendon reflex that can sometimes cause knees to just collapse for no obvious reason

Take care!