Ways to Increase Knee Stability

By Nick Outlaw CPT from OutlawFit.com

Knee injuries are some of the most common pests among athletes and anyone who is active. The knee joint is subjected to the highest forces during physical activity because it is between the two longest levers and it is surrounded by the most powerful muscles in the body. An athlete must be able to run, jump, and cut with the utmost efficiency while minimizing the probability of injury.

Knee stability is the ability to keep the knee in proper alignment under significant stresses and forces while your body is in motion. Increasing knee stability will increase performance and decrease the likelihood of injuries not just to the knees, but above and below the knees.

Ankle Mobility

Surprisingly, knee stability starts with ankle mobility. When the ankle does not have enough range of motion to complete a movement, the knee is likely to be forced out of alignment to compensate for this deficit.

The following two exercises will improve ankle mobility during dorsal flexion to minimize compensation by the knee and increase knee stability:

Wall Touch with Knees

Coaching Cues

Stand with your feet flat and toes almost touching the wall. You need to be far enough away from the wall so you can bend both knees until they touch the wall while keeping your heels on the floor. Make sure that your big toes, knees, hips and shoulders are square facing straight towards the wall and that your heels stay on the floor. You should be able to feel the stretch in your feet, ankles and calves. Your knees may be a bit stiff, so don’t be surprised.

After successfully touching your knees against the wall while keeping your feet flat, take a small step back (about 2 inches) and repeat. Continue to work yourself away from the wall to the point where you can no longer keep your feet flat and heals heels down. You should eventually be able to touch the wall with correct foot positioning at the previous distance you were unable to and in the process loosen up your knees, ankles and feet.

Calf Stretch

Coaching Cues

Place both hands in front of you on the wall right below shoulder height and lean forward as if you were pushing the wall away from you. Take a big step back with your left foot as you continue to push against the wall. You want to feel a stretch in the left calf muscle. Keep your left foot, knee and hips pointed straight ahead towards the wall.

Try to keep your left foot flat as you stretch your left ankle, calf and all the way up into your hip. This exercise can be used as part of your dynamic warm-up or part of your post-workout stretching to decrease soreness and increase flexibility. To utilize this exercise before a workout you want to stay in motion. Once you feel the stretch along the back of your left leg, alternate feet by stepping forward with the left leg into a lunge position and back with the right leg to be straightened and stretched.

As a warm-up, the actual stretch should take approximately 5 seconds. When using this stretch at the end of a workout I would recommend holding it for a minimum of 30 seconds and repeating it at least twice on both sides.

Strengthening the Glutes

Weak glute muscles lead to a lack of leg stability and also increase the probability of knee injuries. I always tell my clients, “it is all about the glutes,” because it truly is. Glutes are the largest muscle in the human body. Our large glutes keep us walking upright, which and is one of the biggest anatomical differences between us and apes. Strong glutes protect not only the knees but the lower back. The glutes are the major player of the core and surround the body’s center of gravity.

Lateral Tube Walk

This lateral tube walking exercise will activate and strengthen the glutes.

Coaching Cues

Grab a light to medium resistance band/tubing. Stand on the center of the resistance band holding each end in opposite hands so the band crosses in front of you. Once the band is crossed in front of you, bring your hands up to shoulder height. The end of the band coming from under your right left foot should be held onto by the right hand in front of the right shoulder.

Just as in the previous two exercises you will want to keep your big toes, knees, hips, and shoulders facing straight ahead. Take a step to your side without leaning over with your upper body and without turning your foot out. Take two more steps to the side, now take three steps back to the starting position in the opposite direction. Complete 15 repetitions in each direction. You want to make sure you are stepping out to the side with the outside of your lead hip. This will ensure that you are feeling it and working the hip abductors and the gluteus medius and minimus (deep hip muscles along the back and sides).

There is a tendency to turn the lead foot out which will activate the wrong muscle, the Tensor Fascia Latte (TFL) and psoas (hip flexors). Watch the video below and you will see how the athlete, Badger, turns his feet out. Try to avoid this while doing this exercise.

Single Leg Glute Bridge

A single leg stability ball glute bridge works the deep stabilizer muscles of the hip, gluteus medius and minimus. Master this exercise with both feet on the floor first before advancing to the single leg bridge. You should be able to hold your shoulders, hips, and knees in a straight line and parallel to the floor for a minimum of 1 minute and 30 seconds before advancing to the single leg bridge:

Coaching Cues

Sit on an exercise/stability ball that is the correct size for your height. One way to quickly assess this is by getting into the correct starting position for this exercise. If your head is not level with your knees, then you need to find one that will place your head at the same height as your knees when lying down with the back of your head and shoulders supported on the ball and feet flat on the floor. The butt/hips should be raised to the same height as your head and knees.

Finally I leave you with a fully integrated exercise that challenges not only knee stability, but total body stability, coordination, and balance. A single leg dead lift with a wood chop is a must in anyone’s program.

Straight Leg Deadlift (SLDL) with Wood Chopper

Coaching Cues

Hold a 5 lb medicine ball or dumbbell with both hands. While balancing on one foot slightly bend the balancing leg’s knee and keep the knee bent throughout the exercise. Next bend forward from the hip as is if you were gently placing the item on the floor to the outside of the balancing leg’s foot. The opposite foot and leg will raise up behind you at the same rate the upper body is descending towards the floor, maintaining a straight line with your spine. Stop your descent using the large muscles in the back of your balancing leg right before you’re able to set the dumbbell or ball on the ground. Return to a standing position and twist the ball over the shoulder opposite your balancing leg.

You want to feel the large muscles in the back of the leg (glutes and hamstrings) doing the movement. The stability foot will want to curl up, which is likely to cause fatiguing in the foot, ankle and calf before the larger muscle groups. Focus on keeping your weight back on your heel, keeping your foot from trying to grab the floor, curling up, and using the glute to lift you up by driving through your heel.

We need a strong foundation upon which to build our strength. Mobility and stability precede strength and should be prioritized in programming accordingly to build and maintain your foundation. To squat, first you must be able to squat to parallel (mobility and range of motion) without losing your balance (stability) and with correct form. Only then can you safely lift anything beyond your own body weight.

Nick Outlaw blogs at www.outlawfit.com. Nick is nationally certified through American College of Sports Medicine as a personal trainer and has helped hundreds of clients change their lives in the 8 years he has been training. His experience includes, but is not limited to college and pro athletes, sports specific, strength and conditioning, functional training, post rehabilitation patients, a physical therapy clinical setting, and general fitness, toning and weight loss. Nick has a BS from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. While attending college he competed in the Power Lifting and endurance competitions where he placed in the top three every time. His Senior Research project was an in depth study of ideal body images in American culture.

I recently got this note from Rob Russell about a charity event he is holding very soon. It sounds like it’ not only going to be awesome, but very challenging as well. Check it out and please give if you can. I have donated a couple of ebooks, the Nail Bending eBook and the Card Tearing eBook.

Jedd, I love challenges and the tougher the better! I’ve been training for many years now and been down just about every avenue possible.

Over the last 7 years I’ve taken up many forms of non-conventional training, kettlebells mainly, along with strongman, maces, sandbags, grip training and over the last 2 years heavy sledgehammer training.

The first person I ever saw swinging a heavy sledgehammer was John Brookfield, it looked so brutal I knew I had to get one of my own (a 25kg one to be precise). Initially training with it was really hard, until I learned the technique and shortened the handle. In 2009 I was inspired by kettlebell and sledgehammer fanatic Stepf Dogman to go for a 1 hour sledgehammer challenge after seeing this guy weighing in at only 69kg strike a tire 520 times with a 20kg hammer. I managed 791 reps on my first challenge for a charity that I support.

October 15th sees me return aiming to break the 1000 rep barrier (that’s roughly 17 strikes/min). I have been training since May and racked up over 13,000 strikes over nearly 60 sessions. The basis of my training has been 10 min sessions 3 times per week, setting off at 10 reps/min increasing by 1 rep per week until I hit 20 reps/min for 10 mins then I started upping the length of my sessions. I knew 1000 reps was going to be a tall order so I thought starting early would get me a great base to work from.

The carryover from hammer training to repetition snatching has been great too, I recently did a new best in the 24kg 10 min snatch test with 252 reps without any specific kettlebell work, it has also done a great deal for my grip strength (my hammer handle is nearly 2″ thick). The best thing about the training I have been doing is that it’s all been done in my half hour lunch break at work. It’s resulted in being a bit sweaty at work but really gives you a physical and mental boost for the afternoon and allowed me to do other training in the evenings.

My event on the 15th October is for Charity and to boost fundraising I have written my first ebook – ‘Unconventional Conditioning,’ a 45 page book packed with many videos, tips for training and program ideas.

To get hold of this ebook and be entered into a raffle for some strength and fitness goodies I am asking for a 2GBP minimum donation on my nation on my Just Giving Page.

Rob Russell

Thanks Rob! This event sounds AWESOME. I can’t imagine how brutally strong your hands, wrists and thumbs are getting from swinging the sledgehammer for such high volume. I know when I take my sledgehammer outside to swing it, my thumbs blow up like hot water bottles. All the best to you with your event – - Jedd

As I’ve said before, I can’t say enough how appreciative I am that so many years ago Richard Sorin had the balls enough to challenge himself to lift a dumbbell head off a broken 100-lb York Dumbbell, which he lovingly called the Blob.

After learning about this, Blob and Block Weight lifting have been the most fun types of training I have done over the course of the last almost ten years.

Block Weights

Block Weights, by definition, are any block-shaped weight that can be used for wide open hand pinch training. Here are a few types of Block Weights:

• Blobs (Fatmans, Next Gen’s, Legacy’s, Blob50′s, etc)
• Dumbbell Heads (severed, broken or cut heads of a dumbbell, especially Hex Blocks)
• Chunks (pieces of iron, steel or stone that are shaped like Blobs/Block Weights)
• Globs (dumbbell heads from globe-shaped dumbbells)
• Scale Weights (block-shaped weights with handles used in industry for calibrating scales)
• Weight Plates (somehow attached to form a solid structure, i.e. 6-tens duct taped together)
• Dumbbells (inverted and lifted by the ends)

To illustrate some of these types of Block Weights, aside from just York Blob implements, check out the following video.

My Block Weight Collection (circa Sept. 2009)

As Original-style Fatman Blobs and Next Generation Blobs become harder and harder to find, it has become much more common to see people training their wide open hand pinch with other types of Block Weights, especially Hex Blocks.

Since making the above video, I have continued to expand my Block Weight collection.

I recently expanded my collection once again, adding another half 120-lb dumbbell Hex Block. This one was sent to me by a pro wrestler named PITT from the Carolina region. You have seen PITT before. He has submitted many videos for the Diesel Grip Strength Challenge.

The new Hex Block came in this week. So I immediately attacked it and applied Napalm Theory #1 to it – MISSES ARE JUST WARM-UPS.

Half 120-lb Hex Block Lift

Here’s a funny story – PITT sent this to me in a Flat Rate Box, but he emailed me and told me that just in case the mailer box broke, he first encased the Block in an old car battery box with a note on it, saying “If found, deliver to Jedd Johnson, the guy with the coolest beard in Grip,” or something along those lines.

Sure enough, the only thing I received was the car battery box, the note, and the Block Weight. Had he not put it in the internal box with extra duct tape and the note, I might never have gotten this block weight, so make sure you do something similar if you plan on shipping anything heavy like this in the future.

I plan on continuing to expand my Blob and Block Weight collection. I am on the look-out for my own Original Style Fatman Blob, more Hexes as they come, chunks, and I also really want to start getting more Hex Head Dumbbells to pinch by the head, inverted style. I find some of these to be even tougher to Pinch Lift than some cut-off hex-head block weights.

If you get the opportunity to add Block Weights to your collection, DO IT. This type of training is beneficial for open hand grip strength, regardless of whether it is a York, Hex, or other piece.

Also, if you have any cool Block Weights in your collection, I’d love to see them. Take some pics or upload a video to YouTube and send it to me with a write-up.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Sign up for Grip Strength Training Tips and a Free 8-Week Grip Training Program:

Axle Clean and Press for Max Weight

In any strongman competition there is going to be an overhead event of some kind. This event could be in the form of Maximum Log Press, Log Press for Reps, Max Axle, Axle for Reps, or it could involve the Viking Press, or the Circus Dumbbell, etc.

When most strongman contests involve 5 events with one of them being overhead, if you suck at overhead press, can you afford to give away 20% (one out of 5 events) of the points?

If you can afford to give that much of the score away to your competitors, then you’d better be heads and shoulders above the rest of them in all four other events in order to negate all of the points you’re handing over to them in the overhead.

If you have identified the overhead lift (regardless of the implement used or whether for reps or max weight) as an event that you must improve upon, there are a few ways you can go about improving your performance.

Which one you choose will depend on what your weakness is, and one of these points of attack may be something you have not thought of before.

Liability #1 – Weak Clean

If the event involves cleaning the implement to the shoulders before pressing, and you struggle with the clean, then you are going to be in trouble for the press.

When you have to labor in order to make the clean, then you will be burning energy reserves that you need for the press.

If you have to struggle in order to get the log or axle up, and it is a clean-every-rep event, then you will be in even more of a rough spot.

If you knowingly have a hard time with the clean, then you will need to dedicate time to it in your training sessions.

One way you can do this is to over-load the clean beyond the weight you can comfortably press or jerk overhead. I show you how to do this in the video below, from 2006.

Without a doubt if your difficulty is a technique flaw, then you need to fix that. Getting stronger in order to power through it will only get you so far. It is much better to hone your technique, make it efficient, and then improve your strength levels later on.

If technique is what you need work on, then you should check out our Strongman Training DVD, which is heavily technique based in order to help you solidify your foundation for strongman training. Remember, it all begins with technique.

Liability #2 – Weak Leg Drive

In most of the overhead events in strongman, you are allowed to use your legs to propel the log, axle, or viking press upwards. In some events you are even able to re-bend in order to catch the implement, similar to the Olympic Jerk.

What I suggest here is Front Squats. While many Strongman competitors include Back Squats in their routine on a regular basis, Font Squats should not be forgotten. After all, initiation of the press is done with the legs, and since the log or axle is being held at the front shoulder, the most specific movement to train is Front Squats.

In addition to doing regular Front Squats with an Olympic bar, there is also nothing wrong with including Front Squats using the Log, in order to get used to the shape of the Log, and increase the specificity of the lift (as shown below).

However, if your legs are weak and you can not drive through the log and propel it towards lockout, that will mean you will have to develop sick strong triceps in order to catch the log once its momentum ceases and then drive the arms straight to lockout.

The problem with this scenario is that after a few reps, if your legs are a weak point in the movement, then they will eventually burn out and you will not even be able to pop the implement high enough off your shoulders to involve the triceps. If that is the case, the only alternative is to try to employ a jerk-style re-bend in order to get your body further under the implement in order to catch it.

Unfortunately, while this may sound like an extraordinary plan, this technique requires more skill and to shift to this style mid-way through the event without having practiced it will probably not result in much of a benefit.

Liability #3 – Weak Triceps

As you can see, when there is a weakness somewhere in the overhead lift movement, the general objective is to build the strength and power on either side of the movement in order to fortify the previous link and next link in the overhead lifting chain.

Unfortunately, in the case of weak triceps, there is no next link in the chain to strengthen. Everything up to this point depends on your triceps and their ability to take over in the transitional phase of the “press,” continue to full lockout, and thus control the log in order to get into the finished position (feet together, head facing forward, etc).

With every other part of the overhead lift depending on your triceps to finish the job, its imperative for them to be rugged enough to get the job done, or else you will end up doing a lot of work for nothing in the form of monster cleans, big powerful attempts to push the log up with the lower body, an exhausted core from attempting stabilize the body with all of this movement going on as well as your oxygen and energy stores becoming depleted with possibly many more events to go.

Many strongman athletes realize that their tricep strength is holding them back and they begin adding extra tricep work into their training. Exercise choice in this regard is extremely important. For instance, if you start throwing in a few extra sets of tricep pushdowns or kick-backs, you are in trouble as these movements do very little to improve overhead press strength. Instead, standing overhead tricep work should be employed, such as rank lockouts, pressing against bands, and half reps.

In the video above, I show you how to add resistance bands to the log in order to strength your triceps for the lockout.

Liability #4 – Weak Shoulders

If your shoulders are your weak point in the press than you are going to be against the wall in an overhead event. This is a common scenario, especially for strongman competitors who venture into the sport after years of Powerlifting, where overhead work is not routinely done.

If your pressing power is weak due to a lack of shoulder strength, then you need to spend more time pressing, utilizing a variety of overhead lift methods.

First, you will need to build your vertical pressing using stricter movements in military press fashion. Building a foundation of strength in the vertical position will be a huge asset toward your performance in competition.

Next, you will also need to work on your speed, propelling the log upwards with the lower body in order to avoid a hang-up when the shoulders need to take over. By developing speed in the lower half you can blast the log or axle high enough where the triceps can come into play in conjunction with the shoulders and contributing to a stronger lockout.

Liability #5 – Let’s stop right there for now

I’ve already given you 4 big factors in overhead press success and how to improve upon them. Look at your training program and try to plant some of these movements in it to bring up your weaknesses in the overhead press.

Down the line, I will put up another installment in this series on how to improve overhead pressing power. And in this next one, I will show you some thing you have probably never thought of to improve your overhead lifts.

Be sure to sign up for the Strongman Training Newsletter to be sure you know when the next installment in this series comes out.

All the best in your training,

Jedd

Congratulations to Brian Shaw for winning the 2011 World’s Strongest Man contest!

Brian was tied with Zydrunas Savickas going into the last event, the Atlas Stones, and finished a full stone ahead of Savickas to win the event and the championship!

Brian Shaw takes the final event, Atlas Stones:

Here’s another angle of the Atlas Stones:

To recognize Brian’s amazing suspense-filled victory, I am holding a sale on the Introduction to Strongman DVD.

Use this special link and you can get the Intro to Strongman DVD on sale for just $39 (regularly $49).

Special Price – Introduction to Strongman Training DVD

Congrats again to Brian, a true champion and ambassador to the sport. I have met Brian a couple of times, and what an outstanding guy – humble, approachable, enormous, and STRONG!

Click on the image below to take advantage of this special offer:

All the best in your training!

Jedd