Top 6 Standing Glute Exercises To Help Knee Pain
In this video I’m going to show you the top six standing glute exercises to help with knee pain. These exercises are going to be beneficial for a variety of knee problems like knee osteoarthritis, knee meniscus problems, knee cartilage problems, a baker cysts, knee ligament problems, like ACL issues, MCL issues, and many other knee problems.
The reason for that the reason why I’m talking about glute exercises is because very often those problems are all rooted in the same root problem, which is a weakness in the glute muscles, if you can get stronger glute muscles that controls the position of the knee. So if I tighten my glute right here on the right, it makes my leg when a turnout which changes the position of my knee, which if you think of the alternative that if my glutes are weak, then it’s going to want to make my knee fall in, which adds bad forces to your knee joint. So let’s get into it.
The very first simple exercise that I want you to do just to warm up your glutes is standing glute squeezes. That’s real simple, all you do is stand and you’re going to tighten up your glute muscles, you’re going to make them squeeze, you’re going to essentially pinch your cheeks together, make them work hard, and hold it for 10 seconds.
Now when you do this, you need to be careful that you don’t also tighten the front thigh muscles here, you generally want to go 100%, tightening back here. But if that makes the front of your thighs tighten up the need to back off from 100% and find the right percentage that you can tighten up where the front muscles aren’t working really hard. It might be 50% for you, maybe 70, 80, 90%
You might even need to go lower than that you might need to start at like 10 or 20%. tightening your glutes. Once you practice this enough, you should be able to work your way up in the percentages and eventually even get to 100% glute tightening back here without making your quads very active and tight. Now, they’ll always tighten up a tiny bit. The way that you know that you’re doing this correctly, is when you can tighten your glutes pretty good. And after holding it for 10 seconds like I’ve done right now.
It feels like you tension the muscle pretty well more in the back here than in the front. And you’re looking for like 60 or 70% more intensity back here than in the front. But if it’s the other way around, you’re tightening your quads more and you’re feeling your quads get tired more than your glutes, not a good thing you need to be making sure that you take it back down in intensity, fired a lower percentage back here and get those quads to quiet down.
Because they’re going to activate the knee problem more. The more those quads work, the worse your knee problems. And again, especially for new arthritis and knee meniscus problems, it just destroys them over time. So hold it for 10 seconds. Once you find the right intensity. After 10 seconds, you can relax, squeezing for 10 seconds, just tighten up the buttons right here.
After 10 seconds, you can let it go. And let’s do 10 reps like that hold for 10 seconds, it should feel like your hips kind of move forward a bit when you tighten up your glutes and then relax, avoid arcing your back when you do this, you actually want to keep your chest kind of down just a bit, even engage your abs.
When you tighten up your glutes. Hold for 10 seconds, do a slow 10 Count 123589 10. That’s one rep. I’m going kind of fast here. So this video isn’t super long. So you’ll have to pause if you’re doing this exactly with me to get your 10 reps and I’m not going to count all 10 reps, you count your 10 reps and make sure that each one is 10 seconds long. So after you finish your standing glute squeezes 10 reps like that holding each one for 10 seconds at the right intensity, then I need you to get in front of something stable.
I’ve put our treatment table here in front but you can use a stable chair like a kitchen chair works great a counter kitchen counter works fantastic. Maybe a bathroom counter, something that you don’t have to bend forward too much to get to. It’s okay if you bend forward a bit like I’m going to have to do right now. But it’s as long as you’re not having to bend forward this low to reach like a low chair, you’ll be alright.
So this is going to be standing glute burners. So all you’re going to do is lean on your hands a bit. I’m going to put my knuckles down because that’s more comfortable than having my hands out. Then you’re going to move your leg back just a bit. Squeeze that muscle now that you’ve practiced tightening the muscle, you’re only going to try to squeeze the right glute. In this case, we’ll do the left and a second. Then watch my toe down there.
You’re going to turn the foot out and try to turn your knee out with it. So holding your leg back here behind you just a bit, turn your foot out, turn your knee out your thigh and then hold your glute tight and you should feel the glute working very good. Hold it for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds you can relax who I felt that didn’t hold the full 10 seconds. If you go through 10 reps of this, you’re glue I will get tired. And that’s a good thing for your knee pain. alternate sides.
So after you do the right thing, go ahead and kick that leg back, tighten the glute first, then rotate your foot and your knee out and get that glutes tighten up. Hold it for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, you can relax. I’m just going to give you a little backside view here. So moving my my leg back, move over this way, leg back, tighten the glute, I can go back way further, I’m just choosing to go back enough to make my glue tight.
Then turn the foot and the knee out and make that muscle tight. Now this one might tighten up a bit too. But the focus is on the one where the legs going back that one needs to squeeze very hard, hold it for 10 seconds, turning the foot out, you have to kind of actively think about turning the foot out. And that makes those muscles work, especially more than do the other side. So kick the leg back, tighten the glute, turn the foot out, hold it there for 10 seconds and count slowly.
And after 10 seconds, you should feel that working and you want to accomplish 10 reps on each side. So it’s 20 reps in total. And you should feel yourself warming up a bit at this point, maybe even starting to break a sweat. And the glutes should be the main muscle that you’re working out. If you feel like your quads are working out, you’re tightening way too hard. You’re what’s you’re doing what’s called co contracting.
Meaning when you want to fire this muscle, other muscles fire with it. And that’s not a good thing that’s going to add more compression at your knee joints. You want to avoid that you really want to isolate as best as you can the glute muscle. And exercise number three is standing baby squat holds a column baby squats because you’re not going to squat deep at all. If you have a knee problem and you’re doing these exercises, you might start to think oh my gosh, squats, that’s going to be rough, it’s going to hurt my knee.
Do this in a way that does not aggravate your knee. And it looks just like this. It’s just one step more from the glute squeezes that we did first. So you’re going to do the same exact glute squeeze like we did where you’re just tightening your glutes like this. But then you’re going to bend your knees very slightly. So hold the glutes tight hips kind of forward, bend your knees just a bit, hold it right there and count to 10 You’re still tightening up the glutes really hard. After 10 seconds, you can come up and relax. And I didn’t do a full on squat.
It’s just a baby squat. Said differently here tightening your glutes first, then you’re just going to unlock your knees or just bend them a few degrees, your body should feel like it drops a few centimeters, maybe an inch or two. Hold it there for 10 seconds. And be sure that you’re using your glutes and not your quads. Now that being said, you’re going to feel some quad activity on this exercise, that’s normal.
But you should feel like your glutes work tremendously more than your quads. If you’re achieving that, then you’re on the right track and you’re fixing that muscle imbalance that sets up a lot of these knee problems. If you’re working your quads out more than your glutes on this exercise, then you’re feeding your muscle imbalance. And that’s going to make it worse.
That’s why people do exercises for knee arthritis for knee meniscus problems. And they’re supposed to help but they get worse it’s because of that CO contraction problem that they’re going through. So finish your baby squat holds. Remember, you’re shoving your hips forward, just bending your knees a little bit dropping your bodyweight down.
And you should feel like your glutes are working here. 10 second holds and you can do 10 repetitions; we’re just going to do one more rep. So if you’re not done with 10 yet, that’s cool. Pause the video right here, get your 10 reps in and then keep the video going for the next exercise. hips forward. And then one more trick I want to show you is shove your knees out.
So the trick here is hips forward, knees out and see how I just had my feet out wider. We start over feet. Now our wider hips forward, dropped down a bit, then that gives me room when I adjusted my feet. It gives me room to open my knees, but still keep the hips forward. And that turns on the glutes quite a bit like that, the more your legs turn out, just like with the burners that we did, the more your leg turns out, it tightens up that glute very well so you can better isolate.
So finish your 10 Baby squat holds. And then start on this next exercise. You can do squat reps, baby squat reps, so the same exact exercise that you did except this time you’re not holding. You’re going to do reps where you go up and down, but do the exact same motion. The key thing that I want you to learn here is now that you’re not holding you have to be able to reproduce that motion every single time where you’re going up and down going through a little tiny bit of motion without aggravating your knee problem.
If you did you’ll, what you’ll find is if you dip down below a certain threshold of squat depth, all of a sudden your knee feels like it’s got more pressure in it, maybe it even hurts a bit, do not go that low. After you’ve found that barrier, make sure you stay above that, and it may literally just be eat it like that, that’s cool, that’s going to help, you need to do that you need to train your glute muscle to work in that little tiny baby squat.
And it’s going to make your knee feel better in the long run. So some people look at this and they’re like, let’s not productive if you’re not going through a full on, up and down squat with weight on top of that, heck no here in the clinic. Here, when we treat patients with knee problems, we start them out on little baby squats and do holds before that. And after they do little baby squats like this, they get tremendously better and it’s just a matter of time before they’re going a little lower, and a little lower, with more glute control and glute strength.
And that’s what allows her knee pain to feel better in the long run. So here’s what you’re going to do 55 Zero, baby squat reps not hold, you can do reps. And each squat needs to look like this toes out. Before you start, tighten up those glutes, hold the glutes tight and your hips forward. Don’t stick out your chest. In fact, you almost want to cave in just a bit to second your abs, hips forward, abs in and then do your little baby squat.
I’m just dropping an inch or two here and then come right back up. And when you squat, your knees should go out and hips should stay forward. And then when you come up, tighten up your butt muscles. Knees out, hips forward, but tight, knees out hips forward at the bottom, but tight at the top. Just a little tiny baby squat. And if you run into pain, don’t go that low next time.
Stay above it. I don’t want anybody commenting on this video saying that you ran into pain when you squat it too low. Because I said it multiple times. Don’t go too low, it’s going to hurt if you go too low stay above any sort of pain. And if you just if you feel pain when you barely unlock your knees, skip this one. Don’t do this. Stick with the other exercises, you’re not ready for this one, don’t proceed into the baby squat holds or the baby squat reps. If unlocking your knee causes pain, you’re too irritated.
To do this exercise you need to be doing the other exercises that we covered before that the squat, the glutes squeezes and the butt burners are going to be perfect for you to start with. And you’ll be able to work into the baby squats. As the irritation in your knee joint goes down. So do your 50 reps just like this.
Knees out, hips forward, but tight at the top, knees out hips forward. But tight at the top. You could do sets of 10 sets of 20 You could do 25 Whatever you want, you could just keep going until you feel like you need to stop. your glutes should feel like they’re working pretty hard during this activity. And then after you accomplished 50 reps, then you’re ready to move on to the next exercise. The fifth exercise is standing baby ones holes.
So you’re going to get yourself in a lunge position, which means you put one foot forward, one foot back. Now, it’s not much I mean my heel and my toe, my heel of my left foot is about in line with my right toe. It’s not this far apart, it’s more like this far apart. Because all you’re going to do from this position here is a little baby lunge.
Now I’m showing you incorrectly because my toes are pointed straight forward. Actually, once you once you once you get aligned properly, turn your toes out just like I have right now, that’s going to drive my knees out. And you’re going to do a little squat or a lunge type motion and activate your glutes there too. Now, you’ll probably feel like one glute activates more than the other. And generally, the one of the glute on the leg that’s more forward tends to fire better.
But that’s not always the case. Some people feel like their back leg fires better. It doesn’t matter. In this case, just make sure that you’re tightening both glutes and you’re driving your knees out like a squat like we did with the baby squat holds right here. You’re essentially doing a baby squat hold but one foot for one foot back. And this is important to cover because this starts to progress you into walking because Walking is one foot for one foot back and you’re alternating as you moving through.
That’s going to set you up to walk better and improve your knee problem in walking and of course in weightlifting activities, because then you can progress into a bigger lunge position and use your glutes properly in a lunge. Lunges notoriously work out the front of the thigh. I need you to flip it into making it a glute exercise. So that’s why we’re positioning you like this knees out, feet out. Come down just a bit.
It’s just like the squat holder you just drop an inch or two a few centimeters. Push your knees out, tighten the glutes, hips forward. That makes your glutes tight. Hold it for 10 seconds After 10 seconds, you can come back up, rest for a moment. Come back down, hold it for 10 seconds, drive your hips forward, push your knees out. After 10 seconds, you can rest. And after you do five reps, I want you to switch. And do the same thing on the other side.
Knees out, feet out, little baby bend, make sure your hips are forward. Now push your knees out and make sure your glutes are working without your quads on either leg activating quite a bit. Now on this one, you might need some balance, I’m still by the table here, I haven’t needed to use a table much, but be near something that you can balance on, just put a few fingers on there, maybe you need to put a big hand on there to get the depth that you need to that little inch or two down and get the muscles to work correctly.
So make sure you’re by a chair a counter a table that you can easily reach something sturdy, a wall works great too, as long as your balance is good enough to lean on the wall. Another good place to do this is if you have a walker, a sturdy Walker, that stays still you can balance inside of a walker as well. Right. Once you’ve done five reps on one side, and you’ve alternated to the other side, you’ve done five reps, your glutes should be on fire at this point.
We’ve got just one more exercise, the sixth exercise is going to be a standing baby lunge. So no more holds. Now we’re going to do actual lunges, baby lunges, just like we’ve been practicing. And it’s the exact same technique, you’re going to move one foot forward, one foot back, you’re going to do a baby lens just like that and then come up when you come down, knees out. And then when you come up, but squeeze.
So knees out, be making your glutes work right here. And then when you come up, tighten your glutes. Now I’m coming down a little bit more than I probably should. I thankfully don’t have any knee problems at this time. But if you just bend a little bit like that, that’s good. Still drive your knees out. And then when you come up, tighten those glutes really well. Little baby knee bend, tighten the glutes really well.
If you can tolerate going a bit lower on this one or the squat holds or the squat reps, the baby squats. That’s okay. Just make sure you’re not overusing your quads, you can go a little lower if you feel comfortable doing so. Just make sure the glutes are the primary muscle that You’re tiring out and using on this exercise. If you’re not comfortable with lower depths, totally cool.
This is a good one to do with just a little tiny bend, just like that 25 reps. Then switch sides and do the exact same motion on the other side. 25 reps, knees out, but tight, knees out, but tight. Every single time. Drive the knees out then squeeze the glutes. Let me show you the back. Knees out, glutes tight, knees out, glutes tight.
And if you’re doing the other side, it looks like this. Angle the toes out, knees out, but tight, knees out, but tight. That’s the motion you’re doing there. So 25 reps on one leg. Then switch your feet, move the other leg forward another leg back and do 25 reps on the other side. This video was a follow up video to our other glute exercise videos where you’re on your knees on the table. Those are great as well. But this is a great alternative.
The Standing exercises if you’re having trouble nearly because your knees are bothersome. Leave a comment here if this these exercises helped you out. Let us know if your knee problems are improving because we often get people watching our videos telling us that their knee problem is getting better. We love to hear that that just makes our day let us know. Thanks so much for watching. I’ll catch you in the next video. Bye