SEC-s20w3: Fitness Training 👉 quest for stronger legs"

Legs are the most important pillar of our body that manages our body weight, balance & coordination. If anyone has a leg issue or any disease, they know the importance of leg strength more than us. I deal with different patients, especially those with knee arthritis, who are unable to bear body weight on their knees due to arthritis in grade 3 or grade 4.

Canva

This week, focus on leg strength as it's a major & important part of our body that keeps us active even if upper body strength is reduced. If we can't focus on leg muscles, then most of the disease associated with muscle weakness starts & in the end, we have to do long-term rehabilitation sometimes to regain strength.

To begin the leg muscle strengthening, I started with the previous week's exercises, as I already started them a month ago to strengthen upper body muscles & lose weight too.

Warm Up

I warm up before exercise as it's necessary to boost up your body to perform exercises. These exercises are also good for my arm strength.

Cardio Exercises

I perform cardio exercises such as walking for 15 to 20 minutes, jumping jacks & mountain climbing (mountain climbing is a bit difficult for me as I started a few days ago & due to my knee condition).

Abdominal Exercises

Then I perform abdominal exercises, full plank, half plank, scissors. I am improving my strength day by day.

Week 3 tasks; Leg strengthening exercises or programs

I will share first about my knee condition. I had an accident 10 months ago in which my patella was dislocated, and ACL, MCL, and LCL tears ( ligaments around the knee joint ). Due to this, I was bedridden for almost 2 to 3 months & applied for a brace, too. After that, I started my ROM ( range of motion exercises) that improve my knee joint ranges.

But even after 10 months, my ACL ( anterior cruciate ligament) is still in the healing phase because grade 3 tear takes 9 to 12 months to repair the ligament. So, it's difficult for me to perform the aggressive exercise program for my knees. That's why I choose those exercises that are easy to perform & don't put pressure on the knee joint.

I selected 4 exercises to perform as 2 of them I already perform for calf & lower back muscle strengthening. I selected calf raises (heel raise), glute bridge ( bridging exercise ), lunges, and squats (squatting was a bit difficult as my knee pain while performing it).

Calf raises

Calf raise is one of the best exercises to strengthen your calf muscles. I have attended to patients with heel pain either due to bone spur formation or ligament tear, so we prefer to perform calf or heel raise & calf muscle stretch to lengthen & strengthen the muscles.

I perform it by standing straight, then raising my heels from the ground & standing on my toes for a few seconds, then repeating it 8 times. Take a rest of 5 to 10 seconds & then complete 3 sets of 8 repetitions. It's one of the easy exercises to strengthen your calf muscles & maintain balance on your toes.

Glute Bridge ( Bridging Exercise)

This exercise is to perform your lower back, pelvic, abdominal & glutes muscles that are weakened in spinal disease patients like disc herniation or disc bulge and changes in spine alignment. I have treated different patients with disc herniation at the lumbar region with lower back, glutes, and pelvic floor muscle weakness, which makes them unable to sit for a few minutes as muscles are not supporting body weight distribution while sitting.

Even I also added them to my exercise program whenever my back started hurting to passively help patients in performing exercises and also give them leg muscle stretches. I perform this exercise in a supine lying position on the floor, keeping my arms straight on the ground & trying to raise my buttock or glutes & squeezing my abdominal muscles.

Your body weight will be shifted to your shoulders & on your feet. Hold for at least 5 seconds & then relax. I completed the 3 sets of 8 repetitions, took a rest of a few seconds & then started. This is the best exercise we recommend to patients to strengthen the pelvic floor muscle, abdominal, glutes & hamstring muscles. Perform hamstring, glutes & lumbar region stretch to lengthen the shortened muscles.

Squats

Squatting was one of the most difficult exercises for me, as I already told you about my knee condition. Squatting is important to strengthen your hamstrings and quadriceps muscles and also improve knee joint weight-bearing capacity. I try to perform them, but I know my leg muscles are still too weak to perform such exercises. In Sha Allah, I will improve them soon to perform more advanced exercise programs.

The posting for squatting is I stand straight with my legs apart, make a position like you're about to sit on a chair, chest up. I complete the 3 sets of 8 repetitions with 30 seconds of rest after performing each set. I perform squats without weight as it's my first time performing these exercises.

Lunges

Lunges are the exercises in which you have to maintain your balance & also strengthen your leg muscles, especially hamstring, quadriceps & calf muscles. I also performed this for the first time as I avoided these exercises until my knee pain was gone completely. But this is an effective exercise to strengthen your leg muscles and also improve your balance.

I perform this exercise, standing straight, then make a position in which one leg bends & the other leg in a kneeling position to work on both leg muscles but in different positions. Like bending, the knee strengthens its muscles & the other leg in a kneeling position, somehow stretching your muscles. I repeat 3 sets with 8 repetitions each. I hope I will improve more with time.

Stretches

Then I perform stretches of leg muscles to lengthen to shorten muscles and also relax the muscles after all exercises.

Tell us your overall feelings and ask your questions concerning the programs

I enjoyed performing these exercises even though my sister was also enjoying them because she was recording me while performing exercises. Honestly, after performing glute bridge & calf raise, my back & calf muscles feel relaxed as I already perform them 2 to 3 times a week. Whenever I feel them weak or painful, relax my muscles.

But after performing squats & lunges my legs were hurting & knee pain started. So, I performed lumbar, calf, hamstring, quadriceps, piriformis, and glutes muscle stretch & I was feeling better after that. As a physiotherapist, I know the importance of stretches, even if we prefer to do full-body stretches early in the morning to avoid muscle shortening & keep ourselves healthy to treat patients.

I don't have any questions regarding the exercise program, but if you feel I didn't perform any exercise well, then you can correct me so that I can perform better in future. Thank you for this exercise program. I would like to invite my friends @m-fdo, @pea07 and @iqrarana786 to share their participation.