Posted in Body Weight TrainingGeneralWeight Loss
Doing cardio is an important aspect of burning fat and generally keeping fit. However, if you have bad knees, it is not recommended to perform cardio like regular people. There are many problems that may arise from imposing cardio on your bad knees.
Let’s consider a few examples:
- Running – With each stride, the knees absorb around seven times your body weight. So if you weigh 250 pounds, your knees absorb around 1750 pounds with every step. Bad knees can’t take that amount of pressure and still hold up for more than a few repetitions.
- Jumping Rope – Again, with every landing, the knees are dealt a huge amount of stress. The repetitive pounding will cause a lot of strain on bad knees.
- Biking – Though riding a bike does not impose a huge amount of pressure on the knees, the repetitive stress on the knee joints will cause a lot of wear and tear.
For people with bad knees, there aren’t exactly a lot of options. Luckily for you, I will now explain a cardio program specially designed for people with bad knees. This will allow you to burn body fat and stay in great shape without putting your knees in too much pressure.
- Battling Ropes
There are many intense workouts that you can perform with battling ropes. Normally, the ropes are at least 30 feet long and 1.5 to 2 inches thick. The longer and thicker the ropes are, the more intense a workout they can produce.
Rope slams is one of the best workouts you can perform with battling ropes. The aggressiveness required for the workout will result in an intense cardio experience.
For this, grab both ends of the rope and stand in an athletic stance. Then aggressively slam the ropes up and down. You can do this for both arms at the same time or alternating between left and right. Do this for about 15 to 20 seconds as the 20 seconds will already be brutally hard for most people.
Also, you can perform in and out waves. Move your arms in and out away from your body repeatedly. You can also opt to do this in a circuit fashion with the rope slams creating a complete workout routine. Though this routine will only span a short time, the cardio result will be intense.
- Kettlebell Swings and Snatches
Kettlebell swings is another great exercise that you can perform to achieve an intense workout without stressing the knees. It involves and strengthens the muscles in the glutes, hamstrings and lower back area.
Hip hinging, which should be mastered by everyone aiming to have strength, power and athleticism, can also be learned by mastering the proper usage of kettle bells.
Most people can start with 40 to 50 pound kettlebells. 20 to 40 reps of three to five sets will be enough to achieve a serious burn. Throughout the exercise, remember to maintain a flat posture with your back, push your buttocks backwards as you go down and then push your hips forward as you go up. All the power should be produced from hip extension only and not be assisted by the arms. The arms should just act as hooks for the kettlebells. Also remember to gradually increase the weight of your kettlebells once you’ve become adjusted to them.
Another great exercise utilizing kettlebells is kettlebell snatches. This will strengthen the back and shoulder muscles without causing stress to the knees.
For this, you can start with lighter kettlebells and doing as many reps as you can in six minutes. Alternate your arms with every set. Keep in mind the amount of reps you can initially do. Over time, you should be able to surpass this. You can then start using heavier weights and/or 10-minute sessions.
Most of the people you’ve seen might be squatting down as they are using the kettlebells. Do not imitate this. This is not the correct form and will only result in injury.
- Sledgehammer Swings
Another great exercise you can do is sledgehammer swings. It epitomizes the manliness of a workout routine.
All you need for this is a sledgehammer and a large used tire – the larger the better.
Start with using your dominant hand for this exercise. To perform it, place the foot opposite your dominant hand forward and the other foot a short ways back. Position your dominant hand on the handle of the sledgehammer slightly above your non-dominant hand. Then swing the sledgehammer over your head in a circular motion before eventually coming down on the tire. Alternate your arms every set.
You can do timed sets by using a stopwatch. Begin with 20 seconds on and 40 seconds off for 5 to 6 minutes. Then increase the resistance as you get used to it gradually.
All of these exercises can act as a replacement for the normal cardio exercises like biking and running. However, with these exercises, you are also technically doing strength training at the same time. So you are essentially doing cardio and resistance training at the same time.
So even though you have bad knees, you don’t have to feel left out.