The 18 Best Exercises for Knee Pain, According to a Physical Therapist

When you have achy, sore knees, working out is probably the last thing you want to do. But generally speaking, exercising bad knees can actually help them feel better.

"While you might not feel like exercising when you have knee pain, moving your knee can promote circulation and blood flow," Melissa Prestipino, DPT, clinical director of an outpatient clinic in Sparta, New Jersey, tells LIVESTRONG.com. Yep, strength training for knee pain is key.

The best exercises for knee pain have two important things in common: They strengthen the muscles that surround your knee, and put little-to-no impact on the joint.

Focusing on moves that bolster the surrounding muscles — specifically, the quads — will make sure your knee gets the support it needs and that it doesn't take on too much strain itself when you exercise or go about your daily movements.

"Strengthening your quadriceps after knee injury can help to promote increased joint stability and help to improve joint function and even decrease knee pain," she says. It's common to be prescribed quad exercises after knee injury, but anyone with problem knees should be doing them, too.

Other than the quads, the hamstrings, glutes and other small muscles in the hips and upper leg all play a role in keeping your knees happy.

To help you get started, here are the 18 best exercises for sore knees from Prestipino to add to your workout routine.

"Straight leg raises help to strengthen your quadriceps muscles, which are the main muscles supporting the knee joint," Prestipino says. "The quadriceps muscles' action is to flex your hip and to extend your knee."

You use your quads doing most everyday activities, like walking, squatting and even simply standing. In general, doing any quad exercise for knees can really help ease the pain.

The hamstring muscles do just the opposite of the quads: They help to extend your hip and to flex your knee.

"Increasing hamstring strength can help to promote increased stability around your knee joint, which can help you avoid injury and limit pain," she says.

Clamshells are great for strengthening your glute medius and glute minimus, also known as the "side butt" muscles.

"When your glutes are weak, your thigh tends to rotate inward," Prestipino says. "This is an abnormal position that puts a lot of stress on the knee, increasing the risk of injuries. Strengthening your glutes normalizes hip and thigh position, reduces the loading force on the knee joint and prevents the knees from caving in on each other when landing."

Wall sits, also known as wall squats, build strength and endurance in your glutes, calves, quads and even your abdominals, she says. All those muscles play a role in keeping the knees stable and strong.

Plus, because this is an isometric exercise in which you hold a single position, it tends to be comfortable on even the crankiest of knees.

The focus here is the hamstring muscles. "Strengthening the posterior muscles of the lower extremities helps to balance out the anterior quad muscles, which can better help protect the knee from injury, such as ACL tears," Prestipino says.

The sliding movement also helps to increase circulation in the knee, she adds, which might help with inflammatory conditions like arthritis in the knees.

"Adding the ball to the glute bridges recruits your hip adductors [inner thigh muscles] and your hip extensors [glutes and hamstrings], mainly your gluteal muscles," she says. Stabilizing and strengthening these areas helps to protect your knees.

Another great quad exercise for painful knees, this exercise helps to increase quadriceps muscle strength, which ultimately supports the knee and helps decrease pain.

Reverse lunges are great knee pain exercises because they strengthen both your quadriceps and glutes. If you have knee pain, reverse lunges are better than forward lunges because they put less forward stress on the knee. Most people also find it easier to maintain stability in the front leg doing reverse lunges vs. forward lunges.

"Keep both feet pointed straight ahead and keep the front foot planted firmly so the heel is down on the ground," Prestipino says. Keep your back straight and neck in a comfortable, neutral position looking straight ahead.

The goal here is to strengthen your hip adductor muscles. "By keeping the hip muscles strong, it prevents improper positioning of the knees, which avoids necessary strain," Prestipino says.

This is another one that helps strengthen those hammies and promotes blood flow in the knees.

"Quad sets help to isometrically strengthen your quadricep muscle," Prestipino says. "The quad muscles are needed in sitting, standing, squatting and running. Strengthening your quads helps to support the knee joint, helping to decrease pain."

Side lunges strengthen lots of muscles in your lower body, including your glutes, hamstrings, quads and inner thigh muscles. They even work your core.

"The side-to-side move puts less strain on the cruciate ligaments — part of your knees known to experience pain," Prestipino says.

This move focuses on strengthening the muscles of the outer thigh and hip, which will help to keep the knees in a more neutral position, Prestipino says.

Unlike some other more traditional quad-strengthening moves, this exercise gets the job done without putting any weight on the knee joint, Prestipino says.

This move targets your hip abductor muscles. "There is a big relationship between hip strength and knee position," Prestipino says. "By strengthening your hips, it can help avoid poor positioning of your knees and reduce strain."

This move complements the previous one, this time strengthening your hip adductor muscles, or the glute muscles on the outside of the hip.

This move helps to strengthen the hip flexors, which are the muscles in the front of the hips that connect the pelvis and the leg. Strengthening these muscles can help promote proper positioning of the hips and knees.

The glutes and hamstrings are the main hip extensor muscles, connecting the hips and the legs at the back of the body. You use these muscles when you extend your leg behind you.

That said, if you get the green light from your doctor or physical therapist to start working out again, you can focus on exercises for bad knees.

Choosing low-impact forms of exercise can help reduce the forces of your own body weight and gravity on your knee joints, Prestipino says. Using softer surfaces, such as cushioned flooring can also help to decrease unnecessary stressors on your knee.

When selecting lower-body exercises, "closed-chain" ones in which your feet are firmly planted on the floor keep your knee in a more stable position, Dr. Rivadeneyra says.

"These movements will lead to greater quality of movement that will take the stress off the knee, decrease inflammation within the joint and shuttle healing blood to the area to speed the recovery process," says Andy Coggan, CPT, a certified personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist with Gold's Gym in College Station, Texas.

‌Additional reporting by Rachel Grice.‌