Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below
how to strengthen knees?
- Thread starter kzwarrior
- Start date
your knees are only going to strengthen in the manner in which they are used - basically they will get better if you do what you plan to do at low intensity and then increase the intensity over time (years)....kzwarrior said:Umm well basically i want my knees to be able to withstand more shock from jumping and landing from higher places. Im also doing martial arts training so it would be nice to have stronger knees. Thanks for your time
with jumping things - usually a certain amt of weight bearing strength helps to begin with.... then I would start VERY low (like 4-6 inches) doing drops.... or drops to a reflexive jump..... gradually and slowly increase height over time (years, not weeks or months)... even with years of work drops over 18-24 inches or so have not been shown to be more useful than lower drops and will only increase chance of injury....
you need to be very careful not to go too fast, ESPECIALLY if you have some kind of pre-existing instability issue...
this type of training would probably be useful for marial arts and increasing explosiveness (see don chu's books like "jumping into plyometrics")
as for the popping - maybe you should get that looked at by and ortho - you might have some kind of pre-existing injury....
Tom Treutlein
New member
My knees pop sometimes too, but I was told that's just cartelidge shifting when you squat.
ghettostudmuffin
New member
Damn. I used to jump off roofs into a squat or squat into roll when I was 9-12 years old. Dropping a good 8+ feet several times a week playing ninja man. Once I climbed a tree and swung off a branch from 15 feet up. Landed into a perfect squat. Never once got injured doing any of it over years.
Maybe it's just me ,but 18-24 inches is nothing for a drop, unless you're talking about doing it BW+ weight which in that case I'd agree on the height.
Maybe it's just me ,but 18-24 inches is nothing for a drop, unless you're talking about doing it BW+ weight which in that case I'd agree on the height.
got2getripped
New member
GhettoStudMuffin said:
I used to do the same shit when I was a kid. But when I took my daughter to the park and tried to bail out of the swings like when I was a kid I almost broke my legs. That kinda ability to fall goes away with age, think about it when a kid goes running through a room and just goes BAM and falls and gets right back up. Try falling as an adult like that and your almost guarenteed injury.
Curse this aging body!!!!!!!!!!!
We are not talking about rolling out of it like a paratrooper - we are talking about sticking the landing. I would not advise trying any 8-15 foot drops as an adult, maybe unless you are a full time gymnast. If you'd like to try to prove me wrong tho, feel free.GhettoStudMuffin said:
18-24 inches is more than enough for most people. advanced athletes get into the 36 inch plus range. Increasing height does not neccessarily increase effectiveness, but it will increase chance of injury.
Here is some more info for you:
Altitude landings
A recent paper by David Kerin (2002) concluded that it is the eccentric
portion of a depth jump that actually has the greatest training effect
as far as increasing vertical jump and lower body power. It makes sense
when you think about it. It is during the landing portion that the
eccentric stress is at its highest as all the kinetic energy accumulated
during the fall is transformed into muscle loading. So this can greatly
increase your capacity to break your fall and absorb this kinetic
energy. If you are weak in the eccentric portion of the depth jump what
will happen? The coupling time (time it takes you to switch from
yielding to overcoming) will be very high and the resulting jumping
capacity will be low. The shorter the coupling time is, the higher will
be the subsequent jump. And to reduce coupling time you must increase
eccentric strength and the capacity to absorb the kinetic energy.
Depth jumps obviously do this, but doing only the eccentric portion
(landing) and practicing "sticking the landing" (i.e. immediately
breaking the downward movement as soon as you hit the ground) can
actually be more useful in that regard. And this way you can use higher
drop heights (up to 0.75-1.25m). Once again, the key point is to land in
a position specific to your sport. For example football linemen and
linebackers should stick the landing with the knee bent at approximately
90-110 degrees.
Just like depth jumps, altitude landings have a very powerful training
effect and should only be used for short periods of time and at a very
low volume of work. While they can sometimes be used in the same
training block as depth jumps, I don't recommend it. Rather I like the
following progression:
Block 1 (4 weeks)
Altitude landings
Block 2 (4 weeks)
Low intensity jump training
Block 3 (4 weeks)
Depth jumps
Block 4 (4 weeks)
Low intensity jump training
This progression will ensure for constant and rapid progress in vertical
jumping capacity. You can repeat that 16 weeks cycle three times during
the year for fantastic improvements.
http://www.elitefts.com/documents/Kinetic_Energy_Accumulation_Training.htm
