Squats is usually a super-effective lower-body train, but when they worsen your knees, don’t sweat it: You will get in an important, knee-friendly exercise that can nonetheless goal your legs and butt. The truth is, we’ve an superior four-move routine that can gentle up your decrease half with completely no squatting concerned!

So, why would possibly the squat make your knees cranky? There are tons of the reason why which may be. For instance, kind errors—like your knees caving in or your toes or heels lifting off the ground—or restricted mobility in your hips or ankles may trigger aggravation on the knee joint, ACE-certified private coach Sivan Fagan, CPT, proprietor of Robust With Sivan, tells SELF. A licensed coach or bodily therapist might help right method and mobility points that may probably assist alleviate your knee ache, nevertheless it may be that you simply simply have to keep away from workouts that contain numerous knee flexion (bending on the knee), like squats, jumps, and a few varieties of lunges.

Bear in mind, energy coaching doesn’t should look a sure method, or embody sure workouts, for it to be efficient. There’s nobody “greatest” exercise throughout the board: The very best energy coaching exercise is one which works on your physique and makes you are feeling good—which means it’s one you’ll wish to stick to. So regardless that you could assume a lower-body exercise ought to embody squats, it actually doesn’t should, particularly in the event that they don’t make your physique really feel nice.

“There are numerous different workouts you are able to do that do not contain full knee flexion,” ​​says Fagan.

Workouts that don’t embody numerous knee flexion embody deadlift variations, glute bridges, and hip thrusts, that are primarily centered on motion on the hip joint versus the knee joint. Moreover, reverse lunges is usually a extra knee-friendly choice than ahead lunges or squats, says Fagan. Though reverse lunges do contain bending on the knee, the positioning makes it simpler to push via your heel, which lights up the bottom of your leg versus the entrance.

Plus, it doesn’t matter what lower-body train you’re doing, maintaining some execution cues in thoughts might help stop knee points. As an illustration, it is necessary to at all times push out of your heel and midfoot and never your toes, says Fagan. Pushing from the toes could make your knee extra prone to shoot ahead, which then locations extra stress on the knee joint, she explains.

Fagan created the under routine for SELF that can problem your legs and glutes whereas going mild in your knees. You are able to do this no-squat exercise as much as two instances per week. Simply make sure that to schedule a minimum of 48 hours of restoration between classes; that’ll guarantee your muscle tissue get the downtime they should relaxation and construct again stronger.

It’s additionally necessary to do a warm-up earlier than you begin this routine so that you don’t start with chilly, stiff muscle tissue. Fagan suggests a couple of minutes of leg swings and striders in addition to the dynamic adductor stretch, and 90/90 stretch.