Bad knee, and kickboxing. how do i make my knee stronger?

Knee injuries and post injury knee weakness can be overcome.

First - until you completely rehabilitate your knee and then develop to the point it is substantially stronger than it was before the injury, you absolutely need to use a knee brace. And you need to use the right knee brace.

However you can rehabilitate it to the point you don't need the brace. It just takes time and effort.

What's important is that you develop both knees not just the one which was injured. More than likely it was injured because the ligaments were weaker than they should be. If you had a knee injury on one knee the other is also prone to injury. Hence you need to make both substantially stronger. You need to make both knees as strong as the knees of the people around you who are not prone to knee injuries.

So the first step in rehabilitating your knee is to adequately protect the knee whenever you train or do anything that can cause a subluxation. That means using the knee brace when you train, or run.

Of all the knee braces on the market over the years, the best from the standpoint of holding the knee together is (in my opinion) the Octopus Knee Brace, because it puts substantial lateral pressure on both sides of the knee. In effect it holds your knee together.

Octopus Knee Braces were originally made by Rawlings. The patent was bought by a number of other companies so its hard to say who is manufacturing it now. I haven't had to buy one for quite some time so I'm not sure.

Octopus knee braces are basically elastic with hard inserts at each side of the knee and elastic straps that criss cross and hold the knee in as you move. If a subluxation does start to occur, it pushes the knee right back in place.

The second step is to rehabilitate the knee so you aren't prone to knee injuries. Whatever you do on one knee in terms of exercise you need to religiously do on the other. This means resistence weight training to both knees and legs.

Bone meal supplements (not calcium tablets) are helpful in supplying calcium and other nutrients that the body uses in rebuilding the ligaments and muscles around the knee.

I found that resistence training on a universal, cybex, nautilus or even a simple leg extension bench are very useful, especially in the beginning because these devices hold the knee in place, force you to move only up or down and prevent lateral movement, (which loosens and damages the knee).

After 6 to 7 weeks of 3x / week resistence training, you might try using an iron boot instead of the machine in order to allow the medial minicus and other lateral ligaments to bear some of the load, and tighten the knee.

Iron boots weigh around 5 pounds and since it is a free weight in which your knee is not locked in and protected from lateral movement you shouldn't add weight to it at all or at least not for quite some time (months).

I also found that running on treadmill as opposed to the hard ground, working my way up to 5 miles daily was very helpful in rehabilitating the knee and getting it to the point where it could sustain substantial lateral forces, both in tork (twisting) and the occasional blunt force kick.

Treadmills are good because they have a cushioned deck which stops the sort shock you get from concrete from going into the knee. An alternative is running on a track. However the treadmill is superior in the beginning because it lowers (doesn't eliminate) the risk of a lateral twist that could cause a subluxation.

However, prior to running I swam daily for 6 weeks in order increase my knee's lateral stability. I recommend this if its possible in order to avoid putting stress on the knee that you can't sustain but don't know until you actually overtax your knee.

Swimming is safer than running because you know when you're in the water if lateral movement is problem, yet you don't put enough stress on it, to damage it.

After 3 to 5 months of Rehab, you can start lightly kicking a heavy bag. At that point, the more you kick the stronger the knee gets, because the shock of the kick stimulates the muscle and ligament building process in a way that's similar but not the same as resistance training.

If you do it carefully, you will graduate from the knee brace. Personally I wouldn't and didn't even when I could. I always wore a brace. And got to the point where I kicked much harder and faster with the brace, then before the injury.

As a matter of fact, I used to limp a little unnecessarily and attract attention to my knees in order to create a false expectation about slow movement and poor kicks.

If your choices are really down to Kickboxing, Krav Maga, and MMA, it depends on what you want out of whatever you decide upon. Kickboxing and MMA are competitive sports martial arts. They are designed for competition first and foremost. Krav Maga, on the other hand, is not a martial art. It's a self defense system in which the sole purpose is, if needed for self defense, to inflict as much damage as possible in as short amount of time as possible to stop the attack. MMA and Krav Maga will provide more variety in activities than kickboxing. All three, if taught correctly and embraced properly, will provide a rigorous workout. If it's possible in your area, you may want to try out a few classes of each one so you can personally see which one you like the best. Most places will let you come in for at least one or two classes gratis.

I injuried my knee ligament really badly when I was in high school. The doctor say I would probably never be able to wrestle again.

However I keep stretching my knees until it feel better then I start to run a mile or two everyday and it seems to really help.

My orthopedist told me when I injured my knee (I freaked out. "How can I do wushu with a bum knee?!) that leg lifts can help strengthen the knee in all the right places, without causing injury (as long as you use a reasonable weight). He also said not to wear my knee brace all the time, because your knee starts to depend on it and actually gets weaker. He still recommended I wear it during workouts though, so you're probably ok there.

Going to a profesional sports therapist would be the best. Having bad knees i know. The best thing to do is stretch as much as possible. I wouldn't advise taking your knee brace off, but if you must than you should do a lot of Muai Thai Stretches suck as knee jerks, and lifting them as hi as possible and wearing ankle weights when you kick. hope i helped!

Doing Yoga could help with this sort of problem. It helps with flexability and can strengthen the joints.

quit giving head to your boss

stretch your ankles up behind your ears...