Do your knees hurt? My knees hurt. My knees have bothered me most of my life for one reason or another. My other blog page on how to strengthen and improve knees was a start. Fun in the water shows some of the tools and exercises that can be used to work your knees while, well, in the water. My favorite place to be and my favorite place to work out. I love the lack of impact.

There is still more to it though. If you want the knees and frankly, the rest of your body, in better shape, you need to stretch those muscles. Remember basic anatomy? Everything is connected by something. Muscles and tendons stretch. They also get stiff and shorten if you don't use them. This causes pain.

Working in pool can be helpful, yoga is great (though quite difficult at the beginning as I am finding out). It will show you just how flexible you ARE NOT. I've been told repeatedly that tai chi is great for stretching and calming the body and mind, though I have yet to try it. I plan to soon though.

Exercise and health in general are like politics and religion, for every person there is an opinion. One of those is this. In order to be healthy and happy you need to remember that your body is a machine of sorts. Everything is connected and it all works together. The inside, the outside, the mind, the body. So when I started this quest to better myself I decided that I would work on all aspects of me. I am trying to do this in my exercise as well. Strength, endurance, flexibility. They are all connected.

If you want your knees to do what they are supposed to without having to chug a bottle of pain meds, strengthening them is very important, but so is loosening the muscles connecting the bones.

There are a multitude of different stretches and exercise you can do to help with your knees. Below are just some of them. If you talk to your Doctor they will probably have others. If you look around on the net you can find a ton of them. There are books dedicated to the subject.

Here is a great article from active.com about knees exercises.

The Best and Worst Exercises for Bad Knees

By Michele Stanten
Prevention

Exercise may be the best medicine for chronic achy knees.

"Strengthening the muscles around the joint protects you from injury by decreasing stress on the knee," says Willibald Nagler, MD, chairman of rehabilitation medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Campus in New York City.

But you must use good form and technique.

The First Commandment

Never bend your legs to a point where your knees stick out past your toes. That puts a lot of pressure under the kneecap. This not only applies to the following exercises but also when you're stretching or doing aerobic activities such as step aerobics.

Except where stated, do 10 to 12 repetitions of each of the following, two or three times a week.

Best Exercises to Do

Partial Squats
Stand about 12 inches away from the front of a chair with your feet about hip width apart and your toes forward. Bending at the hips, slowly lower yourself halfway down to the chair. Keep your abs tight, and check that your knees stay behind your toes.

Stepups
Using an aerobic step bench or a staircase, step up onto the step with your right foot. Tap your left foot on the top of the step, and then lower. As you step up, your knee should be directly over your ankle. Repeat with your left foot.

Side-lying Leg Lifts
Wearing ankle weights above the knee, lie on your left side, legs straight and together, with your left arm supporting your head. Keeping your right foot flexed and your body straight, slowly lift your right leg to about shoulder height, then slowly lower. Repeat with your left leg.

Inner-thigh Leg Lifts
Wearing ankle weights above the knee, lie on your left side, slightly back on your butt. Bend your right leg and place it behind your left leg with your right foot flat on the floor and your left leg straight. Support your head with your left arm. Slowly lift your left leg about 3 to 5 inches, then lower. Repeat with your right leg.

Calf Raises
Using a chair or wall for balance, stand with your feet about hip width apart, toes straight ahead. Slowly lift your heels off the floor, rising up onto your toes. Hold, then slowly lower.

Straight-Leg Raises
Sit with your back against a wall, left leg straight and right leg bent with your foot flat on the floor. Slowly raise your left leg straight up about 12 inches off the floor. Hold, then slowly lower. Repeat with your right leg.

Short-Arc Knee Extensions
In the same starting position as the straight-leg raises, put a ball (about the size of a basketball) under your left knee so that your leg is bent. Slowly straighten your leg. Hold, then slowly lower. Repeat with your right leg.

Hamstring Stretch
Lie on your back with your left leg flat on the floor. Loop a towel or rope around your right foot and pull your leg as far as comfortable toward your chest, while keeping a slight bend at the knee. Keep your back pressed to the floor throughout the stretch. Hold for 10 to 30 seconds and then release. Repeat three or four times with each leg. Do this stretch five or six times a week.

Worst Exercises—Avoid These

A few of the following exercises can be done safely if you have chronic knee problems; they're on this list because they're more likely to be done improperly. The exercises above are safer, while still giving you similar results.

Full-arc knee extensions
Lunges
Deep squats
Hurdler's stretches

Here's another from hotexercise.com on some more exercises and stretches

Improve Your Life With These Easy Knee Stretching Exercises

knees, knee exercise, painful knees, crossed legs,

If you want to stay mobile and flexible, doing easy stretching exercises will improve the quality of your life. We all suffer at one time or other from pain in our joints, brought on by injury or general stress and our knees take a great deal of the burden.
There are two kinds of knee exercises, strengthening and stretching.
Strengthening exercise will build the muscles that support the knee and protect it from injury and pain.
Strength exercises can make the muscles tight so it is important to follow them with stretching which creates flexibility in the muscles.

However, all of the following stretching exercises can help with general knee problems. They will help to maintain range of movement and help with pain control.
They should be done regularly and slowly so as to avoid injury. Try to build up to five repetitions and gradually increase as you are able to.

Knee Stretching Exercise No.1

Lie on the ground on a mat with your legs out straight.
Tense your thigh muscle, push your knee down into the ground and try to lift your heel slightly off the ground.
Hold that position for a few seconds.

This exercise needs practice to get it right but it will be beneficial in helping with knee problems.

Knee Stretching Exercise No.2

Sit on the mat with legs outstretched and your arms supporting you.
Place a small rolled up towel under your knees and keeping your knees on the towel raise your feet off the ground.
Your leg should remain on the towel and kept straight.

Knee Stretching Exercise No.3

Should not be done if you have a bad back or hip replacement.

Sit on the mat and lean back onto your hands.
Keeping your leg straight, lift off the ground about 6 inches.
Repeat with the other leg.

Knee Stretching Exercise No.4

Sit on the mat with and lean back onto your hands.
Keeping one leg straight on the ground, draw the other leg as close into the body as possible, by bending the knee and drawing it in.
Hold for a few seconds and then straighten.
Repeat with the other leg.

Knee Stretching Exercise No.5

Lie on your front on the mat with both legs stretched out behind you. Support your head on your arms.
Bend one leg at a time and bring the foot close to your bottom.
Hold and then release.
Repeat with the other leg.

Aug 21, 2011 | By Jami Kastner

Muscle Stretching Exercises for the Knees and Thighs — Photo Credit Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Your knee is a complex joint that is prone to pain. Often knee pain is a result of tight muscles pulling on your knee. Stretching the muscles of your thigh can reduce the painful twinges in your knee and make your activity more comfortable. Only stretch your muscles after they are thoroughly warmed up, and hold stretches --- never bounce --- for 30 seconds.

Hamstrings

Your hamstring muscles run from your hip to your knee along the back side of your thigh. Stretch them in a standing position with your left leg straight and extended in front of you, and your weight supported in your slightly bent right leg. Place you hands on your right thigh for support, and lift the toe of your left leg off the ground. Lean forward toward your extended left leg, feeling the stretch in the back of your left thigh where your hamstrings are located. Make sure to stretch both legs.

Quadriceps

Along the front of your thigh are your quadricep muscles. Do another standing stretch for this muscle group. Stand on your right foot, lifting your left foot up toward your rear end and grabbing it with your left hand. Pointing your left knee toward the ground, pull your foot into your rear, stretching the front of your left thigh. Switch sides and repeat on the other leg. It is a good idea to do this stretch near a wall, so you can place one hand on it for balance.

Iliotibial Band

Tightness in your iliotibial band can lead to knee pain. This connective tissue runs from your hip to beneath your knee on the outside of your thigh. To stretch it, stand on your right foot and cross your left foot behind you. Place your right hand on your hip, and lift your left arm overhead and to the right side. Jut your hips out to the left, feeling the stretch on the outside of your left thigh. Repeat the stretch to the other side.

Foam Roller

Self-myofascial release with a foam roller is an effective way to stretch all of these areas and relieve knee pain. To roll your hamstrings, sit with the foam roller just above the back of your knee and roll up until it is just beneath your rear end. For your quadriceps, lie face down with the roller just above your knee and roll until it is just beneath your hip. Finally, roll your iliotibial band by lying on your side with the foam roller just above your knee and roll until it is just under your hip. For all foam rolling, roll slowly, pausing on any tender spots. Roll back and forth several times until all tension is released from your muscle. Always finish by stretching the muscle groups you rolled.

The life of Rain

Those darn knees