Knee Ability Series 4

Why I train my lower legs as part of my knee regimen.

It’s more HIP when you accelerate, then ANKLE and KNEE pressure increase when you slow down.

Let’s take a closer look at the process of slowing down or going downhill:

First the heel hits, putting load on the tibialis muscle in front of your shin.

Then the ball of the foot comes down and shifts the load to your calf muscles.

THEN the knee pressure goes way up.

So when rebuilding my knees, I gravitated to a workout flow of backward then tibialis then calf and THEN the knee’s ability to handle pressure.

I covered backward in Part 2. To be clear: I think DEEPER strength progressions give the most overall protection, so I decided to cover that topic in Part 3 before teaching you the lower leg exercises in this article.

I use 3 main lower leg training categories:

1. Wall

2. Free weights

3. Machines

For most people, 20 reps on the wall can make a good gain for the tibialis. Closer is easier. Farther is harder.

And for most people, 20 reps single-leg with the wall can make a good gain for the calves. Two legs makes it easier.

Free weight tibialis credit goes to the legendary Bob Gajda.

I helped revive his idea and now there are dozens of sellers. I can proudly say I’ve most consistently credited Bob, and I have the lowest price for an American-made tib bar.

For the calf, progressing to a single-leg calf raise with weight will service most goals.

Most gyms have calf machines, and credit for the tibialis machine goes to Bert Sorin of Sorinex.

I hope this article gives you an understanding of why I train my lower legs as part of my knee regimen, plus a variety of options to choose from for your own training.

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

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