The importance of keeping your knees healthy and strong cannot be overstated enough. The stronger and healthier your knees are, the more active you can be and the more enjoyable life becomes.

And when it comes to keeping your knees healthier via resistance training, one of the best movements you can do for your knee is called terminal knee extension.

This specific movement refers to the final handful of degrees of straightening the knee joint can produce, and it’s a big deal when it comes to ensuring your knees can operate as intended (i.e., functionally and pain-free).

Whether you need to strengthen your knees or simply keep them strong and healthy, one of the best and simplest exercises you can do that will force your knee muscles to become much more robust in this range is resisted terminal knee extension using a band.

And in the name of helping you feel more confident about living an active, pain-free life, I will show you why. So, let’s get after it!

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The Basics: Understanding Knee Extension

Knee extension is produced by a group of four muscles along the front of your thigh, which are collectively called the quadriceps muscles. These muscles run along the front of your thigh and converge in a manner whereby they attach to the top of your shin bone. When they contract, they straighten your knee, which we call knee extension. 

The problem is, for various reasons, most commonly involving injury and generalized weakness, our quadriceps muscles often struggle to contract enough to achieve or maintain this terminal extension, which can make activities like walking and stair climbing rather difficult.

Typically, you can see this weakness or muscular dysfunction through something called a quad lag, which means the quadriceps muscles can’t achieve or maintain a fully extended position. It’s a surprisingly common issue I regularly see and treat in the clinic; getting on top of it is a smart idea. 

When your quadriceps muscles don’t work quite like they should, improving terminal knee extension is often one of the best ways to get them to cooperate and wake up.

A quick aside: if a patient is unable to stand and weight bear, or is in very early stages of injury recovery, a great exercise I’ll often have them perform is to roll up a towel, foam roller, bolster, or something similar and place it underneath the back of their knee. Then, I’ll tell them to try and smoosh it by pushing the back of their knee into the surface they’re resting on. As they gain better recruitment and strength of their quadriceps, they’ll be able to reduce their quadriceps lag, which tells us that these muscles are moving back to a healthier state.

But once someone is cleared and comfortable with being in a weight-bearing position, I often jump to banded terminal knee extensions. Curious as to why? Keep on reading!

Banded terminal knee extensions

Terminal knee extensions provide a challenge that can be easily progressed or regressed simply by standing closer or further away from the anchor point of the band. And you can further fine-tune the resistance based on the band thickness you use.

The added beauty is that with the foot being on the ground, it’s what we call a closed-chain exercise, which has some added functionality benefits; it’s being performed in a position with a higher cross-over effect to one’s daily life.

There are numerous ways you can modify this exercise, which isn’t the focus of this article, so keep in mind that what I’m discussing here is merely the tip of the iceberg.

Related Article: Locking Your Knees When Squatting: Good Or Bad? (Detailed Breakdown)

Performing the exercise: What you’ll need

All you need are two things:

• A resistance band (which you can get just about anywhere these days)
• A sturdy object to which you will loop and anchor the band.
  

From there, just step back to tighten the band, and you’re good to go!

Now, if you’re in need of some bands and would like to help support this channel, feel free to check out this link over to Animalhouse Fitness for some bands you can pick up (and save 10% on any purchases). Purchasing through this link would provide me with a small commission at no extra cost to you and would help offset the cost of maintaining my website and other associated expenses to keep making content available to all of you.

Nonetheless, you can pick up these bands just about anywhere these days, so it shouldn’t be difficult to do so. 

Who is this exercise best for?

Just so we’re clear, this exercise can be great for those in certain stages of injury rehabilitation, including surgical recovery. However, if you’ve had a nasty injury or have lots of knee pain, please make sure your healthcare provider has cleared you to do a movement such as this before attempting it.

If you’re not injured but simply need to build up some strength in your quadriceps, this movement can work well for young and elderly populations alike, and everyone in between. 

How many sets and repetitions you perform will depend on your needs and abilities. Still, a general starting point would be to use enough resistance so that you will have built up a notable amount of fatigue or tiredness within your quadriceps muscles by the end of around 10-20 repetitions.

“Terminal knee extensions provide a challenge that can be easily progressed or regressed simply by standing closer or further away from the anchor point of the band.”

For those just starting out, anywhere from 1-3 sets with moderate resistance will likely get you in the ballpark for the right volume of work to target your quadriceps.

Generally speaking, you want to hold each contraction for a couple of seconds, as this ensures maximal stimulation to the muscles, which leads to better strength and endurance adaptations within the muscles. 

Kicking it up a notch

Should you find the need to kick things up a notch, either because your knees need a greater challenge or you want to do a double-leg version of this exercise, you’ll want to check out my article on the Spanish squat, which is an outstanding exercise to perform for many individuals looking to reduce certain types of knee pain or prevent knee pain from arising.

In the article, I break down the biomechanics and science behind what makes this such a smart exercise for certain types of tendon conditions that are very common for active and non-active individuals alike. So head over there if you want to learn one more way to build some seriously robust knees.

And in the meantime, keep making great things happen!