For those who are suffering from knee arthritis, exercises designed to strengthen the quads may be useful.
A new study analyzed 97 knee pain patients who were put into a 12 week program designed to improve knee extension strength. The researchers found that there was a strong linear relationship between improvement in knee extension strength and a reduction in symptoms.
Conclusions
Many clinicians have recommended quad strengthening for knee pain patients. This study shows that simply going through the motions with no form of progressive overload may be insufficient to produce clinically meaningful changes. The magnitude of reduction in knee pain could be determined by the increase in strength changes. Clinicians should ensure that over the course of time, the load is regularly being increased in order to stimulate an adaptation from the body.
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