Fitness

Try 5 exercises to fix knee pain and offset the damage of sitting all day, according to a physical therapist

Published

1 year ago

January 22, 2025

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Try 5 exercises to fix knee pain and offset the damage of sitting all day, according to a physical therapist

If you get knee pain or injuries in the gym, that could be from sitting all day.
Exercises that strengthen and stretch the leg muscles effectively will help protect knees.
For healthier joints, aim to move regularly and work on your balance and stability.

Simple exercises can help prevent knee pain from derailing your routine, according to a physical therapist.

Andrey Simeonovski, a physical therapy doctor, recently spent a week in Kathmandu as part of Operation Walk, helping rehabilitate patients who’d had knee replacement surgeries.

He said a major takeaway from the experience is that consistently putting your body through the same motions can cause problems, whether you’re sitting all day or doing repetitive physical tasks.

“It’s a variety of movements that are important for your health in your body,” Simeonovski said.

Here are some exercises that offer your joints a range of motion to strengthen the surrounding muscles. As always, it’s best to work with a qualified trainer, or talk to a doctor first if you have existing injuries.

Lateral “monster walks” can relieve knee and back pain

Lateral steps with a resistance band help to strength muscles that support the knees.

Milan Markovic/Getty Images

Resistance bands are a great tool for strengthening muscles that help stabilize the knee joint.

Simeonovski said a common exercise he uses for the knees, hips, and back is the “monster walk,” taking steps from side to side with a band around the legs or feet.

The band provide tension to engage the glutes, which can be underdeveloped from sitting all day, so firing them up helps to stabilize the rest of the body.

“It reduces strain on the low back,” Simeonovski said.

Quad stretches help take pressure off your knees

A half-kneeling pose known as the couch stretch can help open your helps and lengthen your quads. It’s typically done with the back foot and shin pressed against a wall. Resting your knee on an elevated surface like a bench can provide more stability.

LordHenriVoton/Getty Images

Knee pain can often result from tightness in the quads, which then pull on the knee and create problems, according to Simeonovski.

A couch stretch can help lengthen and loosen up the quads while opening up the hip flexors.

Simeonovski typically recommends an elevated version of the stretch, which is easier on the knee:

Rest one knee on a bench or box near the wall. Bend that knee while moving the shin and top of the foot to rest flat up against the wall.

If it’s painful, ease up on the stretch, especially if you have an injury.

Simeonovski said the best way to avoid injury is pay attention — if something is painful enough that it’s distracting, or if you stop the exercise and the pain persists, don’t continue.

“Pain that lingers is a red flag,” he said.

Hamstring curls can protect your knees from injury

Simeonovski said the hamstrings, the muscles on the back of the leg, are often overlooked. We tend to focus on the quads on the front of the leg. But that can increase the risk of damaging ligaments in the knee because the quads can put too much pressure on the ACL without the hamstrings to counteract them.

To strengthen the hamstrings, try Nordic hamstring curls.

Start in a kneeling position with your feet secured (you can use a special mat or bench, tuck them under a couch or other furniture, or have someone hold them). Keeping your torso, hips, and shoulders in a straight line, slowly lower yourself to the ground, landing on your hands as if in the bottom of push-up.

This exercise can be challenging. If you feel like you don’t have control, use a resistance band secured behind you to help offset some of your body weight. That will make the movement easier.

Step-ups strengthen the knee and help fix imbalances

Step-ups can help address muscle imbalances by focusing on one leg at a time, while also improving lower body strength and stability.

Zinkevych/Getty Images

One of Simeonovski’s go-to exercises for improving lower body strength and joint health is the step-up.

Stand in front of a stool, bench, box, or stairs, and place one foot on the elevated surface. Pressing through that foot, lift your body up onto the step, and then return to the starting position. Repeat, alternating the starting foot.

Step-ups are low-impact and work the glutes, hamstrings, and quads as well as the core muscles. Alternating sides can also help improve your balance.

Go slow and gradually increase weight, height, or intensity as you get comfortable with the exercise. Squats and lunges offer similar benefits, but may need modifications if you have an existing injury.

Simeonovski said he prefers these movements to exercises like knee extensions, which aren’t necessarily bad for your joints, but don’t offer as much stability.

Rotational exercise helps to offset damage from sitting

The open book: Stretching your spine can help improve overall movement and prevent back and hip pain.

SimpleImages/Getty Images

Tightness in one area can cause a chain reaction and create aches and issues elsewhere.

For instance, back problems can worsen strain and pressure on the knees.

That’s why Simeonovski recommends the open book exercise for patients who have knee pain and spend lots of time sitting. It doesn’t directly involve the knees but can improve overall mobility.

Lie on a mat or the floor with your knees and hips bent at 90 degrees and your arms extended in front of you. Slowly rotate the top arm up and across your body as far as you comfortably can, gently twisting your spine. Return to the starting position and repeat, being sure to perform the exercise on both sides.

You can also do a similar rotation from a half-kneeling position.

Take breaks for movement throughout the day

The key to strengthening and protecting your joints is consistency, especially if you sit all day, according to Simeonovski.

Find opportunities to get up and move around at regular intervals, setting an alarm if needed to remind yourself to take a stretch break, go for a short walk, or otherwise give your body a rest from repetition.

“Staying in one position is a problem long-term,” he said.

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Fitness

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Published

1 hour ago

March 11, 2026

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A new study suggests that high blood sugar may block some key benefits of exercise. However, researchers discovered that a high-fat ketogenic diet helped restore those benefits in mice by normalising blood sugar and improving how muscles use oxygen. Here’s what the study reveals

Fitness

Exercise Boosts Brain ‘Ripples’ Tied to Learning and Memory

Published

13 hours ago

March 10, 2026

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Exercise Boosts Brain ‘Ripples’ Tied to Learning and Memory

Each time you go for a jog, ride your bike, or get active in other ways, you’re giving your brain a boost. A small new study has for the first time directly documented this phenomenon, which the researchers call “ripples” — brief bursts of electrical activity in a part of the brain called the hippocampus.

While exercise is known to improve memory, scientists have mostly studied this effect by using behavioral tests or brain imaging methods like MRIs, says Michelle Voss, PhD, one of the study’s authors, a professor, and the director of the Health, Brain, and Cognitive Lab at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

But she says these approaches can’t precisely identify where “ripples” originate, particularly in the deep brain structures like the hippocampus, a part of the brain strongly connected to memory and learning, she says.

The current study, published in Brain Communications, recorded electrical activity directly, using surgically implanted (intracranial) electrodes. “This allowed us to observe how exercise changes the brain’s memory circuits in real time,” Dr. Voss says.

20-Minute Bursts of Exercise Increase Brain Ripples

To conduct the study, the researchers recruited 14 participants between ages 17 and 50 with drug-resistant epilepsy. The subjects had already been fitted with intracranial electrodes as part of their preparation for surgical epilepsy treatment.

The participants performed a 5-minute warm-up and then rode a stationary bike for 20 minutes at a pace they could maintain. Researchers recorded their brain activity before and after the biking session.

The electrodes showed an increased rate of so-called sharp-wave ripples from the hippocampus and connections with cortical regions of the brain, which are involved in learning and memory.

“Sharp-wave ripples have long been known from animal studies to play a central role in memory,” Voss says, adding that recent studies using intracranial recordings in humans also support the importance of ripples for human memory.

“Our findings are the first to show that exercise can modulate these ripple signals in the human brain,” she says.

Researchers also observed that larger increases in heart rate during exercise were associated with larger changes in ripple activity in cortical networks, Voss adds.

What’s Already Known About Exercise, Memory, and Learning

“We know that exercise is the number-one thing we can do to enhance our memory and learning,” says Catherine Franssen, PhD, an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences and Sustainability at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. “Exercise will enhance both our ability to learn new things and our ability to remember previously learned things.”

Movement helps pump oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood to the brain, says Dr. Franssen, who was not involved with the new study: “We’re able to activate those brain cells more effectively and energize them.”

The increased blood flow stimulates the growth of new neurons and enhances the production of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a molecule that strengthens connections between brain cells and supports learning, says the neurologist David Perlmutter, MD, who was not involved with the latest study.

Exercise helps build connections between neurons, which deepens and strengthens brain networks, Franssen says.

Physical activity also improves metabolism, which improves insulin sensitivity, helping blood sugar regulation and giving the brain a “more stable and reliable supply of fuel,” Dr. Perlmutter says.

“This is critically important because the brain is an energy-intensive organ, consuming roughly 20 percent of the body’s energy despite representing only a small fraction of body weight,” he adds.

The Research Has Limitations

Voss says researchers were careful to “exclude signals that contained epileptic activity. However, of course, we can’t statistically control for the accumulated effects of having epilepsy on the brain.”

The exercise-brain ripple patterns observed in the current study also closely match those observed in healthy adults using noninvasive brain imaging, such as MRI, she added.

“That convergence across very different methods is one of the strongest indicators that the effects are not specific to epilepsy, but reflect a more general human brain response to exercise,” Voss said.

Researchers also didn’t directly test memory performance, Voss notes. “While hippocampal ripples are strongly linked to memory processing in decades of neuroscience research, the next step will be to measure how exercise-related changes in ripples relate to memory performance in the same individuals.”

Future studies should also compare exercise with other everyday activities, such as sitting quietly or light movement, to determine how specific these effects are to aerobic exercise at the intensity that was studied, she says.

Satisfy Your Brain’s Exercise Craving

It’s never too early or too late to start exercising for brain health, Franssen says.

People of any age, from grade-school children to people in their nineties, can benefit from increased physical activity, Perlmutter says. “My recommendation is to consider taking advantage of the connection between physical activity and brain health across the entire range of human aging.”

Any type of exercise is great, Franssen says, but especially “repetitive behaviors,” like swimming, jogging, and walking.

“Sometimes we let the hugeness of putting in a huge fitness routine get in our way,” she says. “Having a little exercise snack every so often is also very important to improving cognition.”

Fitness

Higher Fitness Levels Amplify Brain Benefits After Exercise, Study Finds

Published

1 day ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Higher Fitness Levels Amplify Brain Benefits After Exercise, Study Finds

Increasing our level of physical fitness leads to a bigger release of brain-boosting proteins following one session of exercise, a new study led by a UCL researcher has found.

The study, published in Brain Research, took a group of inactive unfit participants through a 12-week training programme of cycling three times per week and made them fitter. Researchers found as their fitness increased, so did the amount of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) released following exercise, resulting in improved brain function.

Just 15 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise releases BDNF, a brain protein which is known to support the formation of new neurons and new synapses (connections between brain cells), and maintains the health of existing neurons. This is the first study to show that for unfit people, just 12 weeks of consistent training can boost the brain’s response to a single 15-minute workout.

The study, led by Dr Flaminia Ronca (UCL Surgery & Interventional Science, and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health), involved 30 participants – 23 male and seven female – taking part in the 12-week programme. To assess fitness levels throughout the programme, participants completed VO2max tests every six weeks, which measures the maximum rate of oxygen your body can consume and use during intense exercise.

BDNF levels were measured pre- and post-VO2max testing, alongside a series of cognitive and memory tests, while also measuring changes in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex – where executive functions such as decision-making, emotion regulation, attention and impulsivity are controlled.

By the final week of the trial, results showed that baseline levels of BDNF did not change, but participants did show a larger spike of BDNF following intense exercise, compared to how their brains responded to intense exercise before the 12-week programme. This was linked to improvements in VO2max (aerobic fitness).

Higher overall BDNF levels and stronger exercise-induced increases were also associated with changes in activity across key areas of the prefrontal cortex during attention and inhibition tasks, though not during memory tasks.

Overall, the results showed that increasing physical fitness can enhance the brain’s ability to produce BDNF in response to acute bouts of exercise, which can have a strong positive influence on neural activity.

Lead author Dr Flaminia Ronca said: “We’ve known for a while that exercise is good for our brain, but the mechanisms through which this occurs are still being disentangled. The most exciting finding from our study is that if we become fitter, our brains benefit even more from a single session of exercise, and this can change in only six weeks.”

Notes to editors:

For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact: Tom Cramp, UCL Media Relations , T: +447586 711698, E: [email protected]

The research paper: ‘BDNF relates to prefrontal cortex activity in the context of physical exercise’, Flaminia Ronca, Cian Xu, Ellen Kong, Dennis Chan, Antonia Hamilton, Giampietro Schiavo, Ilias Tachtsidis, Paola Pinti, Benjamin Tari, Tom Gurney, Paul W. Burgess, is published in Brain Research, March 2026,

About UCL (University College London)

UCL is a diverse global community of world-class academics, students, industry links, external partners, and alumni. Our powerful collective of individuals and institutions work together to explore new possibilities.

Since 1826, we have championed independent thought by attracting and nurturing the world’s best minds. Our community of more than 50,000 students from 150 countries and over 16,000 staff pursues academic excellence, breaks boundaries and makes a positive impact on real world problems.

We are consistently ranked among the top 10 universities in the world and are one of only a handful of institutions rated as having the strongest academic reputation and the broadest research impact.

We have a progressive and integrated approach to our teaching and research – championing innovation, creativity and cross-disciplinary working. We teach our students how to think, not what to think, and see them as partners, collaborators and contributors.

For 200 years, we are proud to have opened higher education to students from a wide range of backgrounds and to change the way we create and share knowledge.

We were the first in England to welcome women to university education and that courageous attitude and disruptive spirit is still alive today. We are UCL.

www.ucl.ac.uk | Read news at www.ucl.ac.uk/news/ | Follow UCL News on Bluesky and LinkedIn

Journal

Brain Research

DOI

10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150253

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

BDNF relates to prefrontal cortex activity in the context of physical exercise

Article Publication Date

4-Mar-2026

Media Contact

Tom Cramp

University College London

[email protected]

Journal
Brain Research
DOI
10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150253

Journal

Brain Research

DOI

10.1016/j.brainres.2026.150253

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

BDNF relates to prefrontal cortex activity in the context of physical exercise

Article Publication Date

4-Mar-2026

Tags
/Health and medicine/Human health/Physical exercise

bu içeriği en az 2000 kelime olacak şekilde ve alt başlıklar ve madde içermiyecek şekilde ünlü bir science magazine için İngilizce olarak yeniden yaz. Teknik açıklamalar içersin ve viral olacak şekilde İngilizce yaz. Haber dışında başka bir şey içermesin. Haber içerisinde en az 12 paragraf ve her bir paragrafta da en az 50 kelime olsun. Cevapta sadece haber olsun. Ayrıca haberi yazdıktan sonra içerikten yararlanarak aşağıdaki başlıkların bilgisi var ise haberin altında doldur. Eğer yoksa bilgisi ilgili kısmı yazma.:
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Keywords

Tags: 12-week cycling training program benefitsbrain plasticity and physical fitnessbrain-derived neurotrophic factor after exerciseeffects of aerobic exercise on BDNFexercise and neuron healthexercise-induced neurogenesisfitness level impact on brain proteinsfitness training for cognitive improvementimproving brain function through fitnessmoderate to vigorous aerobic exercise effectsphysical fitness and brain healthVO2max and brain function correlation