Getting injured is a terrible thing. It hurts, it limits your motion, and in certain situations, even prevents you from going about your day-to-day activities. While any injury can be devastating, lower body injuries are some of the worst because it essentially doesn’t allow you to move around a lot. Unfortunately, a lot of athletes, pro and amateur, must face this.

Running is part of many sports and constant pressure can lead to injuries on your lower body muscles. Other factors can play a role too such as your form, the way you play, or even plain luck.

While injuries are common and can happen to anyone, that does not mean you just have to wait for it. There are things you can do to prevent it such as practicing proper form in your choice of sport. Another is lower body rehab exercises.

Why do Lower Body Rehab Exercises?

The main purpose of these lower body exercises is to help someone who has gone through an injury get back into the game. If you suffered a muscle tear, for example, your doctor can recommend you do a lower body workout to strengthen the injured part and help with recovery.

In other words, these exercises are designed to strengthen a muscle again to get back to normal.

That being said, you can also use lower body rehab exercises to strengthen your current muscles so that you can avoid injuring them. It is a healing program that can be done to prevent injuries in the first place.

Top Lower Body Rehab Exercises

The lower body has a lot of muscles from the hips down to the toes. These exercises target them generally and specifically areas that are most commonly injured.

The Wall Slide

This one helps strengthen your glutes and thigh muscles.

To do this:

1. Stand straight with your back leaning against a wall.
2. Have both of your feet point forward.
3. Now, slowly slide your back down the wall so you get into a squatting position.
4. Keep your kneecaps over your middle toe and don’t let them dip towards your big toe.
5. Hold this position for at least five seconds.
6. Go back to starting position.

You can repeat this exercise 8 to 12 times per set.

Bridges

This is an exercise that helps strengthen a lot of your muscles. It sounds simple but it is really effective.

To do this:

1. Get an exercise mat or towel and lay down on your back on it.
2. Plant your feet on the floor so your knees bend upwards.
3. Place your hands on your sides with palms facing down, ready to support your body when needed.
4. Proceed by engaging your core and raising your hips.
5. Hold this position for at least 5 seconds then go back to starting position.

When doing bridges, be careful with your neck. If you feel too much strain on it, lower your hips a bit.

You can also increase the difficulty of a bridge by lifting one of your legs and keeping it straight along with your body. Hold this for 5 seconds then do it again with the other leg.

Step Up and Down

This is one of the lower body rehab exercises that make use of a step. You can use the first step of your stairs in your house or even a sturdy box or platform that’s roughly as high as a stair step.

To do this:

1. This is fairly simple and straightforward. Just stand in front of the step.
2. Proceed to step up then down on the step using the same lead foot.
3. Alternate the lead foot for each step up and down.

You can repeat this about 20 times for each foot. Also, make sure that when you place your foot on the step to have the entire foot on it and not just a portion.

Heel Raises

You can do a lot of different lower body rehab exercises with the heel raise. Again, this is very simple but effective in strengthening the different muscles of your legs.

To do this:

1. Stand straight and preferably near a wall or something sturdy so you can support yourself if you lose your balance.
2. Slowly raise your body by going up onto the ball of your feet.
3. Go back to starting position.
4. Do this 10 times.

A popular variation of heel raises is doing it on one leg at a time. It adds more challenge and effort for each leg.

You can also incorporate steps into this exercise. Have your foot or feet just halfway onto the step. When you lower your heel down, you can bring it lower than the step.

Step Dips

You can make use of your step with this exercise again.

1. To do this, stand straight on the step and face the ground or the lower step.
2. Bring one foot out as if you are preparing it to go down one step.
3. Using your other leg, do a squat and bring your outstretched foot down until it is close to the floor.
4. Return to starting position.

Even without a step, you can still do this but you will have to raise the other foot a bit higher.

Incorporate these lower body rehab exercises with your cross-training days as it can greatly help in avoiding injuries.