The 7 Low-Impact Exercises Your Achy Knees Will Love
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The 7 Best Low-Impact Exercises for Achy Knees

The 7 Best Low-Impact Exercises for Achy Knees
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Updated on November 14, 2025
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If you’re dealing with knee pain but don’t want to neglect your workout routine, there’s some good news: You don’t have to forgo your usual lower-body exercises. Just focus on doing low-impact moves that target your leg muscles without putting a lot of pressure on your knees.

When you overdo high-impact exercises, like running and jumping, it tends to stress the patellar tendon, which connects your kneecap to your shinbone. That can lead to a condition called patellar tendinitis, or jumper’s knee, says Mayo Clinic. It’s a common cause of knee pain.

You can help treat this kind of pain by exercising your quads, calves, glutes, and hamstrings. Strengthening these areas lessens the load on your knees and helps stabilize your joints.

You see this whenever you do a squat or a lunge. These moves pull your knee down and allow your calf muscle to lengthen. They also slow down your ankle and knee as they bend, lessening the impact on them. Your quads get stronger, and it gets easier to do hip bends that activate your glutes, further safeguarding your knees.

Here are seven low-impact leg exercises to try.

1. Reverse Lunge

  1. Stand tall with your feet together and your hands by your hips.
  2. Take a big step back with your right foot, and lower into a lunge until your front and back legs form 90-degree angles. Make sure your front knee is stacked directly over your left ankle, and your back knee is directly under your right hip.
  3. Push off of your front foot to stand back up and return to the starting position.
  4. Repeat with your left leg, and keep alternating until you’ve done 8 reps on each side.

2. Kettlebell Swing

  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and a kettlebell on the ground a few inches in front of you. The space between your feet and the kettlebell should be a triangle.
  2. Hinge your hips back and take hold of the kettlebell with both hands, keeping your grip loose.
  3. Push your butt back and keep your back flat as you hike the kettlebell between your legs.
  4. Straighten your legs to stand, drawing power from your hips to swing the kettlebell up to your chest.
  5. Using the kettlebell’s momentum, swing the weight back between your legs and under your hips, sinking into your hips and bending your knees.
  6. Complete 15 swings.

3. Sliding Hamstring Curl

  1. Sit on the ground and place your feet flat on the floor. Keep your knees bent. Slip a small slide board under each of your heels. (If you don’t have sliders, use a pair of hand towels or two pieces of paper.)
  2. Lie flat with your arms by your sides and your hands facing the ground. Stretch your legs out in front of you.
  3. Pull your heels toward your butt, lifting your hips and lower back off the ground to come to a glute bridge. Squeeze your glutes at the top.
  4. Lower your butt toward the ground, and extend your legs back out in front of you to return to the starting position without letting your legs touch the floor.
  5. Do 10 reps.

4. Lateral Lunge

  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your hands by your hips.
  2. Take a big step to the side with your left leg and hinge your hips back, bending your left knee. Keep that knee in line with your left foot.
  3. Push off your left leg and move into a lateral lunge with your right leg.
  4. Push off your right leg and return to the starting position.
  5. Do 8 reps on each leg.

5. Single-Leg Deadlift

  1. Stand up with your hands by your sides, each one holding a dumbbell.
  2. Keeping your right knee slightly bent and your back flat, hinge your hips back as you lift your left leg behind you for balance. Lower the dumbbells until your torso is parallel to the ground.
  3. Maintaining balance on your right foot, drop your left leg back into the starting position. Do not allow your left foot to touch the ground.
  4. Repeat the move, doing 8 reps on each side.

6. Hip Thrust

  1. Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground, hip-width apart. Rest the bottom of your shoulder blades on the edge of a bench, couch, or chair. Cross your arms in front of your chest.
  2. Keeping your neck long, press into your heels and lift your hips off the ground to come up to a bridge. As you do this, your neck and shoulders should move onto the bench.
  3. Pause at the top, and then slowly lower your hips back down until they are hovering just a few inches off the ground.
  4. Press into your heels and lift your hips back up for the next rep.
  5. Do 12 reps.

7. Goblet Squat

  1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold one end of a dumbbell with both hands at chest height.
  2. Keeping your back straight and shoulders back, hinge your hips back and lower your butt into a squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground, or as low as you can comfortably go.
  3. Press through your feet to stand back up.
  4. Do 10 reps.
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Heather Jeffcoat

Heather Jeffcoat, PT, DPT

Medical Reviewer

Heather Jeffcoat, PT, DPT, is a doctor of physical therapy and the founder of Femina Physical Therapy and Fusion Wellness & Physical Therapy, both of which focus on pelvic health and whole-body orthopedic care.

With more than 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Jeffcoat is a leading expert in the treatment of sexual pain and pelvic floor dysfunction, and her Los Angeles (Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks) and Atlanta-based clinics draw patients from around the world.

She is the author of Sex Without Pain: A Self-Treatment Guide to the Sex Life You Deserve, which is widely used by both patients and healthcare professionals. Jeffcoat regularly lectures internationally on female sexual health, pelvic pain, and interdisciplinary care, and she develops continuing education courses for physical therapists and other providers.

Jeffcoat served as president of the Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy from 2021 to 2024, and held multiple leadership positions with the International Pelvic Pain Society from 2014 to 2023, including acting on their board of directors.

Her patient-centered, integrative approach emphasizes functional recovery and empowerment for those experiencing painful sex, endometriosis, postpartum trauma, menopause-related incontinence or pain, and other complex pelvic and chronic pain conditions. She has created multiple programs, including Birth Prep 101, helping hundreds of women achieve the birth and postpartum recovery support they need.

Her passion extends beyond the clinic walls, as she also founded and runs a 501(c)3, Empower Health Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to providing no cost services to low-income and marginalized populations with pelvic health conditions.

She has been a speaker at the following:

  • World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain, Cartagena, Colombia, Post-Conference Course: "Chronic Pelvic Pain Evaluation and Management Strategies," 2024
  • American Urogynecologic Association, Advanced Practice, Physical Therapy, and Allied Health Bootcamp: "Pelvic Pain and Sexual Dysfunction Related to PFDs" (AUGS Preconference Course), 2016
  • American Urogynecologic Association, Seattle, "Pathoanatomy and Patient Presentations in Sexual Pain Syndromes," co-presented with Nazema Siddiqui, MD, 2016
  • UCLA Urogynecology and MIGS Lecture Series, "Continence and Pain Mechanisms Beyond the Pelvic Floor," 2024
  • PelviCon National Conference, Atlanta, "The Female Orgasm and Differential Diagnosis of Vaginismus and Vulvodynia," 2022
  • Invited lecturer: Pelvic health education, Reproductive Health Access Project, CSU Fullerton, 2024
  • Expert panel speaker, Menopause Monologues: The Hottest Show In Town, Hollywood, California, 2025

Course developer and instructor, Female Sexual Function, Dysfunction & Pain, United States, Istanbul, Middle East:

  • Sex Therapy for Transgender and Nonbinary Clients, Center for Healthy Sex
  • Cyclist’s Syndrome–Pudendal Neuralgia, Beijing (Chinese Olympic Committee)
  • Multiple CE webinars and in-person labs across North America

Community Education:

  • Creator and host of multiple events in California, Girls’ Night Out: Better Sexual and Pelvic Health
  • Guest speaker, LA LGBTQ Center, Duke University SoCal Women’s Group, and Endo Day
See full bio

Henry Halse, CSCS, CPT

Author

Henry Halse is a strength and conditioning specialist and personal trainer with a bachelor's degree in clinical exercise science. He is a competitive powerlifter, volunteers as a coach in a men's rehabilitation program, and contributes fitness content to various publications.

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