VIDEO: Two Balance & Knee Stability Drills You Should Try

If you’ve mastered basic single leg balance drills and you have good hip and knee stability in a basic step-up, then here are two drills you should consider trying.

The first is deceivingly simple but is a real challenge for most people. It requires considerable foot and ankle strength. Aim for 30-sec per side to start, then build to 60sec when you’re able.

The heel elevated balance drill is a nice intermediate balance progression that is going to majorly increase the demand on your foot and ankle strength. Once you've mastered a basic single leg balance and a 1-leg RDL hold/balance drill (both can be found in other videos I've posted), you should be ready to give this a try.

The second is a Peterson Step-up, an exercise I learned about roughly 10-years ago from Charles Poliquin (check out his website Strength Sensei). He showed the Peterson Step-up as an advanced progression from the Poliquin Step-up, another exercise that I believe in strongly. Both are used to improve knee health and stability. Remember, between foot/ankle strength is liked strongly to knee stability, balance, glute engagement & hip stability. Needles to say, it’s important.

Poliquin Step-up Benefits. Learn to activate your VMO. The poliquin step up is one of my favorite exercises to build single leg stability and target the VMO (the inside head of your quad, which is important in knee stability). It does this better than many other alternative exercises.

After you've mastered the basics of a Poliquin Step-up, try these two methods of increasing the challenge. These ideas will help take your Poliquin Step-ups to the next level!

Typically, the Peterson Step-up is done slightly differently from what I'm showing here, but I find this variation to be more effective. I feel that my variation forces the exerciser to create more stability in the foot and ankle, and to sustain it for longer. Either way, try both methods over a few workouts and see what you like best.

I learned about the Peterson Step-up about 10-years ago from Charles Poliquin aka (check out his website Strength Sensei) at a seminar. He showed the Peterson Step-up as an advanced progression from the Poliquin Step-up. Both are used to improve knee health and stability.

And as a final bonus, here’s a split squat variation that is also designed to challenge your foot and ankle strength. It’s a similar idea to the other exercises, but you have the potential to add more load.

Try this heel elevated split squat to build major foot and ankle strength. You'll need plenty of stability before you give this a try with any serious weight.