Strong Knees [DVD]

I do kung fu approximately 2 hours/day three times per week, including past running, and been in a car accident that injured my left knee, all contributing to chronic knee pain. Therefore, I bought this DVD when I was at the Barnes and Noble under the "Gaiam" yoga section. Literally after one day, my knee pain improved considerably and after doing the DVD every day religiously for 2 weeks, I have none to minimal knee pain.A caveat. My friend was suffering from severe knee pain and so I sent her the DVD immediately. She found no relief as she had NO knee cartilage. Therefore, even steroid injections, pain killers were not effective. Unfortunately surgery appears to be the last resort. However, if you DO have some knee cartilage, take chondroiton sulfate (cosamin DS is the doctor recommended brand) and do the DVD, you will have instant pain relief.As for the criticisms of it being too much information, too many commercials, and threatening men's masculinity and not increasing muscle bulk visibly, here are some counterpoints.The information I feel is absolutely vital. Without it, you will become dependent forever on other physical therapists/treatments. Knowledge is power, and Ms. Donnelly wants you to become independent, the hallmark of hte best teachers. After watching the entire DVD, I knew IMMEDIATELY what I needed to focus on: strength in the hip/glute areas and flexibility everywhere (this is because I do weight lifting for the quads, hamstrings and calves at the gym). Since you know what causes knee pain, and if you know your weaknesses, you can do ONLY the exercises targeting the weaknesses. Even if you do NOT know what your problem areas are after watching the informational portions, once you do ALL the exercises, if you note any one that is causing any difficulty (and others that are really easy), write down the hard exercises, and concentrate on them, ignore the really easy ones.Furthermore, there is a menu option that you can pick and chose the exercise, press enter, and Ms. Donnelly will go through only those that you chose, so that you can skip the instructional parts. After awhile, I knew by heart the exercises I needed to do (I wrote them down as well for reference), so I can bypass the DVD completely, and just do them from memory. However, I like to do the DVD sometimes as I find the humor refreshing and healing and it's like taking a class that I paid a lot of money for.There ARE too many annoying commercials, so why not turn on the DVD, do errands, and once the commercials are over, then do your exercises? When I first started out, first thing in the morning, I turn on the DVD/TV, do my back exercises (the Y's Way to a Healthy Back by Melleby is the only book that helped with back pain for me), and then go through the menu to start the knee exercises. Again, after 2 weeks or so, I can do this through rote memory, without reliance on the DVD. I also wrote down all the exercises for reference, and then finally did only the ones that are giving me trouble.Again, you can save time, by writing down what the exercises you need to do, and refer to that, and never needing the DVD again, becoming truly independent.As for the criticism that most men will not do this video as it will threaten their masculinity, I feel that all men are NOT that fragile and pathetic, that men are actually sane, and will do the exercises as it will relieve complete pain. The other complaint of the same reviewer, is that does not build muscles visibly. However,the goal is to eradicate knee pain, not to be a body builder. As long as you have adequate strength and flexibility in all areas that are specific to the knee, you will NOT feel pain whatsoever (again, as long as you have some cartilage).If you want to build muscles, I strongly advise Schwarzenegger's classic bible, "Modern Encyclopedia of Body Building". I revised it (as it was WAY TOO INTENSE FOR ME) to being 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps of 2 to 3 sets of each muscle group to failure (any short cuts do NOT work for me) twice a week. If you follow his book, you cannot fail to gain muscle mass. I don't even follow him religiously, as it is way too much, but even so, that is the only way I was able to get stronger. However, for knee pain relief, the DVD works.The reasons why the DVD is so helpful:1. Easy to follow with clear verbal and visual instructions2. Ms. Donnelly is very encouraging and positive3. Mentioning proper form throughout the movements4. Very gentle exercises.5. I enjoy the humor (humor has been scientifically documented to reduce pain)6. It is meditative7. Doesn't take much time at all, but reaping huge benefits.8. It is very safe.I hope that Ms. Donnelly will work on DVDs like this for neck, shoulder, and back pain--I have written to her pleading that she covers these topics in future DVDs, so I'm crossing my fingers. I will definitely buy all three in a heartbeat!!

I hurt my knee towards the end of July after a very quick increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of my workouts on the elliptical trainer. I had been pretty lazy the past year and was to the point I was only using it on weekends, and then went quite suddenly to 6 days a week. At that point, the grinding noise I had previously ignored turned into a mix of dull pain around the knee cap, and very, very sharp pain under the left knee cap. I had dislocated this knee cap at the age of 14. My other knee also became tight.I purchased this DVD with the idea that if my knee did not get better, or got worse, I would go for PT. For the first month I made great progress using this DVD and reduced time on the elliptical trainer. But then while on a Staycation my knee pain increased significantly. Different shoes, more active, etc. So, I went to the doctor. I have two subluxated patellas, the left one being significantly off the track. On top of that I have hip dysplasia on the right (shallow hip socket), and a SIJ rotation - these were diagnosed initially in 1997. So, I'm a fairly complex case!But throughout the 2 weeks for diagnostics, and additional 2 weeks to finally get into PT (and now I'm waiting another 3 weeks to get to the start of the regular weekly sessions) - I have continued to use this DVD. I truly think without it, I would not be walking.I have only had my first PT session, but what I've done so far is simply building on this DVD. Concentrating on the gluteus medius, I've added resistance and reps for the clam shell, and holding time and reps for the side leg raises. I've increased the balancing exercises to add additional reps (which has also helped strengthen weak ankles, and a weak arch on my left foot). And I can't do regular bridges, so now I'm learning to do the single leg bridge on a chair. I've only had one week of PT, and I've already seen big results, but I've continued to use the exercises and stretches from this DVD as the basis for my work - only changing the exercises to meet my personal needs.I would highly recommend this DVD to anyone with knee injuries. And also, the stretching routine on the DVD is awesome.UPDATE December 2009:I am still in PT for my knee. Progress is being made but is slow, which is not unusual for the knee. The only portion I still use from the DVD is the stretching sequence and I use it almost daily. Even though I no longer use the DVD, the exercises I do continue to be based on the same ideas as this DVD, but either the rep count, the hold time, or intensity has been changed. Besides the items mentioned above, the latest change has been to add weight to the wall slide exercises and maintain a 6-second hold time. I have to be careful with exercises that target the quads directly as it causes the knee to lock down, but this one seems to be working.As another reviewer mentioned, I also added ankle weights to the side leg raises, although I had to place them just above the knees. It was amazing how important the gluteus medius exercises were for my recovery. In my modified versions it takes me about 30-35 minutes to do all of my lower body strength exercises, of which 15 minutes is for the gluteus medius!! It's amazing how things all fit together.As one of the other reviewers mentioned, this is a good DVD for beginners and even light intermediate. But over time you will likely need to up the workout a little. Either way, I think this is a very good DVD.I never did use the 7 minute workout as I felt it was too rushed.

This DVD is fantastic. I recently tore my anterior cruciate ligament and was looking for a DVD with exercises to help me rehabilitate my knee and strengthen my leg muscles. This ticked all the boxes. It's great.The DVD contains 30 minutes of strengthening and stretching exercises as well as a fast 7 minutes section for when time it tight - which it often is! It also has bonus features including a tool that lets you build your own programme by combining your desired sections from the DVD.The instructor is very clear. She's a physiotherapist and is really good at explaining the exercises and why each is important. She also explains the exercises with modifications which I found useful. The general presentation and sound are good quality and clear.All around I found this a very helpful DVD with a lot of helpful instruction at a low price. As far as I'm concerned it was worth every penny.

What an annoying DVD! It's filled with promotions for the producing company and other products, and they're formatted so you can't fastforward through them. So in order to get to the exercises, you have to watch half an hour's worth of advertising.When it finally gets to the actual content, it's mostly talking. There's a section with just the exercises, which skips the talking. This would be fine, except you can't get to that without watching all the advertising first. The exercises themselves are good, but get lost amidst all the advertising and talking.I've thrown the DVD away.

I hated this so much that I pulled it out of the DVD player and threw it directly into the trash. (If you're a vidiot, yes, I actually Joni O'ed it!). So much talk talk talk! Just get on with it, PLEASE!! Yeesh.

This DVD is excellent!!! If you are diligent with doing these knee strengthening exercises there is results. I have had knee pain for some years and if I do these exercises regularly my knees are so much better. Thank you Chantal Donnelly for all your research and efforts putting this DVD together,

Bought this DVD for my 67 yr old dad who is the last person you'd think would do a DVD, but he was in a lot of pain so he tried it and now says his knees feel better than they have since he was 21. He was literally on crutches because his knee was so tender and swollen due to regular overwork and within a week he was calling me to sing it's praises. Six months later he and mom still do it most days and are still delighted.