What are some good knee exercises for running??

Question

I'm training for my first 5km race... Ive run on and off since I was about 14 but I've never done a race and I just finished university so I thought it would be something fun to do! Anyways, I'm looking for some exercises I can do for my knees to prevent inguries and any ofther excersies that will prevent injuries. ALSO.. how many days a week should I be running? I was running 5-6 days a week but I've heard from a few other runner's that that's too often and I should only do it 3-4 days a week. I run outside, not on a treadmill so I am running on pavement.

Answer 1

You can't strengthen your knee very much, you have to strengthen everything around it.  

The best thing you can do is find knee rehab exercises on youtube and do some of those.  But the common ones will be lifting one leg with the other one bent while lying down, squats, lunges.

But you don't want to do that too much if your knee is already hurting, then you want to ice around the knee and take anti-inflammatories.  

As far as how many days you should run, it's how much you personally can handle, if you're running 6 times per week and doing fine, keep going, if not, cut back.  Just try not to increase your workouts too fast.  That's the key for that.  

Answer 2

squats :

you are posisioned on one knee and change one to the other :D

mr motivator work out also very atractive :P