Knee malalignment and thigh muscles strengthening in individuals with medial knee arthritis

Participants in the exercise group were taught five quadriceps strengthening exercises by a project physiotherapist to be performed five days a week for twelve weeks at home. The exercises were: 1. Quadriceps exercise over fulcrum using ankle weight 2. Straight leg raise exercise using ankle weight 3. Long arc knee extension exercise in sitting using ankle weight 4. Knee extension exercise with isometric hold at 60° knee flexion using ankle weight 5. Knee extension exercise with isometric hold at 60° knee flexion using an elastic band. Each exercise was performed at 2x10 repetitions for the first 2 weeks and 3x10 repetitions thereafter. Participants visited the physiotherapist 7 times at Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 10. They were given the ankle weights and elastic band to bring home and instructed about the repetitions and weights to use by the physiotherapist, who also checked and progressed their exercises. The average duration of the physiotherapy sessions was 30 minutes. To monitor compliance, each participant was given an exercise instructions sheet and kept a training diary to record the exercises they had done.