CKC exercises, like the squat, recruit muscles on both sides of your body to reduce knee displacement and provide stability. They also elicit co-contraction to reduce shear forces and increase compression force for joint stability.
Studies have shown that both OKC and CKC exercise programs can improve self-reported WOMAC functional improvement and balance confidence. They can also enhance quadriceps strength.
Strengthening
Several systems in the body interact to help you maintain your balance and movement. They include the nervous, musculature, and skeletal systems. The muscles in your lower extremity and your knees are part of the kinetic chain that helps you move. One way to strengthen these muscles is to do closed kinetic chain (CKC) exercises. The goal of CKC exercise is to increase muscle strength with a low amount of joint reaction stress. This type of training helps prevent pain and injury and promotes functional recovery.
CKC exercise increases muscle strength by recruiting multiple muscles with less joint movement stress. It is also known as compound lifting because it involves the use of many different muscle groups at once. Examples of these are squats, lunges, and deadlifts. These types of exercises are very useful in strengthening the legs, hips, and back. They are also effective in developing balance and preventing muscular stiffness.
The most important benefit of CKC exercise is that it improves balance. CKC exercises reduce knee displacement, or side to side shifting of the center of pressure. They also help you control your weight over the foot and ankle. In addition, they elicit co-contraction of the quadriceps and hamstring muscles, which increases stability of the knee. In a study by Dannelly,7 CKC and OKC resistance training were compared to each other for their impact on improving balance performance using the Star Excursion Balance Test. The results of the study showed that both CKC and OKC resistance training improved the anterior-posterior, medial-lateral, and total displacements of the center of pressure.
A drawback of OKC exercise is that it isolates a particular body part and does not mirror the motions that occur during daily activities or sports. On the other hand, CKC exercises incorporate a full range of movements that can be used throughout a day. They also enhance the function of the knee and are more effective in increasing muscle strength. 12 weeks of OKC and CKC exercises significantly increased the quadriceps strength and thigh muscle bulk in one study. In addition, these exercises decreased pain and improved functional ability 3 months after intervention.
Flexibility
Closed kinetic chain exercises work multiple muscle groups at the same time, focusing on a movement pattern more similar to walking or running. These exercises are also called compound exercises, and they’re a great way to strengthen the big muscles in your legs. Examples of CKC exercises include squats, lunges and deadlifts. Several systems of the body must work together to maintain balance and coordination, including the nervous system, musculature and skeletal structures. Research has shown that both OKC and CKC exercises can improve dynamic balance performance. However, some studies suggest that CKC exercises may be more beneficial than OKC exercises.
OKC exercises focus on the movement of a single muscle group or joint at one time, like leg extensions or biceps curls. This type of exercise isolates the muscle, but doesn’t train the muscles to co-contract.
This type of training may produce an imbalance, causing weakness at one joint while overworking another. For example, the leg extension exercise may cause a side-to-side shift of the patella in the knee, which is not ideal for those who play sports or have arthritis of the knee. However, closed kinetic chain exercises, like the squat, reduce shear force and increase patellofemoral compressive forces to provide more stability at the knee joint.
Several studies have shown that CKC exercises can be more effective than OKC exercises for improving the strength of the quadriceps muscles in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Witvrouw et al74 randomly assigned sixty patients to receive either an OKC or a CKC rehabilitation program, and they found that both treatments improved subjective pain scores, functional ability, quadriceps and hamstring peak torque, and patellofemoral joint range of motion.
In addition to strengthening the quadriceps, a CKC exercise will improve the flexibility of your hips and thigh muscles. This will help prevent injuries that occur while running. Aim to perform a few CKC exercises in each workout, especially those that target your hip and thigh muscles. Try performing some lunges and squats to increase your leg flexibility while strengthening the large muscles used in running.
Stability
The muscles, ligaments and joints in your lower extremity work together to help you move. This is called your kinetic chain, and it includes the hip, knee and ankle joints. During movement, these joints can be strengthened with both closed and open kinetic chain exercises. Closed kinetic chain exercises require the distal (farthest) portion of the limb to be fixed and proximal portions to be free. These are more like functional movements and are thought to be safer, as well as more effective for strength training.
Closed kinetic chain exercises are the opposite of open kinetic chain exercises and involve movement of multiple muscle groups over multiple joints, such as squats, lunges, deadlifts and power cleans. These exercise are considered more functional because they mimic the movements that occur in daily life. These exercises also have a greater potential to produce eccentric muscle contraction and co-contraction of multiple muscle groups. This reduces shear force and increases joint compression for stability.
One study comparing OKC and CKC exercise for strengthening of the quadriceps found that the CKC exercises produced a more significant improvement in dynamic balance than the OKC exercises. However, the study had a small sample size and did not measure the strength of the knee or hip joints.
Many physiotherapists believe that OKC exercises, such as leg presses and vertical squats put more stress on the ACL and patellofemoral joint than CKC exercises. They are also believed to increase the risk of adverse symptoms such as pain and joint laxity, especially in patients who have undergone ACL reconstruction.
Another issue is that OKC exercises often do not fatigue the quadriceps to a level that would improve knee function after ACL reconstruction. This is because they are performed at a knee angle that may not provide enough resistance to the quadriceps to induce quadriceps fatigue.
The goal of rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction should be to regain the quadriceps strength and function as soon as possible to allow the knee to return to a stable position in stance phase. Intensive CKC exercises may be a good way to achieve this, but it is essential that the knee is not pushed beyond its limits and that a strong core and proper technique is used to prevent re-injury.
Injury Prevention
If you have had a knee injury, CKC exercises can help prevent future injuries. They can also reduce pain in the knee and improve your ability to perform everyday activities like walking or sitting for long periods of time. Some studies have even found that CKC exercises can help reduce the likelihood of a knee replacement surgery.
CKC exercises have also been shown to have greater benefits than OKC exercises in terms of improving balance performance. This is because CKC movements more closely mimic natural movements and work multiple muscles at once. They also tend to elicit muscle co-contraction, which is a great way to improve knee stability.
A study comparing open and closed kinetic chain movement found that CKC exercise was more effective in improving balance than OKC. The researchers speculated that this could be because of the fact that closed kinetic chain movements are more functional, or that they more closely approximate movements that you would encounter in real life and sports (for example squatting to pick up something). Closed kinetic chain exercise may be preferred over OKC exercises for rehabilitation, as they have been shown to increase stability at the joint.
Studies have shown that CKC exercises, such as body squats, lunges and power cleans, can generate greater knee stability than OKC exercise. They are also more likely to elicit co-contraction in the quadriceps, hamstrings, hip flexors and deltoids. These exercises are often performed with weight and can lead to more resistance to knee flexion, which is another factor in preventing injury.
During an OKC exercise such as a leg extension, the patellae experiences shear force that causes it to shift outward, placing strain on the ligaments that hold the knee in place. By contrast, a CKC exercise such as a squat reduces shear force and increases knee compression, which can stabilize the patellae and prevent excessive loading.
To learn more about the benefits of CKC exercises for the knee, try incorporating some of these simple exercises into your routine. Always make sure that you are performing these exercises under the supervision of a trained professional, and never push your knee beyond its range of motion.
