My Go-To Gear For Stronger Knees
With Black Friday coming up, I wanted to put together a short list of the equipment & tools I personally use every week for knee strength, mobility, and long-term resiliency.
None of this is required — you can build stronger, healthier knees with bodyweight alone. But these tools have made my training easier, more effective, and a lot more fun.
If you’re looking for gear for yourself (or someone dealing with knee pain), here are some key tools I recommend, along with how I currently use them.
Training Equipment
ATG Backward Treadmill
Black Friday Deals: 15-25% off at ATGequipment.com
Why I Recommend It:
Arguably my favorite piece of equipment when it comes to knee health. Walking backward has been proven to strengthen your quads (more specifically, the VMO - Vastus Medialis Oblique), improve knee health, and reduce pain by reinforcing proper mechanics and bulletproofing the joints. The ATG Backward Treadmill makes it easy to do this anytime, anywhere, without needing a sled or a large gym space.
This treadmill has been a game-changer for my small home gym. It’s incredibly effective for knee rehab and strengthening, and it’s something I actually use consistently. You can find a full video review here if you’re curious to learn more. If you’re serious about bulletproofing your knees, this piece of equipment is worth the investment, especially if you're working with a small space like me.
One of my favorite pieces of equipment for Kneehab - the ATG Backward Treadmill
Slant Boards
Black Friday Deals: 24% off on Amazon
Why I Recommend It:
If you’re trying to fix knee pain, you NEED (pun intended) to have a slant board. A slant board will allow you to safely put your knee in a ‘knees over toes’ position, helping to strengthen & train key muscles and tendons surrounding your knee. Movements like Slant Board Step Downs, Poliquin Step Ups, and Slant Board Squats, have been essential for me when it comes to increase strength and decreasing pain.
The slant board - a must have piece of equipment for fixing knee pain.
Large Resistance Bands
Black Friday Deals: 34% off on Amazon
Brand Shoutout: Battle Bunker Resistance Bands - 25% off for Black Friday — These are my go to resistance bands for their quality + durability.
Why I Recommend Them:
Large resistance bands are incredibly versatile and functional when it comes to fixing knee pain. Spanish Squats, Banded TKE’s, Adductor & Stability Work are all staples in any of my coaching programs for fixing knee pain and building strength. They’re a cheap way to be able to train from just about anywhere.
Building stronger, more resilient knees with Battle Bunker Resistance Bands.
Tibialis Bar
Black Friday Deals: 15 - 25% off on ATGequipment.com
Why I Recommend It:
Everyone wants to build strong calves, but what about the front of your legs, by your shins? That’s where you’ll find your Tibialis Anterior muscle — a super important muscle for deceleration, landing, and absorbing force. By addressing weaknesses and imbalances in the lower limbs, you can improve overall lower limb alignment, reduce stress on your knees, and enhance joint stability. Strengthening the Tibialis muscle is particularly important, as it directly impacts foot and ankle mechanics, which in turn can affect knee pain, and one of the best ways to strengthen that Tibialis muscle, is with a Tibialis Bar.
Animalhouse Fitness Monkey Feet
Black Friday Deals: Up to 42% off bundles
Why I Recommend Them:
Animalhouse Fitness Monkey Feet are a super unique tool. They allow you to pick up dumbbells with your feet, which may sound silly, but it’s incredibly practical for things like training your hip flexors. If you have weak hip flexors, your hip could be out of alignment, which could inevitably cause knee pain due to imbalances and over compensations. The Monkey Feet are my my go to when it comes to building hip flexor strength.
Nordstick NordBench Pro
Black Friday Deals: 30% off the NordBench Pro
Why I Recommend It:
This is a bigger, more expensive piece of equipment, but it combines many different machines into one. Most notable, it combines a Nordic Bench with a Back Extension, which happen to be two of my favorite muscle groups to target for building stronger, healthier legs. Both Nordics and Back Extensions target the Posterior Chain (the group of muscles on the backside of the body), which are crucial for knee health. Your hamstrings especially play a huge role in protecting your knees, most notable your ACL’s. As a guy who’s torn his ACL four times in one knee, Nordics are now a staple in my kneehab routine. So yes, this piece of equipment is on the pricier side, but I have found it to be very functional & it stores well when not in use, which my wife always appreciates :)
With the ability to switch from Nordics to Back Extensions, the NordBench is a great space saving functional piece of equipment.
Coaching Programs
Even though I have my own knee-focused programs, I still love learning from others. I’ve gained a ton from MovesMethod and ATG over the years, and I think both are incredibly helpful for fixing pain & building strength + mobility.
MovesMethod
Black Friday Deals: 89% off their program
Why I Recommend It:
After my 4 ACL tears and 5 total knee surgeries - all on one knee - mobility has always been an issue for me. Simple things like kneeling and sitting back on your heels, comfortably doing deep squats, or getting anywhere close to a reverse nordic curl have always been an issue for me. However after going through the MovesMethod program I can confidently say my mobility has greatly improved - with a mix of both strength and mobility training, I now recommend their program to anyone dealing with pain that could be cause by tightness or a lack of mobility. You can watch a quick video review of the MovesMethod on my Instagram here.
ATG Online Coaching
Black Friday Deals: 1 month FREE
Simply put, I wouldn’t be where I am today (when it comes to knee health) without ATG Online Coaching. My knee(s) were beat up and battered after my multiple ACL tears - not to mention I couldn’t seem to stop re-injury from occuring no matter how much time I spent in the gym or in Physical Therapy, but once a friend told me about the Knees Over Toes Guy and ATG Online Coaching, it all changed for me. ATG introduced me to the concept of safely training knees over toes, and they gave me a roadmap to really get out of pain and gain strength, not to mention the program is affordable, and comes with coaches that you can actually chat with and send in form videos to. It’s incredibly functional and I recommend it to anyone looking for a simple program to follow to get out of knee pain.
Protein & Supplements
Legion Protein + Supplements
Black Friday Deals: Up to 75% Off
Products I recommend:
Legion makes some of the cleanest, highest-quality protein and supplements I’ve found. My favorites:
Whey+ Protein — muscle recovery
Creatine — strength, muscle, and cognitive benefits
Triton Fish Oil — reduces inflammation
Fortify Joint Support — great for long-term knee health
Honorable Mentions
Stoko Supportive Apparel
Black Friday Deals: 30% off Sitewide
Why I recommend them:
I’ve spent years wearing traditional metal knee braces, and I have nothing against them, Stoko makes a super unique tight / base layer that acts as a full-on traditional metal knee brace. They’re created with a built-in cable system that gives you adjustable support at the turn of a dial, and each leg can be customized separately depending on how much support you need.
It’s quite literally the support of a knee brace built into a compression tight. I frequently wear them anytime I’m skiing, running, or playing sports that require quick cutting movements.
ATG Barefoot Shoes
Black Friday Deals: 15-25% off Sitewide
Why I recommend them:
If you’re feet are compromised in any way, it can lead to knee pain. Most traditional shoes (and especially ski boots, which I grew up wearing), cram your foot into an unnatural position. Over time, this can lead to collapsed arches, pronation, and a host of other issues that will ultimately lead up to your knees. You need to have strong, healthy fit in order to be able to have strong, healthy knees, and that’s where barefoot shoes come into play.
Barbell Apparel
Black Friday Deals: 20% off Sitewide
Why I recommend them:
Although this isn’t related directly to building stronger, healthier knees, it does help (and feel good) to have some proper, well fitting workout gear, and Barbell Apparel is one of my go-to’s in this category.
Cuts
Black Friday Deals: Up to 60% Off Sitewide
Why I recommend them:
And once again not directly related to building stronger, healthier knees, Cuts makes some of my favorite business casual clothing for Men, so if you’re on the lookout for some new digs, I wanted to give them a small shoutout.
Final Thoughts
There you have it — my go-to list of equipment and tools I use every single week for knee strength, mobility, and long-term resiliency. I hope you found it helpful!
If you’re curious how to actually use these tools to build stronger, healthier knees, I do have a Holiday Sale running for my digital, downloadable programs.
👉 Access the Kneehab Holiday Sale Here
If you grab anything from this guide — thank you. Some of these links support my work and helps me keep creating free resources.
Happy Kneehabing!
— Connor