Welcome back! If you're new to this "series", go back to Part 1 [HERE]. If you've read and applied Part 1 to your training, well done!

There are a plethora of reasons as to why knees hurt but it all boils to the very fact that knees are very unstable by nature. As such, it is imperative that we do all we can to strengthen the ligaments surrounding it by placing ourselves in a proprioceptively enriched environment (unstable environment in English).

You've probably heard of these exercises and they are fantastic exercises but what we're going to do now is to add the 4-2-2 tempo into each of these exercises. Reason being most of us have super strong prime movers but our connective tissue and ligaments are not strong enough to keep up with our prime movers. 4-2-2 or 4-2-1 tempo is primarily used in the Stabilisation phase (Phase 1) of the NASM OPT model and its purpose is to build a strong foundation before loading. 4-2-2 tempo simply means 4 seconds on the eccentric portion of the lift (the descent), 2 seconds on the isometric portion (holding at the bottom), and 2 seconds on the concentric portion (the ascent). The reason why we're going to use 4-2-2 tempo here is to focus on strengthening the connective tissue and stabilising muscles surrounding the knee. For all 3 exercises, it is advised to stick within 1-3 sets and the rep range of 12-20. Pick a weight that is around 50-70% of your 1 Repetition Maximum (1RM).