[Molten Rainbow]

Alternative for butt kicks

Hey everyone!

Soon I'll have finished my first program and I'm looking into others to follow up with now. However, I'm running into an problem with the very common butt kick exercise that a lot of programs incorporate.

Due to joint issues with the ankle and knee of my left leg, I am unable to do butt kicks without risking injury. This is because I have screws in my ankle, which limit the capacity of the joint to absorb shock and impact. In the case of this exercise: the rapid landing and pushing off, while also constantly standing more or less on the balls of my feet, is a surefire way to aggravate the joint and, by extend, worsening the instability of my left knee as well.

TL;DR: My question is this: What would be a good replacement or adaptation for butt kicks in a workout/program?

 

[graoumia]

what about slow butt kicks? it is the same, but no jumps, so no impact could it help?

 

[Anek]

What @graoumia said. My partner has similar issues and he does all the high impact exercises as low impact, so slow butt kicks, march steps instead of high knees, etc. You could have a look at the 30 Days of LIIT program if you need inspiration for which exercises work best.

 

[Molten Rainbow]

Thank you both, @graoumia and @Anek for your replies!

I did consider doing a slowed down variant of the butt kick but I can't help but worry that might make the exercise less effective? Or is this very much a case of me seeing problems where there are none?

I do already substitute high knees for marching steps and made a few more adaptations in accordance with the stuff mentioned on the Modifications page.

 

[Cathulhu]

Technically it will be less effective, you could compensate that by adding reps or accept slower growth in favor of health and safety.

 

[Molten Rainbow]

Technically it will be less effective, you could compensate that by adding reps or accept slower growth in favor of health and safety.

Definitely accepting all of that in favour of health and safety for sure. If it's slower growth or adding more reps, then that's okay of course. Health and safety is the most important

I was mostly curious if anyone had ideas about a more or less equivalent exercise that would put less strain on my knee and ankle

 

[graoumia]

I think something equivalent would also be high impact

 

[astro_lizard]

whenever I need to swap for the low intensity version of an exercise I usually double the reps, though this is probably not an exact substitute but I find it works enough. So when they ask for 40 regular butt kicks I usually do around 80 slow butt kicks

 

[Molten Rainbow]

Thanks everyone for your responses! This is all really helpful for me, for sure!