Do your knees hurt after an intense day of ultimate? Can you no longer sit cross-legged?

Well, maybe your knees need a little lovin'. These exercises are from my coach back in high school and if you do them every night, it may save you from future knee injury. Let me stress again, for them to help, you need to do them every night.

1. sitting on the ground with your hands behind you to support yourself and keep yourself from falling over backward, press knees toward the ground and hold for 5 seconds. relax for 5 seconds and then repeat. start with 20- 25 reps and increase from there. do both legs at the same time.

2. lying on your back, prop your torso up by your elbows. with a straight leg (use knee muscles to straighten leg) raise your right leg up and down in a range 3 - 8 inches off the ground using slow, controlled muscle movements. Start with 25-30 reps X 3 sets and increase from there. alternate legs - 1 set right let, 1 set left leg, 2nd set right leg, etc.

3. lying on your side raise your top leg up and down in a range 3 - 10 inches above your other leg. keep the leg stabilized with the muscles/ligaments/tendons on the sides of your knee. try to NOT bend your knee or vary the position of your knee during the exercise - keep it in one controlled position through entire exercise. Start with 25-30 reps X 3 sets and increase from there. alternate legs - 1 set right let, 1 set left leg, 2nd set right leg, etc.

4. one leg stair press. standing on the step of a staircase, put weight on ONE leg (extend the other leg out in front of you and off the riser just to get it out of the way) and perform a one-legged press IN A PAIN FREE RANGE OF MOTION. it's important to push yourself but not overdo this one in the early stages - its easy to strain yourself with this one. DO NOT hold onto anything to balance yourself, that's part of the challenge of this exercise - making your knee do the work of balancing/stabilizing while working your quad with the press. again, use slow, controlled movements. start with 15-20 reps X 3 sets and increase from there. alternate legs - 1 set right let, 1 set left leg, 2nd set right leg, etc.

5. leg press. with hands behind head perform a standard leg press with feet shoulder-width apart. use slow, controlled movements (focusing on knee muscles) to raise and lower yourself in a pain free range of motion. start with 15-20 reps X 3 sets and increase from there. alternate legs - 1 set right let, 1 set left leg, 2nd set right leg, etc.