The Best Exercises For Leg Pain

We all know the score. You're a few months into a new workout routine, and your legs are feeling pretty good. And then, bam. You feel a painful twinge, twist your knee slightly when you're squatting, or your hamstring gives out during a jog. Or, you've been working out too hard, and now they're aching something fierce.

Whatever the reason, leg pain can range from a minor annoyance to a total obstruction to your day-to-day activities. And it can come from anywhere: from a sports injury to a condition like deep vein thrombosis or peripheral artery disease (per WebMD), or delayed onset muscle soreness (per Self). Whatever the cause, it's important to tend to your legs when they're in pain, to make sure they bounce back stronger than ever. And that's where exercise can come in. From your thigh to your knee, there are multiple exercises and stretches out there that can help — and remember, stretches count as exercise too, says certified exercise physiologist John Ford to NBC News. Let's look at some of the best ones you can do for leg pain.

Our hips take a lot of impact throughout our lives. And, incredibly, you may not even have to be doing anything for them to feel the strain — simply sitting down for extended periods can cause your hips stress. "When you sit with your knees bent, your hamstrings are in a relaxed, shortened position, and your hip flexors are at the maximum shortened length," says physical therapist Kirsten Zambon to Franciscan Health. When you do this over an extended period (all day every day, for example), your hips can lose strength. Weakness and pain can be exacerbated by having poor posture while you sit, advises Zambon.

Luckily, the hip-opening pigeon pose is a perfect exercise to relieve pain and tightness in your hips (per Verywell Health). Begin in a downward dog pose, and then bring one knee down and through as though you were going into a lunge — but instead of placing your foot on the floor, allow your knee to come to the ground. Keep your hips facing forward, and allow your back leg to come down to the floor. Slowly lower the rest of your body, breathing into the stretch. The pigeon pose can be quite intense, so if you're new to it, keep your hands firmly on the floor, and only lower down as much as you're comfortable doing so.

Hamstring pain can present itself for a variety of reasons, and sciatica can be one of them. Occurring when the sciatic nerve becomes compressed due to inflammation or pressure from a herniated disc, sciatica may cause pain down the back of the leg, as well as numbness (per Mayo Clinic). Having tight hamstrings may make sciatica worse, and exercising and stretching out the muscle can reduce pressure around the nerve and make symptoms less severe, says Spine-health.

And for this, you can't get better than a standing hamstring stretch. Standing up straight, take one of your legs and cross it in front of the other one (per Verywell Fit). Allow your upper body to lower down until you're bent over, and then bring your forehead toward the knee of the front leg. Try to keep your legs from bending. Hold this position for 15-30 seconds, allowing your hands to rest on the floor if you're able to do so. Come up to your starting position, cross your legs the other way, and repeat.

If you're a runner, you'll know the battering your quads can take during exercise. And while a consistent, safe training routine will generally keep your quads in good shape, a sudden change in the way you run, like speeding up suddenly, can affect you. "As you increase speed, you decrease the range of motion at your ankle and increase range of motion at your hip and knee," says chiropractor and The Running Clinic director Kevin Maggs to Women's Running. This can mean that your quads experience a greater impact as you swing your legs, potentially leading to strain or injury.

Keeping your quads limber through a kneeling quad stretch will aid your mobility and lessen the risk of sudden injury. Move into a high lunge, and then lower your back leg's knee to the ground, instructs Pop Sugar. When your position feels secure, take the arm that's on the same side as your back leg, reach back, and grab your toes. Gently pull your lower leg toward your glutes, feeling the stretch through the back leg's quads. Hold for 30 seconds, and then repeat with the other leg.

Knee injuries can be pretty limiting on your day-to-day activities, but when you're on the mend, it's important to support the joint in its healing journey (per NHS Inform). And focusing on exercises that strengthen your quadriceps will benefit you enormously in this. "The quadriceps are the primary muscles that help support the knees. If you have weakness in your quads, that can lead to a degree of instability in your knees," advises physical therapist Tim Bungo to the Cleveland Clinic. Your quads support your knees when standing and during upright movement, as well as when extending your leg. Without adequate quad strength, you can face a number of leg issues, says Bungo.

Leg lifts are a gentle way to introduce activity in the quads post-injury. Start by lying flat on your back, with your legs outstretched, says Medical News Today. Bring one leg up so that it's bent with your foot flat on the floor, and then while engaging your abs, raise your flat leg, keeping it extended until it's at around a 45-degree angle to your body. Hold it there for several seconds and then lower it to the ground. Repeat a few more times, resting between sets.

Although a large number of conditions can cause calf pain, you're far more likely to experience it if you perform exercise that involves them regularly (per the Cleveland Clinic). When the calf muscle is overworked or overstretched, muscle strain can occur.

Your calf muscle strain will generally clear up on its own, and incorporating low-impact exercise while you're in recovery can help you get back on your feet (quite literally!). And there are few calf muscle exercises as simple as the calf wall stretch. Begin by standing upright, facing a wall with a fair amount of distance in front of you, and then step the unaffected leg toward the wall (per MyHealth.Alberta.ca). Put your hands against the wall and lean into your front leg, keeping your back leg straight. Make sure not to overextend on the stretch — it should be gentle, but you should still feel it. Hold it for 15-30 seconds, and then slowly return to your starting position. Repeat a few times, stretching out the other leg if necessary.

When was the last time you stretched out your shins? It's probably been a while, right? With such huge, important muscles in our legs, our shins can sometimes take a back seat, but when you feel them, you really feel them. Anyone who's experienced shin splints — tenderness or pain that can radiate across the shin area — can attest to this (per the Mayo Clinic). Frequently caused by a sudden escalation in physical activity, if left unaddressed, shin splints can eventually progress to a full-on stress fracture.

While changes like supportive footwear or movement analysis can help address spin splints, introducing movement in the area through simple exercises can also reduce aches (per Active). Try stretching out the area with a simple shin stretch. Kneel on the floor with your feet under your legs and glutes, and the tops of your feet flat against the ground. Place your hands behind you on the floor, and then gently lean your body back into them. Your knees may start to lift off the ground slightly while you do this, and that's okay — what you want to feel is a stretch through the front of your lower leg. Hold the stretch for 20 seconds, for about three reps.

Outer thigh pain can be a tricky thing to deal with. Potentially occurring due to many reasons, from muscle injuries to nerve, bone, or joint conditions (per Medical News Today), the difficulty in targeting the area can present problems for treatment. "Due to its location on the body, it can be a challenging area to stretch by yourself. Generally it requires stretching tools or placing your body in specific positions which may be challenging if you are just beginning your flexibility journey," states certified strength and conditioning specialist Austin Martinez to Well+Good.

Luckily, the standing TFL stretch — which targets the tensor fascia latae, a muscle running along the outside of the hip and thigh — can be fairly easily performed. Begin by standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, and then cross one ankle behind the other. Bend the knee of the leg that's in front, and then push your hip out to the opposite side. It may help to hold onto a chair or table while you do this, to remain stable. Maintain the stretch for 20-30 seconds, and then return to the beginning position, repeating on the other side.