High knees drill is more than a warmup exercise. It is something that prepares the body to sprint with more efficiency. However, it is also one of the most poorly taught and worst warmup exercises. The use of this exercise is administered lackadaisically at best and injurious at worst. On the contrary, if done properly, the high knees exercises use calves, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and hip flexors as primary muscle groups. Why do we need high knees?While high knees maybe incredibly beneficial, problem arises when this exercise is done halfheartedly. The body should vigorously reach the “figure four” position—femur equal or beyond parallel to the ground, reverse shin angle, toes pointing up, torso tall and hands at cheeks and waist—on each stride.How To Do High Knees?●Run forward 20 steps, lifting your knees so your thighs are at least parallel to the ground on every stride.● Run up hills. NFL legend Walter Payton, my favourite player ever, used to run levees during his off-seasons. I started running hills because of him. It wasn’t until years later that I understood the benefits. Everything I’ve talked about can be done by running up hills.While high knees may boost your performance on the ground, injuries and knee pain might hinder it. However, there are several exercises that help you train around knee pain.The first is Lateral Band Stepping. To perform this, you need to step out with one foot to the side and back in with mini band around the top of your feet, keeping the other foot steady in place.Next excercise is Standing Fire Hydrant. This can be performed by keeping the mini band right below your knees and then bending your heel towards your glute, and lifting that raised leg off to the side. Loaded Step Up: For this you need to grab a weight and a step or platform. Now, keep one foot on the step and lock that heel down, then with the other foot go straight up, step up, tap, and then slowly come back down.Reverse Lunge can be performed by holding the weight in front of your torso, then step back, press through the front foot, and then step back up.Elevated Heel Goblet Squat: For the fifth and final exercise in this series to strengthen your hips while you have knee pain, hold onto a weight for a goblet squat with your heels elevated.