Joint issues are very common among endurance athletes, but the good news is that you can dramatically reduce your chance of getting those kinds of injuries! Strengthening weak muscles, stretching tight ones and relieving muscle tension should become not just an off season, but year round mantra of anyone who doesn’t want to get injured.
For knees and hips specifically, working your abductor and adductors are two essential injury prevention exercises. There are some other popular and essential strength exercises like different types of lunges, single leg squats and single leg deadlifts, but always include abductor and adductor work to your routine. The preferred method is for people to do the exercises on cable machines like the videos below show. But, if needed, you can do these with stretch cords anchored to a wall or bar.
How many? Well, if you have never done something like this before, then start with 2 sets of 10 reps on each leg for about 4 weeks and then add another set to make it three. Or if you are really time crunched, then use this exercise as your warmup for leg day and do one set of 15.