How to Get rid of Knee Pain
Covid left me with a right knee that would no longer behave. It ached. It wouldn't fully fold. And getting up out of bed in the middle of the night left me with a case of the wobbles.
At first I protested. "I've never had knee issues before." I consulted Dr Google. Who spewed out the usual overgeneralized, not-terribly-useful advice.
Like:
There's the strengthen your quads camp. *
There's the stop moving camp.
There's the put ice on it camp.
Sometimes when these supposedly trusted sources don't have anything useful to say I wish they wouldn't say anything at all.
Left to my own devices I started to think about the saying, "the knee does what the ankle will allow and the hip can control."
In my case, the ankle was allowing too much, and the hip was controlling too much. And don't get me started on my overly eager pelvic floor that was going along for the ride.
In most cases, there are a number of factors at play.
Rarely is there one contributing factor.
So those pieces of advice that extoll the virtues of stretching versus strengthening are kind, but not terribly effective.
So what did I do:
I consulted my textbooks and got down to the one thing I know works. Connecting my brain to the tissue.
I worked on releasing the muscles that were working too hard and activated the muscles that were tentative.
I taught my knee to be quiet when I got up and down from a chair (aka a squat).
Because it was wobbling around like a cork in the ocean.
You see, knees that don't know where they are or what their job is are unstable. When a joint is unstable it does two things: moves too much, or doesn't move at all.
Both of these strategies backfire eventually.
The #1 thing I know is:
It's figureoutable.
The same strategy doesn't work for everybody.
In some cases, it's about how long the knee has been compromised, but in most cases you can improve the function of your knees so you can walk without pain.
So you can climb up and down stairs.
And live your life without calling your knees names like "BAD".
If you've ever attended my movement lessons you might think what happens is magic. You came to class with your back in a spasm and you walk out the door forgetting it was ever a problem in the first place.
My movement lessons are based on my own experience of having a body that was hyper-mobile and things moved around too much. That still happens a bit (with my knee) but for the most part as I get older my tissue is stiffer and thus more stable.
But sometimes the overly stiff area (my hip in this case) and my unstable ankle were trying to work things out through my knee.
So I get what it's like to navigate getting to be a certain age and still want to hike, swim, do yoga, Pilates, cycle, garden and be ready for the next adventure.
I'm not a medical professional. I'm an educator that helps YOU figure out these movement challenges.
If you've got a knee that makes you want to curse rather than pray you can join forces with me to teach it to move the way it was designed to. By Mother Nature of course!
I do private sessions in person and online. If you're interested in booking, here's a shortcut to my One to One page.
So you can experience exercise that heals rather than hurts!