Knee Pain Warm Up

Knee pain and stiffness is extremely common both in the gym during workouts and during sports like running and ⚽! . Much like a rusty door hinge which creaks when it moves, a large portion of the issues we experience are due to sitting or standing for hours and then attempting to vigorously use our knee. . Before getting in to a more specific warm up, it is important to reestablish movements around the joint such as tibial rotation, knee flexion and extension. . From there, good place to begin is performing a lighter version of your activity before gradually ramping up weight and/or intensity-- think jogging before running or performing a body weight squat before loaded squats. . Here are three drills you will love to warm up with. .

𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻- This drill works well with a slider or bodyweight on carpet. Begin seated with a slightly flexed knee and foot turned out. Rotate the foot in while bending the knee and pulling the heel to the butt. Then, reverse the direction by turning the foot out and extending the heel away from the butt. This forms a kind of circle. Perform this drill five times clockwise + counterclockwise. .

𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗳 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝘁𝘁- Set up in a half kneeling position with the target knee under a cushion or mat. Place a tennis ball behind target knee and pull the heel toward the butt attempting to squeeze the tennis ball. Relax and repeat. .

𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗸𝗻𝗲𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗴- Begin sitting half Indian style with one knee bent and the other leg straight. Squeeze the quad and attempt to lock the knee out and lift the leg off the ground. Return to the ground and drag the heel toward the butt before returning and repeating. .

Upper Back Expansion Circuit

So recently I have received a flood of clients attempting to use movement to avoid surgery.

I think it is amazing that more people are finally recognizing that a band aid (surgery) is rarely the answer to repetitive areas injuries. But I also quickly realized that I cannot initially address long held compensatory strategies with fitness based patterns.

How can I teach a back pain client to perform a horizontal push in a front-back stance if they can barley stand?

The necessity of this experience has led me to step back and think about what comes before fitness. The softer patterns such as- sitting, standing and even lying down without generating excessive amounts of tension or just hanging off your ligaments all together. Feldenkreis realized these were our foundations decades ago and developing a template and classification system for these "health patterns" I call them has been a fun and interesting experience. Respecting the framework of Plane, Position and Pattern, has allowed me to work with virtually any client to truly build health and fitness from the ground up. It has also led to some interesting drills such as this lateral focused upper DR expansion Circuit: 1. Lateral high crawls- Begin on all fours and assume a high crawl position. Crawl side ways towards a wall or barriers. The side we are crawling towards is the expanding side with the opposite side the propelling side. I love this drill for wide ISAs to get alternating expansion of the ribcage. 2. Lateral stance open face wall slide- Assume a lateral stance position and place stance leg on a book or block. Turn palms to face you and inhale while sliding up the wall to get upper DR expansion. I've been performing these and similar drills daily as my yielding work for 30-60 seconds as a circuit.

"All stoved up"

One of the weirdest memories of my athletic career was my grandfather telling me I looked “all stoved up” after a soccer game in front of all my friends. The man had no filter and because I wasn’t familiar with his 1920’s terminology, he clarified the point by telling me (and them) that it looked as if my body had been dipped in molasses during the game.

At the time, I was doing a lot of heavy benching pressing, arm curls and sitting for hours in school and he was right that my body was stoved up, tight and not moving very well.

This is often the situation with clients I initially work with who sit and stand a lot in one place. Their bodies are literally compressed by gravity and reduced in their ability to move in any particular way.

When it comes to walking and standing, this type of compression shifts weight forward in to our toes.

This forward weight shift causes us to literally fall forward as we walk versus controlling our center of gravity in the middle of our foot.

This falling effect leads us to land each step farther in front of our center of mass and requires more work from our muscles to pull the leg back under the body.

Thus, our goal with this first warm up is to decompress and shift our center of mass back to improve the way we land or stand on the ground.