Lessons about Pain

Why you don’t need to give up your sport because of knee pain

What do you think is the most important requirement for successful rehab?

I started researching knee pain in 2009 and have read over five thousand reader emails since. One hard truth that took me years to understand is that the right mindset is more important for successful rehab than everything else. Here’s why.

You can have the very best knowledge and training programs at your fingertips, but if you don’t believe that you can do it and that it can work for you it’s all for nothing.

It’s a bit like finding a bundle of hundred dollar bills on the ground and not even trying to pick them up, because maybe it’s a prank or maybe they’re fake or maybe the wind will carry them away when you try to pick it up. The wrong mindset will prevent you from even trying.

So let’s start building the right mindset with the following 5 reasons why you don’t need to give up your sport. [Read more…]

How can I get rid of knee pain FAST?

I get this question at least once per week.

“How can I get rid of knee pain fast?”

So here’s the one exercise you can do to get back to 100% within 48 hours.

I’m kidding, of course.

There’s no one exercise, no one supplement, no one stretch you could do to heal that quickly. What I actually learned to be the fastest way to recover wasn’t what I had expected at all.

[Read more…]

3 Shocking Truths I Learned From a Torn Meniscus

Knee injuries are commonplace these days it seems. People go off to enjoy a winter vacation and come back with an injured knee. I’ve heard many stories like these, especially after I started fix-knee-pain.com two years ago. Thanks to modern medicine, these knee injuries will be dealt with professionally, right? Wrong!

In 2009, I had a chance to witness first-hand to how insanely hard it can be to come back from a knee injury when my brother tore his meniscus. Here are the three major truths I learned back then.

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Some love for the iliotibial band

The iliotibial band is a thick layer of connective tissue on the outside of your thigh and several muscles attach to it. This attachment site can cause serious knee pain such as patellar tendonitis and while it’s a good idea to find the underlying reasons for a tight iliotibial band, stretching can bring some immediate relief. Of course you’ll also get to jump on the good old foam roller again.

Check out this page for more information: ITB Stretches: iliotibial band repair guide

Why your high top shoes cause knee pain

Ankle sprains, the common curse of basketball, have caused a curious evolution of the sports shoe. The basketball sneaker, once made of canvas and a thin rubber sole, turned into a piece of high tech equipment. Today shoe companies market their product with claims of better protection and smarter shock-absorption and yet, as many observers of the sport will know, knee and ankle injuries are still very common.

In a previous post we’ve already covered how shock-absorbing shoes cause knee pain through faulty running mechanics. To recap: the cushioned shoes actually don’t absorb anything except the information necessary for our body to move properly. As a result our running mechanics undergo a subtle yet fundamental change and we turn into heel-strikers. Now, if you’re wearing high top shoes with cushioned soles you run even higher risk of knee pain.

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Proprioception, shock-absorbing shoes, faulty running mechanics and knee pain

There are many interesting books you come across while reading about knee pain or exercise. One book which bridges this gap while also being very well written is Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. This book is about McDougall’s own quest to fixing his running-related injuries and the original people he meets on this journey. “Born to Run” caught me slightly off guard I have to admit, because I expected the book to be more science-y and although it’s non-fiction, strictly speaking, it still reads like a novel. A novel you can’t put down until you’re through. Even if you’re not into jogging I highly recommend this book, because it’s not only entertaining, but also educating the reader. How does all that tie in with this post’s topic you might ask?

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A word on pain

Pain, by Verano y mil tormentas.

At some point in our lives we will experience pain. After an injury it’s easy to understand why you should give your body time to repair the damage, either by resting or by doing active recovery (activities that promote healing without aggravating the injury or stressing the body). What if there is chronic pain though? Say you’re experiencing pain whenever you’re performing your sport, what do you do? Here are two stories that illustrate how you could handle things in these situations.

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