Our knees are the biggest joints in our bodies, and they are super important because they provide stability. Knee pain and injuries are usually a result of bad habits associated with foot, ankle and hip movement. In this episode, we cover knee problem symptoms such as sciatica, knee clicking, behind the knee pain, knee overextension, and more.
“You can never go wrong with building more stability or balance in the joints.” — Dr. Theresa Larson
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Don’t sit for too long — When you sit down, you’re not activating your glutes, which results in weak glutes, which leads to bad mechanics. Squeezing your glutes while sitting is possible, but it’s not comfortable or intuitive, and strong glutes are important for good movement mechanics. If your day consists of a lot of sitting time, make sure you’re stand up often and go on walks.
You need good form even when you are walking — Walking with your feet turned out (a.k.a. duck footing), causes bad hip and knee positions and movement. Even worse, running with bad form, such as heel striking, causes even harsher damage on the body.
Don’t wear cushy shoes — Shoes with thick, cushy soles are not good for your health. Ideally, wear minimal, flat shoes, so you can use your foot and leg muscles correctly.
Don’t wear heels too often — If you are a woman who wears heels often, (for example: to work), make sure you are switching to flat often. Spending a lot of time in heels, causes unwanted toe dominance and bad ankle flexion mobility, which means you won’t be able to squat well.
Slow down your training — Have you ever done a 90 second squat? Yup, 90 seconds. Slow down your training to focus on stability, that will help with your longevity.
“The gym doesn’t need to be this place where we go kick our own ass, every single day, as hard as we possibly can. We can create this balance in our life, where some days we slow down a little bit, some days we are going to lift and try to PR.” — Anders Varner
“Layering strength on top of dysfunctional movement is a gross misunderstanding of the primary responsibility of fitness trainers and coaches: reducing injury and increasing longevity.”
I am a firm believer that given the opportunity, with motivation, every single one of us would prioritize our health in all of our decisions throughout the day.
We would all eat our vegetables and snack less. We would all go to the gym, meditate, and do our yoga practice. We typically need motivation to take action. Let’s, face it, this utopia or always having time,motivation, or the inspiration to start does not exist. Reality is filled with kids, work, deadlines, stress, and eating on the go. It is a miracle if we actually get the time to go to the gym or get outside to get in a workout. Even worse, when we actually do have the time, rarely do our bodies feel great. There is always some nagging ache and pain we are dealing with. Far too often, these aches and pains stop us in our tracks and the inability to prioritize our health compounds these problems. You need to create this motivation by taking action. By taking action, you will find motivation through the results. Let your body lead and your mind will follow. True leadership is about holding yourself accountable. Prioritizing your health and having options so that when adversity strikes, you have a game plan to keep pushing forward.
The Best Healthcare Is Self-Care and It Starts With You
Low back pain affects 80% of the population in the United States. There are three major culprits that lead to this epidemic:
Sitting: The average American sits 13 hours a day. In your car, at your desk, and in front of your TV at night. All this sitting is going to be felt in one place – your low back.
Stress: From the time you wake up to the time you go to bed, it seems like you are putting out fires. All of this stress is stored as tension in your muscles.
POOR MOVEMENT: Your body is designed to move in specific ways. Because of problems one and two, your body has forgotten these movement patterns.
Between home and work, the gym, or the great outdoors is your haven. A time when you get to eliminate the stress of the daily grind and focus on your own health. Unfortunately, for you, the sitting and the stress pile up, and the gym is not always a place of health. Squatting makes your back hurt. Deadlifting or lifting weights off the ground feels awkward and is accompanied by some low back tightness the next day. Instead of the gym being a place of health, it has become an additional place of stress, waiting for the next injury. My mission is to create a nation of wellness WARRIORS. My program, co-created with top strength coach Anders Varner, called The Low Back Fix has compiled a list of modifications you can add to your workout to help heal your low back pain and prioritize your health. Your health affects everyone around you. If you are living with lower back pain, these tools will get you healing faster and stronger than ever.
So honored to be mentioned in this fantastic piece written by my friend Hilary Achauer, Mind Over Muscle-Ups. Mind Over Muscle-Ups is all about mind over matter….The brain is more resilient than what we can understand at times. Read the full PDF here: Mind Over Muscle-Ups 2
I’d like to share with you the Warrior Movement. It’s a project where stories and articles are shared to stimulate positivity, resiliency, and something called post traumatic growth in those that need it.
I started the Warrior Movement for 2 reasons:
1. I am writing a book to help people re-define what it means to be a warrior, and to help them recognize their own strength and resiliency. I hope my story, my struggles, and my journey to overcome those struggles will inspire someone.
2. I am asking for your stories of resilience, and what you feel has made you a warrior. The premise is to share and promote these stories to help those millions of others who still need inspiration. No matter how long or short, please send me your story!
Everyone knows somebody who could use some inspiration, positivity, and resilience in their life! Studies show that 75% of those who have been through trauma are able to express resilience and post traumatic growth. Those who grow after trauma do so because of their ability to ask for help, engage with people who build them up, and get involved in sharing their own story.
Let’s build a source of hope, resilience, and positivity. Let’s turn that 75% into 100%! It costs nothing!
When you look in the mirror what do you see? I see a Warrior. A peaceful one and a vicious one, if needed.
I also see a beautiful lady in mind and body. One who’s loving, imperfect, intense, resilient, proactive, funny, gentle, tall, half blonde, goofy, blue eyed, smart, sometimes even gullible, someone who sticks up for herself, can say NO, faith-filled, pale and freckled, competitive 175 pound badass of a woman who loves to train, be gentle with herself, heal people, sleep, and travel.
The fact that I struggled with bulimia at one point in my life, lost both parents and some friends, served in the Marines, had failed relationships, have suffered with negative body image, anxiety and mild depression at some points in my life does not make me ANY less of a human being, and those things do NOT define me.
Everyone comes with baggage and the more I interact with humanity, the more I realize most of us suffer similarly underneath, though on the surface it may look different. I have needed continual reminders in my life to help me keep perspective. One of my healers, Jim Cahill, always reminds me, “When you lose sight of who you are, you truly suffer. “ Suffering looks like anxiety, addiction, judgement of others, being always overly busy, and self-torment/doubt. It is hard for people to say they are a badass, or that they are a warrior when they lose sight of themselves.
The Truth is there is a Warrior in all of us. I have discovered some of my Warrior, and continue to discover more of it. I am building this movement around keeping perspective and building the fire within. I myself need daily reminders and hope to share, share, and share again with you information on perspective, resilience, and taking in the good. I believe that when we keep perspective, recognize our resilience, and absorb the good around us, losing track of who we are becomes less likely.
Being a top athlete, successful in business, or a even being a wounded warrior or military veteran does not make someone a Warrior. What makes a Warrior is remembering oneself underneath all the baggage and letting the fire burn within in HOW we treat ourselves and others.
HOW do you treat yourself and others around you? How do you be the best Human Being you can be?
Studies show that 75% of those who have been through trauma are able to express resilience and post traumatic growth. Whether they do or not is a different question. Those who grow after trauma do so because of their ability to ask for help, engage with people who build them up, and get involved in sharing their own story.
If you or someone you know can use some inspiration, then join this Warrior Movement! You are not alone!
Goals of the Warrior Movement:
Every human being has an inner warrior. I want everyone to unleash it. This movement is about unleashing the warrior spirit, re-defining ones strength, letting go of perfection, and paying forward the inspiration and positivity delivered weekly.
How you can be involved:
Share, Pay it forward , any and every article, picture, or newsletter posted
Unleash your Warrior spirit in your daily life, starting with how you treat yourself!
Themes Covered in upcoming Articles and Blogs:
Re-Defining Strength: “Strength is not physical, rather it comes from an indomitable will.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Abandon the Perfect: With this movement we want to post what is real, unfiltered, and unposed.
Movement as Medicine: Because I am a Physiotherapist and live in a world of analyzing and improving movement, we will be posting adaptive strength and mobility/stability articles that can help your own body heal and stay healthy for the long haul.
Warrior Stories: Real stories of warriors all over the world, sharing unfiltered stories of resilience.
Between home and work, the gym, or the great outdoors is your haven. A time when you get to eliminate the stress of the daily grind and focus on your own health. Unfortunately, for you, the sitting and the stress pile up, and the gym is not always a place of health. Squatting makes your back hurt. Deadlifting or lifting weights off the ground feels awkward and is accompanied by some low back tightness the next day. Instead of the gym being a place of health, it has become an additional place of stress, waiting for the next injury. My mission is to create a nation of wellness WARRIORS. My program, co-created with top strength coach Anders Varner, called The Low Back Fix has compiled a list of modifications you can add to your workout to help heal your low back pain and prioritize your health. Your health affects everyone around you. If you are living with lower back pain, these tools will get you healing faster and stronger than ever.
