It’s a new day….

How are your knees feeling?

Better, worse, the same?

If your knees are feeling better then you’re probably doing something to help support them and take away the stress that’s causing the pain.  And because you’re here, I’ll bet you’re using the Knee Pain Solutions program which has proven to help knee pain sufferers lose the knee pain and start enjoying life again.

If they’re feeling the same, maybe you didn’t realize that there is something you can do to control or completely eliminate the pain that keeps you from the activities that you really love.  If that’s the case, get your copy of the Knee Pain Solutions program and get started losing the knee pain.

If they’re feeling the same and you already have the program, are you using it?  I hope so, since it’s been proven to help knee pain sufferers just like you, so get started today.

If your knees are feeling worse, then we need to talk.

It’s not uncommon for me to get several questions everyday about particular knee pain issues from many different clients.  And since these are all very relevant questions I thought I’d share as many of them as I can with you.  I think this may help you figure out what you may be doing that’s keeping your pain around or making it worse.

Q: What if my knee hurts when I lunge or squat?

A: The most common problem for knee pain sufferers when they attempt to squat or lunge is allowing the knee to drift forward of the toe.  It is essential to keep the knee stacked over the ankle joint.  This allows the joint to function within the range of motion it is designed to operate within.  Secondarily, stacking the joints in this fashion shifts the load into the posterior chain muscles (hips, glutes, hamstrings) which is the crucial inherent pattern the body prefers to operate out of.  Hence, no knee pain and joint aggravation.

Q: My knee pain seems to be just around the knee cap area.  What can I do to get rid of it?

A: Knee cap pain is arguably the most common knee pain symptom.  Tight, inflexible and imbalanced quadriceps muscles are the likely culprit.  Any time I come across knee cap pain, I immediately implement the quadriceps stretch found in the Knee Pain Solutions Program.  This one stretch has cured more knee cap pain than any other method I’ve come across.  After that, it’s about maintaining strong, flexible muscles of the hip and thigh to keep the knee pain free.

Q: The outside of my knee always seems to hurt after I exercise or run a lot. How can I fix that part of my knee?

A: Well, we start looking for answers in the area of the hip and hamstrings.  Tight glutes and lateral hamstring tendons can cause some hinge difficulty for the knee.  The feminine of the species tends to have wider hips so if this is you, be conscious of keeping your knee from crossing mid-line when flexing the knee joint.  Also, be mindful that you aren’t crossing your legs too much or standing on one hip.  You’ll need to spend some time foam rolling your lateral quads and IT Band as well as the glutes and external rotators of the hip.  Then implement the lateral hamstring stretch, standing glute stretch and wall glute stretch.  You can find all those stretches detailed in the Knee Pain Solutions program.

Q: The inside of my knee always hurts when I squat even though I keep my knees behind my toes.  What can I do?

A: This problem is especially prevalent with women.  Having wider hips increases the Q-Angle from the hip to the knee joint.  Naturally, the knee wants to cave medially (toward the inside) when flexing at the knee or hip.  To remedy this problem, you need to be very aware of pushing your knees outward when squatting, lunging or dead lifting.  Essentially, the upper leg should come straight out of the hip and not cross your mid-line when bending at the knees or hips.  Use the Stick Dead Lift, Wall Squat and Single Leg Reaching Dead Lift exercises to help you develop the strength and awareness you need to keep the inside of your knees happy.

OK, I trust these questions and answers will go a long way to help you understand what could be causing your knee pain.  Please ask questions and leave comments below if I didn’t answer your specific knee pain question.  I’ll be sure to reply so we can eliminate that which may be holding you back from being pain free.

Just don’t give up.  I’ve seen the most stubborn knee pain vanish with just a few minor changes.  So hang in there.  Until next time…

Get strong and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance

Anti-aging and age-reversal technologies seem to be the new buzz.  Radio, television, billboard and internet space are filled to the brim with ads for the latest skin elasticity vitamin supplement, juicer technology, surgical enhancement procedure or revitalizing cream.  This is big business, which means high profit margins for the product creators and high hopes shoved into empty pockets for the well intended, under informed consumer.

It’s hard to deny the desire for youthfulness.  Centuries of adventurers spent lifetimes searching for some hidden secret to reverse our biological age and make us feel better about all the things we regret not doing.  Life’s ride seems relatively fun and adventurous, at least stimulating on some unconscious level, until we are faced with the reality of our own mortality.  That’s when Oil of Olay, botox and expensive sports cars with long hoods and smooth lines become relevant substitutes.

Well, just maybe a trickle of youthfulness has been found slowly boiling from it’s origin in plain sight.  Science and research seem to think they may have found the closest thing to the mythical legend that is tangible and relevant.  It seems as if a few institutions agree.  The research comes from the Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, California, United States of America, McMaster University, Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, Hamilton, Canada, and the Center for Genetics, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, California, United States of America.

Think about this:  One of the things science sets out to do is prove or disprove that which is thought to be truth, myth or reality.  And to find out why or why not these truths, myths and realities are accurate or inaccurate.  This study is no different.  It was published in 2007 and seems to prove there is a fountain of youth and vitality that almost every one of us can access.

One thing is for certain.  You won’t have to give up your day job and set out on a three year mission trekking to the most remote places on earth in search of the elusive gushing fountain.  Though, for some of us that might work just as well.  It seems as if the labor and physical demands of the trek may indeed be the basis and outcome proving the body of the research.

Believe it or not, you are equipped with the tools to access this fountainhead from the moment the umbilical cord is cut and you breath your first breath.  As a matter of fact, as a baby and young child, you were already doing the things that activated this inherent vitality.  And somewhere along the line of attempting to prove ourselves in the world and possibly leave it a better place, we lost sight of the things that keep us youthful.

So what is the secret to the anti aging riddle?  Moving your body.  In particular, moving your body with resistance.

In 2007, researchers took muscle biopsies in a study of 51 older and younger men and women participants.  Prior to the onset of the research, the older adults were 59% weaker than the younger adults.  After six months of resistance training, muscle biopsies were again taken this time showing a major improvement in skeletal muscle strength in the older adults. The difference in strength levels after the resistance training was reduced to 38%.

More intriguing yet was the changes witnessed on the cellular level.  Age related mitochondrial function was expressed differently in 596 genes when comparing the older to the younger participants in the study prior to resistance training.  After the six month study, the transcriptional signature of most of the 596 genes that can be effected by age and exercise were dramatically reversed to that of the younger adults.

In essence, moving your body with loaded resistance actually reverses your biological age, function and even physical appearance.  This doesn’t mean that you need to push a substantial amount of weight around to reap the benefits of age reversal.  The most underutilized and arguably best form of resistance training is body weight exercises.  Pushing and pulling exercises for the upper and lower body along with anti-rotational exercises for the core and total body resistance movements are the best thing before and since sliced bread.

Speaking of sliced bread, did you read the last blog post?  You’ll want to do that as soon as you finish this article.

So how can this apply to those of us with knee pain?

Well, just like our hair, skin, organs, memory, bones and muscles age and regress, so do our joints.  Wear and tear from overuse or under use, muscle imbalances, inflexibility and loss of supportive strength from the connective tissues will increase the rate at which our joints age.

It may be appropriate to think of proper resistance training as a “face-lift”, if you will, for your joints as well as the entire body/mind system.  This is just one more reason why you need to resistance train.  And to be sure you don’t cause further injury to your knees or increase the compensations and muscle imbalances that are most likely present, you need to be sure you have the best program which takes into account all these prerequisites.

That’s what you’ll get with the Knee Pain Solutions program.  I designed it for you, after all…the knee pain sufferer.

Start by downloading your free exercise video and getting a copy of the Knee Pain Solutions workout/nutrition program.  Then keep checking in at the blog for the latest information to get you pain free and living life again.

Don’t forget to post your comments, frustrations and success stories in the comments section below.  Hey, we’re all in this boat together so we may as well help each other down the river.

Get strong and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance

The Best Thing...

Otto Frederick Rohwedder was the genius mind behind the invention of sliced bread.  One day back in 1912, Otto must have decided that a whole loaf of bread was too much to eat and slicing it was too much effort.  So Otto got busy and designed a very cool machine that did one thing…sliced bread.  A fire destroyed the original prototype from 1912 and it wasn’t until 1928 that Otto unleashed his invention on the world.

At this point you must be wondering just how many millions Otto acquired as a result of his brilliant invention.

You ready for this?

The machine was an absolute failure.

It wasn’t until Wonder picked up the idea and ran with it under a new marketing slogan in 1930 that sliced bread became the “best thing” and every creation after that was “the best thing since…”.

Otto, no doubt, was jumping on the end of the Industrial Revolution band wagon.  I’m sure his intention with the bread slicer was to help move society forward by eliminating menial tasks that took time away from real productivity.

Well, now we know better.

Or do we?

Seems to me, those menial tasks that we used to perform out of necessity must have been important, if not vitally crucial, to the health of our society.  I know what you may be thinking.  How does the advent of the sliced bread machine equate to the downfall and current state of being of our rapidly degrading society?

It’s the cumulative effect.

From the cotton gin in1793…

To the printing press and tin can in 1810

To the soda fountain in 1819

To the typewriter in 1829

To the grain elevator in 1842

To the dishwasher in 1850

To the washing machine in 1858.

To man made plastic in 1862.

To barbed wire in 1873.

To the first four wheeled motor vehicle in 1886.

To the first completely electronic computer, Colossus, in 1943.

The quantifiable effects on the health of society by the mere creation of “make it effortless” inventions has pushed us over the slippery slope, and as we come crashing down reality hill we must seek salvation elsewhere.

So, I ask again…

Have we learned from our mistakes?

Or do we continue to look for the next “make it effortless” invention?

Seems as if we are tumbling down another slippery slope of sorts looking for the “make me better” quick fix to undo the damage of the “make it effortless” inventions.

The first synthetic N crop fertilizer used in 1903.

World’s first diet soft drink created in 1953.

Development of first commercial treadmills in 1968.

First statin drugs released in 1987.

Away we go again…

If the collective society is still asleep at the wheel lulled by the turning of industry’s spokes, it seems as if a brave, conscious few must steer us toward the detour before we all crash in the midst of our own deconstruction ahead.

Options for the Health Conscious Consumer:

• Backyard garden
• Farmer’s markets
• Small organic
• Whole, organic foods
• Walk, everywhere
• Glass instead of plastic
• Reuse and recycle
• Community events and social gatherings
• Self research and education
• Meet your local food growers and buy locally
• Get quality, restful sleep
• Question everything to understand your impact on the environment

This is by far an incomplete list.  Start here and you will surely make a dent in the broken system of things.

Granted, this ride has no power steering, yet the effort will pave the way toward less expensive relief for ourselves and our culture as we know it.

This is off the track of our regular discussions regarding knee pain and knee pain relief, yet the impact of continuing down this path of moving less and consuming more is surely a relevant topic.  We must make the decision to self police our choices so that we create a healthy environment in which to live and be.  It is the decisions of the few that change the minds of the many.

It is you that must demand better for yourself.  It is you that will heal that which pains you – not drug companies…not modern agriculture and mass food production…not government policy.  You and only you determine your present and future.

I say to you now…

Do the things that will cure the existing toxic conditions.  Bandages only hide the truth and briefly mask the pain.

Thanks for allowing me the space to expand thought beyond the scope of knee pain.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about this article.  Please feel free to add your own take on solutions to the current state of being and how they may have an effect on your knee pain condition in the comments section below.

Get strong and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance