Alright…you’re here so lets get this rodeo started.

Living with knee pain is no joke.

Seems like no matter what you do, your knees remind you they’re a bit unhappy.

Kinda like a two year old that needs a nap.

It might be important to realize when dealing with knee pain…you have options.

Option#1

Do nothing.

Maybe the pain gets worse.

Maybe it doesn’t.

Option#2

Complain about the pain and do nothing.

Results most likely the same as above.

Option#3

Pain killers

Might help for a few hours.

Degeneration of the knee will likely get worse over time.

Maybe pain killers don’t work so much over time.

Option #4

Cortisone Injections

May relieve the pain for a few months.

That’s not so bad.

Continue to do nothing else except rely on the injections.

Degeneration of the knee progresses.

Need more injections.

Injection relief period reduces.

Option#5

Surgery

May temporarily fix the problematic joint.

May not.

Do nothing else.

The joint continues to degenerate with age.

Relapse into chronic pain once again.

Great big stack of medical bills.

Option#6

Get healthy.

Get fit.

Work around the pain.

Feel better that you are taking personal responsibility and action.

Maybe the pain reduces or gets completely eliminated.

Maybe it doesn’t.

The big difference between Option#6 and other options is while you are battling knee pain by getting healthy and working out, you are keeping the rest of the body fit and healthy.

Regardless of the recovery capabilities of your aching knees, by instituting Option#6 don’t you think it would be better to prevent more potential pain and discomfort by taking care of yourself than the alternative?

The alternative here being:

Allowing more pain and discomfort to infiltrate other joints in your body because you have chosen not to be a healthy, fit individual.

So really…

What does knee pain boil down to?

If you were injured… that sucks.  This is where you are.  Do everything you can to support the injured joint.

If this is a chronic degeneration of your joints…that sucks too.  This is where you are.  Do everything you can to support the injured joint.

Listen…

I feel you.

Knowing that I have this old injury that could potentially lead to arthritis if I’m not careful keeps my attention centered on every little soreness or discomfort that I may feel in and around the knee joints.

By implementing this attentive approach, I have developed keen awareness about how my body feels.

Not just my knees.

My entire system.

If you’ve ever had any sort or significant injury you know what I mean.

The painful state of the injured area lets you know what and what you can’t get away with.  What will and won’t cause pain.

After a few days of mishaps, you know your boundary lines.

You begin to steer clear of that which causes pain, whether it be a particular movement or position.

You learn to operate and function despite the injury.

And as your injury begins to heal, you’ll again test your boundaries as they begin to expand.

It seems as if it’s only when we are forced to pay attention that we do.

It is then that we become familiar with living in our own bodies again.

Sort of a reintroduction to ourselves.

To open the lines of communication between the physical, the psychological, the emotional and spiritual aspects of ourselves.

The tangible and the intangible begin relating again.

So if it takes an injury or painful experience for this to happen, I guess consider yourself lucky.

And if you can derive this relationship with the Self AND maintain it via a pleasant experience, consider yourself gifted with awareness.

You could say that the underlying meaning to glean from these writings is knee pain as a consequence may be a means for you to open lines of communication and begin having a relationship with yourself again.

It is not the end of the world.

Yes, it can be painful.

Yes, it can be frustrating and sometimes limiting.

AND…

Yes, you have options.

If it hurts..pay attention.

Your body is communicating by feel without words.

Something needs attention.

If you don’t know what to do or how to speak it’s language…ask for help.

By placing attention on your intention, soon you will understand the universal tongue.

It’ll look good on your resume.

Being bilingual scores you big points with the higher ups…

Knee pain is a message.

Think seriously about Option#6.

You’ll be glad you did.

Oh yeah…

Almost forgot.

I just happen to know a thing or two about the knees.

So if you need help dissecting the language, post your questions in the comments section.

I may be capable of translating for you.

Don’t you have something to do?

Right.

Here’s the link to get you started:

http:/kneepainworkout.com

Have an enlightening weekend.

Get strong and stay strong (and aware),

Rochelle Gravance

Ready for this?

You’ve been hanging tough so far.

Lets see if we can stretch your perspective and challenge your awareness a bit further.

In an earlier post I told you that I find it interesting to watch people move about their day in the world.  It’s fascinating to witness the compensations being made because of physical or psychological boundaries.

I hate to break this up and divide the conversation into gender specific boundaries and compensations, but if you’ll bare with me for a moment I’ll explain how nature and nurture effects us differently.  Then maybe I can bring things back around again and speak more generally.

Because of the amount of time we sit, (have you noticed how many times I refer back to how much we sit?) both genders are experiencing difficulties and struggles with loss of flexibility and mobility.

For men, flexibility of the hips seems to be challenged slightly more than women.  For this reason and because males tend to lift heavier loads with less flexibility throughout the hip region, we see more back pain and injuries in men versus women.

The male of the species tends to carry more muscle mass as well which may challenge flexibility.

Regardless, if you are male….STRETCH!

No, it’s not a waste of time.

Yes, I realize it’s uncomfortable and even slightly painful.

Does that tell you anything?

No one’s ever told you it’s cool to stretch?

Bare with me for a moment while I point something out.

Yes, you have to keep reading.

Have you noticed how muscular male sprinters and gymnasts are?

They stretch…

A LOT!

If they didn’t stretch, you know what would happen?

They wouldn’t be competitive athletes for long.

They’d be injured and rehabbing…constantly.

What you may or may not know is serious professional and Olympic athletes spend a large amount of time stretching or being stretched.

It’s part of the regeneration process, the recovery process, the preparation process and the process at which one strives to increase their physical abilities…including strength, stamina, speed and size.

The nature aspect of the male’s ability to recover from or prevent knee pain as it pertains to flexibility, seems to hinge on the physiological make up of the male hip joint/pelvic structure and possibly even muscle fiber type and amount (muscle mass).

Conversely, nurturing and guidance must be present to provoke and rationalize the necessity of stretching.

In essence, if it doesn’t appeal to the masculine or animus of the beholder, it will likely be avoided.

So how do we appeal to the male psyche?

Provide it with a set of rational reasons to make flexibility training seem necessary (which it absolutely is).

Here’s the rationale:

Stretching is cool.

Why?

Because it gives you the ability to increase muscle size and strength.  Want to pack on more muscle, then you better get to stretching.

And not just a little here and there.

You must be as serious about it as you are your bench press.

If the physique of the male athlete is what you’re after for yourself, then you must train the body in such a way that elicits those characteristics.

If professional and Olympic athletes stretch regularly, why aren’t you?

Got knee pain?

Got testosterone?

STRETCH!

As the pendulum swings toward the feminine, we begin to take on differing physiological and psychological boundaries.

Back to the hip structure for the feminine of the species, we notice females are wider at the hips for obvious biological reasons.

The width of the hips along with the muscle structure of the upper leg and the bone structure of the feet determine where and why a female may develop knee pain.

There are other factors that contribute to female knee joint pain as well. A weak core and poor posture being among the greatest of these factors.

ACL injuries are much more common in women athletes than in men.

Width of the hips, weak, untrained core musculature, hormone fluctuations and an imbalance of the muscles that surround the knee joint from the hip to the knee all seem to contribute to the increase in knee pain and knee injuries in female athletes.

For the non-athletic female, being over weight, general overall musculature weakness and a lack of body awareness are the largest contributing factors to the knee pain epidemic.

Those are the feminine factors derived from nature.

Now, hold on to your bee bonnets for the nurture portion that comes next.

I am still from the generation that was reminded as a female the proper way to sit is with knees together.

Never made much sense to me since it was uncomfortable and didn’t seem like a stable platform to operate from.

But, such is the case.

Even runway models stride with a narrow, sort of cross in front stepping action.

So if during the nurturing process you were told as a means of self protection and proper morals to keep your knees together, don’t you think it would eventually become unconsciously second nature?

Nature and nurture in the same sentence…

Huh…go figure.

So a combination of the nature (wide hips which creates a harsh angle at the knee joint) and the nurture (a proper lady sits with her knees together) poses a significant problem for the female knee.

Still with me?

So what’s the take away?

STRETCH!
then…
GET STRONG!

Essentially, stretching is cool and morals don’t count when it comes to exercising, working out and moving your body.

Everybody needs to stretch.
Everybody needs to move their body.
Everybody needs to live in their body.

Pay close attention to what your body is asking for.

If you feel weakness…get strong.
If you feel tightness…get more flexible.
If you don’t know…pay attention.

Did I succeed in bringing it back together after the gender separation?

OK…it’s your turn.

I know I said something to stir up a comment or question.

Ask or do tell in the comments section below.

I gotta go…building a fire to relax by.

Talk to you in the comments section.

In the meantime…

Get strong and stay strong (and flexible),

Rochelle Gravance

Hey, it’s Monday.

Yeah, I know you know that little piece of brilliant insight.

I wanna hear what you did over the weekend.

I always ask my people what kind of adventures they got themselves into since our last chat.

And, since you’re one of my people…I wanna know.

Here…

I’ll start by telling you about my weekend adventures and then you tell me about your adventures in the comments section.

By the way, this isn’t a contest so any adventure big or small counts.

I had some commitments on Friday night which held up my Saturday morning.  It was because of those commitments that I wasn’t prepared to leave early Saturday.

That kinda gets my goat.

I like to be over-prepared and ready way ahead of departure time.

Plan was, get up to the mountains and see what kind of adventures I could scrounge up.

Because of the late start, it slowed me down a bit, but I still got out there.

I had no idea where I was going.

Never been to this area before.

So, my adventurous soul led me up a steep mountain side for a few miles until the route forced me to make a decision.

Go over the cliff, or stop and make camp.

My choice was obvious since I’m here to write about it.

Tore my stuff apart and made camp.

Decided to go for a hike behind camp to get an idea of the goings on in the forest before dinner.

Tramped around for a while then gathered some wood and headed back to camp.

I’ve been doing quite a lot of writing lately which equates to more time on my butt and less time moving about on my feet.

My hips have been really tight and sore which has made it really hard to warm up for my workouts during the week.

Well, this weekend proved my theory about too much time in the seated position and what that does to your knees, back, hips, shoulders, neck and just about any other joint ache or pain you can think of.

So, I’m gathering wood, making a fire pit, putting camp together and as I’m doing all of this I noticed my back and hips starting to feel looser and stronger.

All weekend I felt really great.

The more I moved, the more I wanted to move.

And even though I practice what I preach by foam rolling and stretching 4-6 days per week, I’ve struggled to feel as great as I did this weekend.

By the way, here’s the link to the free video that has all the foam rolling and stretching exercises that I do:

http://kneepainworkout.com

My take home message from the weekend adventures was simply to listen to what I already inherently knew.  Get off my butt and move more along with my regular stretching, foam rolling and workout sessions.

We were meant to move more than we, as a society, currently move.

And until we get that message through our thick skulls and right in the forefront of our consciousness, we will continue to have joint aches and pains.

I would not hesitate to say that your knee pain is likely a result of what you’re not doing.

Not once did my knees bother me all weekend.

Even with all the bending and kneeling and squatting and hiking on unstable, steep terrain…no knee pain.

Yeah, yeah I know.

Great for me but what about for you.

Well, you know I work with people from all walks of life with varying degrees of knee pain.

And regardless of the knee pain issue, they are not forced into a life of rocking chairs, obesity, motorized scooters and ever increasing knee pain.  (By the way, many of these individuals have varying degrees of arthritis in their knee joints.)

Nope.

They get their butts moving with all the things they can do pain free.

And just so you know, there are at least 50 exercises that I know of off the top of my head that you can be doing right this very minute…pain free.

What would it be like to get your body moving again?

How would your body feel if you were more flexible, stronger, had more stamina and just felt so much better because you are simply moving again?

Wow!

What a concept, huh?

There really IS something you can do about and around your painful knees.

Ready to go get ‘em, tiger?

Super!

This is where you start:

http://kneepainworkout.com

On a side note…

Couldn’t find my really cool, self-inflating, down sleeping pad.

Aaaaand, since I’m stubborn and won’t settle for less than…

I ended up sleeping on the ground.

My really cool, self-inflating, down sleeping pad has been lost in relationship space along with many other things I’m sure I have no idea are missing….until the day I need them.

So, I just ordered the new version of the really cool, EVEN EASIER self inflating, down sleeping pad.

Hope it’s here by Friday or I’ll be sleeping on the ground again.

Hey, by the way…

When’s the last time you tried push ups, planks, dead lifts, kettlebell swings, body weight rows or chin ups?

Download the free video first right here:

http://kneepainworkout.com

Follow the directions carefully so you are fully warmed up and your form is dialed in before trying any new exercises or any of the above mentioned exercises.

Wish me luck on my soon to be new sleeping pad.

I’ll keep you updated on my adventures as long as you hold up your end of the bargain.

Until next time…

Get strong and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance

PS- Your end of the bargain is telling me about your adventures in the comments section below. Talk to you on the blog…

Well, what is it?

Could be many things, I suppose.

What it means to one may not be what it means to another.

When you think of strength what’s the first vision that pops into your awareness?

Is it a Herculean figure standing atop a mountain peering down upon the land?

A sure sign of strength, indeed.

But what kind of strength?

Strength of the physical kind?

Maybe an idealistic vision of man.

Strength that suggests super human status.  One that can only be achieved by Gods.

But what about the Goddesses?

Does She also appear in your visions of strength?

A Goddess of super human strength?

Can the feminine of the ideal be associated with strength?

If you said yes then why wasn’t this ————————————->

the first image that popped into your head?

Before you begin with the “becauses”, lets take a closer look at the possibilities.

According to Dictionary.com, when I boiled the froth from on top, the definition of the word strength is this:

“The quality or state of being strong.”

Boil that down a bit further and you may get this:

A state of being.

That statement is according to the dictionary of yours truly.

Just the way I see the world.

Believe it or not, we were all born strong.

Even as bobble head babies we produced strong cries to get what we needed.

Nature provided us with the impetus to hold ourselves up, crawl, walk and eventually expand our horizons both on the physical plane and the discovery plane.

Then it happened.

Somewhere along the line we lost it.

Someone told us or something showed us a broken mirror that suggested we weren’t strong at all.

Something wasn’t good enough, therefore we were lacking or weak.

The unfortunate part is we believed it.

And as the convoluted acceptance of that weakness spread into our thoughts, it also crept into the physical body.

It changed our perceptions of strength.

And when it did, we began to think of strength as something out there rather than something in here.

Then we began our search for images of strength.

Something we could idealize.

Something that was unattainable.

This brings us back to the beginning of the discussion.

If we left these thoughts here just to ponder, the efforts of these writings would be fruitless.

Strength would still be out there wandering in the images of Gods and Goddesses.

Can you begin to imagine strength in terms of character, presence, determination, appeal, self awareness, consideration, kindness, faith or choice?

Literally, the possibilities seem endless when the mind opens to the opportunity.

If you can imagine strength as any one of those things then your next step is the hardest.

Realization.

To realize that you embody one or more of those attributes demands acceptance of your strengths.

And if you can accept that you are indeed strong, then doesn’t the image of you qualify as the first image that pops into your head when the word strength is mentioned?

You must see and give due recognition first to your strengths before the image becomes clear.

So what if you believe you are strong in the arena of anything other than the physical?

You’ve determine that you have strength in character, faith or determination.

What if the physical arena is the area you desire to strengthen the most?

Maybe because your perceived lack of physical strength weighs down your ability to feel strong on the emotional or psychological plane…what should you do?

Just like when you were a child that could barely hold your head up before you crawled and then walked, you tried.

Everyday you pushed yourself to see what you were capable of next.

If you haven’t heard it before, let me be the first to tell you…

You have endless amounts of untapped room to grow and strengthen your physical body.

If…

If you give yourself permission and opportunity.

So what if a push up is hard.

So what if you can’t do a pull up…..yet.

Who cares if you get dirty and sweaty and your hair gets messed up trying.

Big deal.

Did you care when you were a kid?

Or did you just get out there and explore and discover everyday?

So why don’t you?

Why don’t you challenge the strength of your character, determination, faith and awareness by choosing to strengthen the physical body all in one act of mortal discovery?

Gods and Goddesses be forewarned.

The image of strength is soon to be replaced by the efforts of one mere mortal.

You

This is a grand attempt.

And with that comes acceptance and responsibility.

To earn your cape or crown you must come to realize that you may now embody the image of strength for other mere mortals that witness your attempts, struggles and accomplishments.

Others that, like you may have once been, are unable to recognize their own strengths.

So break the cultural mold and be strong.

Accept that you are and go on with it.

It’s people like you that need to be out there pushing it everyday.

Doing the things that we all know we should but can’t muster the strength of something to do it.

Can I count on you?

If so, tell me about it.

If you need help to get strong(er), I’m here to supply support, direction or whatever else you may need.

What do you need?

Let me hear about it.

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Thank you…

Get strong(er) and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance

PS- I got ur back on this one too. (read the last post if I lost you here)