Hi there,

Welcome back to another issue of LoseTheKneePain.

I’ve been finding it very interesting lately that some of my veteran knee pain clients are coming to new awareness.

This new awareness isn’t necessarily because I’ve introduced new exercises or workout programs.

It doesn’t even seem to be a matter of them putting more effort into their workouts.

This new awareness, by my experienced eyes and listening to their stories, seems to be a “shift in awareness”.

What do I mean by a shift in awareness?

Simply stated, it seems that one can now set aside preconceived ideas and notions about their actions and truly feel what is happening and how it’s happening.

An example of this is the client that has been struggling with a particular exercise or movement for a given period of time.  It’s as if no matter what they do or how hard they try, they just can’t seem to get it.

The more effort they put into it, the more frustrated they become each time they fail.

It soon becomes the unattainable in their mind.

Why is this?

Well, it’s my philosophy that the struggle is in the mind and not in the body, in this particular scenario.

Example:

I have this client that used to pump out sub par push ups, one right after the other.

My concern here is that undesirable push up form will lead to compensatory movement patterns and potential for injury.

Once we put the focus on achieving ideal push up form, this client was unable to perform even one proper push up.

This was the basis for much frustration.

The more we practiced the ideal push up, the more ingrained the idea of failure became.

You see, this person remembered that they used to perform several push ups which, in this person’s mind, was success.

Now, even one ideal push up was unattainable.

First you must know that I pride myself in explaining the movements of the body and how to perform these movements correctly very well.  Cuing proper form is critical to help clients understand the principles and objectives they are attempting to recreate.

So, it’s definitely not a matter of neglect or willingness to learn and express ones self on the part of myself or the client.

Here’s what I see happening:

The shift of awareness is the product of placing attention on the details that will make a difference and shutting down the negative thinking and self talk.

You see, this person kept reinforcing the negative thinking that they can’t do a perfect push up.  And, with every attempt, they proved themselves correct.

Fruitless efforts like these can weigh heavy on the spirit.

Once I was able to present the movement of the push up in words the client’s mind was willing to hear, miraculously the client was able to perform a few push ups with ideal form.

Really, it’s not so miraculous.  Except in this client’s non believing mind, it was.  So be it.

Talk about a change in momentum and energy.

And with every new attempt, additional awareness was gained.  Soon the push up became better and better and more and more push ups were achieved with each attempt.

It was quite a thrill to listen to the client enthusiastically explain every little thing they learned with each new attempt.

In this particular case, once the client stopped thinking about the push part of the push up and focused on keeping the anterior core tight, glutes braced and shoulders packed (all things you’ll learn by following the LoseTheKneePain workouts), the push part just happened.

As strength was gained because of the proper positioning now practiced, more push ups were achieved.

AND, the client absolutely loved the feeling of doing push ups.  Even more than before.

There is much to learn here about persistency.

First, I didn’t give up on the efforts and struggles of the client.  I kept finding new ways to explain exactly what needed to be done for the client to achieve success.

Next, the client never gave up trying.

Even though each failed experience was painful to the ego, perseverance and persistency paid high dividends in the end.

The fact that you have that pain in the knee and have tried many different avenues to cure it doesn’t mean you won’t eventually find a way to make it better or beat it.

You just have to keep an open mind and pay attention to details.

I promise I’ll never give up on you.

And, I’ll never give up researching and finding new ways to help you recover from knee pain.

So keep the focus and shut down the negative self talk.

You can do this.

We’ll do it together.

Until next time…

Get strong and stay strong,

Rochelle Gravance

PS- If you have come to some new awareness that has helped you achieve something you thought not possible, leave your inspirational story in the comments section below.  And, thanks.