My knee hurts, my shoulder hurts, my back hurts… These
are common areas that people point to everyday. But are
these areas a complaint or a problem? Is there a difference?
If so, how do we find out which is which?
First a little story: You have two workers
in a factory. Worker A
is taking 12 smoke breaks a day and has his/her feet propped
up on the desk talking on a cell phone. Worker
B is putting in 3 extra hours a day
trying to keep up with what Worker
A is not getting done. Which worker
complains first and which worker is the problem?
A
moment to ponder…
Answer:
Worker B will complain first but Worker A is the problem.
How does this little story relate to your aching
knee? Well the body works very much like our little
factory story. The area
complaining (causing pain) is very rarely the problem.
The problem is usually some other area not doing its job
and causing the complaining area to take on too much work/stress
and end up complaining.
There is a saying in the manual therapy community, “he
who chases the pain is lost”. And this can be a mental
hurdle for some because it requires you to look away from
the complaint and find the problem. But under traditional
therapy you will quickly become a shoulder or a knee –
not a person. In other words if we look back up at our factory
story under the traditional mindset the complaining Worker
B would become the focus of the issue
and Worker A
would continue to skate by doing nothing.
Well, we are not going to allow this to happen. We will
take an Eastern philosophical approach and seek to
‘fix the problem not the blame.’
Perhaps this is most prevalent in complaints of knee pain.
People focus on the complaint and forget about the problem.
Recent articles available on the biomecha.com website draw
this into sharp relief. Just go to biomech.com and search
patellofemoral pain and you will find a study on weight
bearing MRI research and knee pain. This study looked at
the much feared “lateral tracking patella”.
What the researchers found under weight bearing MRI was
that the patella did NOT laterally track but rather the
distal end of femur was medially rotating due to poor HIP
control (glute medius in particular).
That’s right, even though the patella
appeared to track laterally and the complaint may have been
of knee pain – the problem was poor HIP control.
How do we correct this? We have to take a broad look at
the whole body and note movement patterns that are not consistent
on both sides of the body in a uniform manner. Inflexibility
may be a patterning problem even when muscular tightness
is the complaint.
In simplest terms we begin by looking at the joint above
and below the area of complaint for the problem causing
the pain. This will take your focus off of the pain and
put it on finding the problem. But sometimes the problem
is hiding in what would appear to be an unrelated area and
will defy your first attempts to find it.
Realize that the body is a magnificently complicated and
intricate machine and that it excels at compensating. If
you ask the body to do something it will do it. Regardless
of the cost and if the ideal option is not available your
body will go ahead with option B even if that will result
in a complaint later.
Key: Stop getting lost
in your focus on the pain and start looking for the problem.
Fix the problem (stop covering it up or ignoring it) and
problem solved.
How
do you fix the problem?
First
you need a solid diagnosis. Ask your Boot Camp Instructor.
Instructor Kelli specializes in corrective muscle diagnosis
and Optimum Performance Training. Some of the best tools
for such corrective training are Kettlebells
and Balance
Boards. Contact Kelli
for more specific information or how to train to correct
your problem area.
Make 2008 GREAT!
Signed up NOW by
finding a Boot Camp Fitness
program or Kettlebell
Fitness program near you:
http://www.ColoradoBootCamp.com
