“Let’s have a moment of silence for all the people stuck in traffic on the way to the gym to workout” (Seen somewhere on Pinterest). As someone that drives 45 minutes to play soccer every week, this quote has always resonated with me! If you go to the gym on a regular basis or you are involved in some sport, you have probably sought out knee pain relief at one time or another.
Exercise comes in all forms, shapes, sizes, speeds and directions. From the crossfitters to the yogi’s, women can be seen finding their exercise passion in many forms. Regardless of which exercise you prefer, we can all agree that we have to do something and I always suggest you find what you like! (And until you find your passion, I always suggest we start with walking!)
Runners are some of today’s most efficient calorie burners. It doesn’t require a membership, you don’t need any equipment except a pair of great shoes and you don’t have to travel anywhere to start your workout. A runner can get a great workout completed in the amount of time it takes me to get to my soccer games! That being said, it can be one of the hardest workouts on the body. The ground isn’t even, concrete and blacktop are very dense materials and the impact of force through your joints can best be described as “a very complicated physics problem that often results in pain.”
Pain happens frequently and in runners; one of the first things we hear about is the knee. The knee is often considered the shock absorber for the rest of the body and the precise angle at which your foot strikes and the angle of your knee can be a major factor in helping or hindering that shock absorption. The internet is full of amazing resources to help decrease the pain, but at the end of the day, you may have identical symptoms to someone else, but without a full evaluation, you may never get to the true cause of the problem.
I often consider my patients to be onions. (Insert Shrek joke here, “What about parfait, everybody loves parfait”) People are made of layers – you may walk in with knee pain, but we need to peel away your life and your activities to determine the actual cause of the knee pain. Did you injure it 20 years ago? Did you slip this past winter on the ice and jam an SI joint? Did you recently change shoes and now your foot rolls a different way? Why doesn’t that stretch you found on Youtube that absolutely works for your running partner not help you at all?
The point is, all pain is complicated and while running seems to be a less complicated work out option, it can still result in complicated pain patterns. Whether you need knee pain relief, shoulder pain, headaches, fatigue or anything else, we need to sit down and peel away the layers.