KNEE – All this good info and links below are from the ‘Modern Health Monk’ by Alexander Heyne. Many of you might know that I’ve been to see a physio, chiropractor and have orthotics in my shoes / trainers to help with a long term left cartilage / meniscus problem which also contributed to very bad and painful ITBS runner’s knee (Illiotibial Band Friction Syndrome) that used to be very debilitating and stopped me running for a few weeks – now some days I forget about it all together.

I think I developed it from trying a new running technique and increasing my speed and distance too fast but I also had new trainers which weren’t the best and my feet moved around on the innersoles which I don’t like. I went to Sweat Shop Woking and did a good Gait Analsyis session tried on lots of different trainers and innersoles and went for the best feeling trainers and also the custom moulded innersoles which really grip and support my feet.

Last week I went for a hilly quite fast 18 mile run and could feel my knee a tiny little bit but nothing to bad so I’m feeling confident touch wood ” ” of completing in one piece the Virgin London Marathon (VLM) in April 13th 2014.

A few sessions of the 38-42 degrees celcius Red Hot Yoga helped to get some good deep heat into my knee, I haven’t really benefited or increased my flexibiilty at all from the sessions but I’m one of the very few people that unfortunately don’t respond to stretching training. If you don’t want to go to Red Hot Yoga and you have an athritic knee or cartilage problem sometime in a steam room or sauna might help too.

FOAM ROLLER which is a self massage painful technique that you can do at home in front of the TV can help too to losen up the tight muscles (I haven’t actually done it for a while but need to get back into it – it can take anything from 5 to 25 minutes per day depending on how many muscles groups you want to do).

One legged squats really helped to strengthen my running glutes and hip flexors (glute medius and glute maximus) as with those muscles being strong it helps to bring your leg through in a straight line and reduce the chances or problems with ITBS. Plenty of stretching, water, rest, sleep, ice and good nutrition helped too.

I also followed many of the advice points in the below articles:

http://modernhealthmonk.com/ultimate-guide-to-chronic-knee-pain-runners-knee/

http://modernhealthmonk.com/chronic-pain-posture-imbalances/

http://modernhealthmonk.com/lower-back-pain-lower-crossed-syndrome/

He has lots of other links on those pages which can take you to the areas that you need.

knee_injury_icing