Since sharing this article over the summer, I've received lots of feedback as to how the concepts have helped a number of people with their health. I'd love for you to benefit with these insights as well, so that you feel and move as optimally and naturally as possible long-term.
The mechanism of how I addressed my knee pain (shared below) is the same way that I've had the privilege to help individuals who are experiencing knee injuries, from bone-on-bone to knee replacements to moving better while running.
On July 4th, I woke up feeling energetic and simply wanted to move. My morning comprised of running ten miles, from my home on the UWS to my family's up north. It was the perfect beginning to the holiday which culminated in seeing Fireworks that night. The one challenge that my run presented on my body was that it was considerably longer than I'd done in months. Towards the end of my run, the outside of my right knee began to burn, and the pain continued the rest of the day.
What Happened? A model as to what created my pain
When we're walking, there is an intricate chain of events at each joint (ankle, knee, hip, pelvis, etc) that should occur to promote optimal movement. When one has any type of misalignment, the mechanism is thrown off and which can create rubbing of the bones, thus compromising the cartilage, and compression in the disks. Even with 'perfect' alignment, when one begins to fatigue, this mechanism starts to go awry and we compensate. My weaker right postural side combined with the fatigue of running longer than usual likely created friction on the outside of my right knee, hence, the burning (slight tearing) in my ligaments.
Based upon previous tweaks when I pushed my body, I knew that if all I did was stretch the area or do therapy directly for the knee, it wouldn't get better for days or weeks, and my body would begin a downward spiral of compensation, creating imbalance and misalignment.
How Did I go About Helping My Knee:
The next day, I was visiting a beautiful home with a yard overlooking the Hudson River. I was again inspired to move. What I did was a challenging postural workout that strengthened the Ant-Gravity Kinetic Chain (AGKC) - the deep postural line of muscles and fascia discovered by my teachers, Dr. Andrew Buser and Markus Greus, PT - in a manner that was safe on my knee. These exercises comprised of various crawls and functional movements that promoted full range of motion with specific postural form.
What was my thinking here in fixing my knee?
Providing my body with postural stimulus to strengthen myself from the inside-out in an active manner, while engaging the AGKC, had the effect of opening up and creating space in the joints. Most exercises create compression, reducing space between the bones (as it's what happened in my knee towards the end of my run). The uniqueness of the AGKC Postural Therapy exercises when applied correctly and with optimal form, is that they open the joints and ingrain the patterns to keep the body aligned.
Now that I had reinforced my body's postural strength, I did a long, passive exercise to reset the length and the tension of my musculoskeletal system, allowing the compensatory muscles which had overworked, pulling my body out of alignment, to let go.
Typically, with pain or tightness, we stretch and stretch, and the underlying issue remains without resolution. What's often needed is deeper postural strength which creates the underlying scaffolding for the body. Only then will our nervous system allow the compensatory muscles to relax and let go, as the body now has the AGKC muscles to anchor to and protect itself.
While it's a unique way of thinking about healing the body and creating optimal performance, it's a concept I welcome you to ponder. It's the mechanism that helped my knee heal in a highly expedited manner and the way I'm often privileged to help individuals address their pain and injuries.
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