For me, there’s no higher praise than someone bringing their mom in to see me. This happened yesterday and it made my day. A former client and his mom were visiting from California and came in for some help with her knee pain. She had spent the last few years sitting more than anyone would recommend. You could see it in her walk, which was pretty stiff and inelastic. It didn’t fit her. She moved like she was wearing a pair of shoes designed for someone else.
In case you’re wondering how it went, I got a big hug at the end and spent the rest of the morning beaming. I’m going to share what we did—and why—just in case you ever need a framework for increasing activity after an injury or hiatus.
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Nerdy detail—feel free to skip
Joints respond favourably to loading. Be smart. Manage risk but don’t be scared to dip your toes in the water. Articular cartilage, for example, is avascular—it doesn’t have its own blood supply. So, the mechanical pressure of loading and unloading acts like a pump, swirling nutrients around to make them more accessible. Synovial fluid lubricates the furthest reaches of joints through much the same mechanism. Go a layer deeper and structure is promoted through changes like bone density. All of this needs mechanical loading. Loading is our friend.
Image credit: Tendon Extracellular Matrix Assembly, Maintenance and Dysregulation Throughout Life Siadat, et al. |
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Back to our visitor. First, I figured out what she could do, safely and pain-free. We used an exercise choice that gave her the option of disengagement at the drop of a hat. Then we made sure that we were challenging her appropriately. In other words, she was safe, sweating and smiling.
After we’d nailed our first set of the exercise, she straightened up and took a few tentative steps. Those rolled into a few more. And then into a borderline strut. She looked so much more fluid and at ease. She became more like herself in those few moments. It’s kind of amazing to see more of a person’s self revealed—especially when they’re seeing it at the same time as you. It’s like spotting a unicorn in the forest and then locking eyes with someone else. It’s still magical but feels more real when it’s a shared experience.
Structural change takes time, of course. So you can’t fundamentally change your bone density or articular function in a single session. However, your nervous system adapts surprisingly quickly. So a new behaviour coupled with a high dose of good vibes can start building new habits—including motor patterns—almost instantaneously. Improving mobility and strength feel great but I believe that, like Michelangelo chipping away at all that was not David, some of the greatest vibes of all come from shedding the inessential and revealing more of you.
Image credits: Thundercats |
