"Girls Hurting"

[greybeard]

That is the title of a lengthy cover story in this week's Sunday Times Magazine. It's about the epidemic of injury in girl's sports. I'll spare you further lecture; just a public service announcement.

[murpho]

I took a Human Anthropology course at Duke (this would have been 14yrs ago too) and we went over this specific item as part of our study of the human knee. Especially how the generally wider hips of women create a greater angle from the hip down to the knee and therefore greater torgue on the knee itself and a resultant increase in acl/mcl injuries by female athletes vs male athletes. The article obviously covers this in much better detail.
I recommend people do a little research on the human knee, just wiki it. I find it amazing that we don't see more injuries considering how the knee is constructed and all the torque and pressures it sees. From what I recall (not a medical opinion here), the knee is essentially held together by the 2-4 ligaments and that's it. There is no ball and socket like the hip or a bunch of muscles like the shoulder.

[Bostondevil]

I am seeing a knee doctor on Wednesday. greybeard, I do feel that I've been properly warned, but if I don't need surgery, I'll be back out running again on Thursday.

[greybeard]

I am seeing a knee doctor on Wednesday. greybeard, I do feel that I've been properly warned, but if I don't need surgery, I'll be back out running again on Thursday.

Unless you have some wicked degeneration and/or deficit aka ACL, you can improve knee pain by learning to use the rest of you better. There are no short cuts to this, but there are systematic approaches.

If your ankles are stiff, and your femur head does not rotate properly in the hip, in part because of a lack of coordination with appropriate pelvic movements (often all but non-existent), all very much impacted by softness and responsiveness in the rib cage and sternum or the lack of it (no room inside for the pelvis to move and thus the hips to work), etc, you have no chance of not having your knees hurt. However, hurting knees in that context are a symptom and not the problem.

A little something you can do to prove to yourself how undo tightness in the ribs will inhibit the pelvis from turning. Lie on your back with your feet on the floor hip wider then width a part so your knees are pointing to the sky. The come up onto your forearms and elbows

Let your knees fop to one side, but only as far as they can go with ease. Do not strain. Repeat several times. Let your torso respond as it wishes, do not try for rigidity. Do keep your feet in the same place. They obviously can flop to the side. If you are moving to the left, that will cause your right knee to come forward and towards the left foot; the left knee will more towards the left. Let your right lower back arch and your right buttock come up as feels natural. do not push.

Just notice what the results are as is easy.

Then lie flat and notice the difference between the two sides; how they contact the ground differently. Interesting, huh.

Now come back into position. This time, before you begin the movement, take a breath in and exhale, holding your belly in and your breath out, as you let the legs fall. What has changed? Much less of a movement, in ease and range, yes? The pelvis is restricted, both by the stomach contraction but also by something that is precluded from happening in the ribs.

Find an Alexandar Technique class or better still, my preference, a Feldenkrais awareness through movement class. You could do worse than purchase on line through Feldenkrais resourses a CD set by Mark Reese regarding Walking. It is excellent and on sale. About 30 bucks. All you kneed is a CD walkman.

PS Alexandar and Feldenkrais practitioners both do different types of work with people on tables. Delightful and very effective stuff. I probably can get you an excellent reference for either. PM me if interested. Also, you might want to see a good doctor of osteopathy trained in cranial sacral work.

The benefits of seeing an Alexandar or Feldenkrais practitioner is that the work can lead to long term learning, and in that sense is empowering. Osteopathy less so with the long term learning.

In the meantime, when you walk, think that your knees are light, your elbows are light, and your head is light. And lighter still. Cheers and good luck!

[Lavabe]

That is the title of a lengthy cover story in this week's Sunday Times Magazine. It's about the epidemic of injury in girl's sports. I'll spare you further lecture; just a public service announcement.

Umm... what's the title of the article? I just tried "girl's hurting" and "girls hurting," and, well, got some bizarre things that won't go through our firewall.

Is it a subscription only site?
Cheers,
Lavabe

[Bostondevil]

Thanks greybeard.

I'm still going to see what the doctor says though. It's not just knee pain. If I don't wear the knee braces, they eventually buckle on me.

I know a little bit about Alexander Technique and Feldenkrais from my theater background. I also do yoga. Right now, I'm willing to try anything that will help, except surgery.

[greybeard]

That would of course be a misprint on my part; try Hurt Girls, author Michael Sokolove. Just testing. :o