By: Mike Westerdal, CPT
Powerlifter, Best Selling Fitness Author
and former sufferer of knee pain
It’s true, close to 36% of all exercise related injuries affect the knee joint, making it close to the number one cause of pain suffered by those who love working out.
Doesn’t that make you wonder how some people are able to train with 100% effort month after month, without ever having to slow down due to a nagging injury caused by knee pain or soreness? They don’t have to take time off, or carefully select what exercises they can and can’t do.
If so, I’ll tell you how they do it.
But first I’d like to share with you 4 Tactics to Eliminate Knee Soreness that were taught to me by injury specialist and exercise physiologist Rick Kaselj, MS. I’ve spent a lot of time and money consulting with Rick, so be sure to pay close attention and take notes. These 4 strategies could be the difference between a nasty re-occurring knee blowout versus taking the fast track to the pain free “limitless” workouts you crave and deserve.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #1: Keep Your Knee Straight Out Of The Gym
What you are doing out of the gym could be irritating your knee and leading to knee pain. Look at what you are doing right now when it comes to your knee. Are you sitting down with your knees bent? Are your feet crossed? Are your feet behind you and under your chair?
All of these positions put greater stress on the knee, leading to irritation of the knee, which leads to knee pain.
The happiest position for your knee is when it is straight. As the knee joint bends, greater stress is put on the joints and ligaments. Basically as you bend your knee, your kneecap presses against your knee, leading to anterior knee pain. If your knee is bent, you increase the tension in the ligaments in the knee, such as the ACL, which can lead to ligamentous knee pain. Lastly if you have internal knee pain, the greater the knee is bent, the more it puts unnecessary stress inside the knee joint.
If you sit in this bent knee positing for hours, it will progressively make your knee pain worse.
Quick Fix: While you are sitting at your desk, on the couch, in a meeting, or watching a movie, remember to keep your knees straight when you can to decrease stress on the knee.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #2: Don’t Get Stuck In The Vicious Knee Pain Cycle
Years ago, before meeting exercise physiologist Rick Kaselj, MS I found myself caught in this vicious cycle prior to and after having a football related ACL surgery.
As Rick later explained to me this cycle is very common and has happened to most of his clients in the past. It goes a little something like this…
At some point in your lifting career you come home and your knee just feels extra sore and you know something just isn’t right so you take some anti-inflammatory pills and throw an ice pack on. It’s not a big deal and part of playing sports and training hard right?
Hopefully in a few days it will be completely better, but usually some kind of discomfort or pain lingers. That’s no reason to miss a workout though. I know what’s on your mind, you can always avoid a few exercises that cause it to flare up and you can always train upper body after all.
Eventually this gets old and if it doesn’t feel better after a few weeks or months it’s probably time to visit the doctor to find out what’s going on. After using up a sick day and sitting for an hour in the waiting room it’s pretty annoying when the doctor tells you to rest, ice, and don’t do things that hurt.Seriously?
If your insurance isn’t that great you’ll probably have to go back to your primary care doctor to get a referral to see a specialist. They’ll have you do an MRI which is super expensive. You’ll have to schedule another appointment for that though.
After the MRI you’ll get the diagnosis at your next appointment. How many appointments is that so far? I’ve lost track already…sigh
Next you can try more physical therapy or you can cover the symptoms with a cortisone shot that will numb the pain for a couple months. After that there’s always surgery, but something in your gut tells you that’s not what you really need. Listen to your instincts.
Hopefully you’re asking yourself…Mike, how do I make sure I don’t get caught in this crooked knee pain model? I’m glad you asked and my reply is outlined in tactic #3 below.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #3: Deal With the ROOT of the Problem Not the Symptoms
Before and after my ACL surgery in 2001 I researched a lot of alternative knee rehab solutions.
With these traditional knee pain protocols, they focus on purely stretching and strengthening.
This alone does not work or at best provides temporary knee pain relief. The reality is that stretching focuses on symptoms, not necessarily the problem.
“Neither Strengthening nor Stretching Will Help You Until The Knee Joint
Has Been Reshaped Into a Pain Free Joint.”
While strengthening is important, it needs to be done when the knee joint has been reshaped into a pain-free knee joint. If you have not reshaped the knee joint into a pain-free joint, you are just adding more strength to a painful joint and making the problem worse.
In time this stress leads to repetitive knee injuries, increased knee joint damage and overall knee pain.
In the next strategy I’ll share with you how to re-shape your knees so that when you strengthen them you will NOT be causing more damage.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #4: Reshaping The Knee Joint Can Actually Be Easy (With the KR3-Method)
The KR3-Method is short for “Knee Reshaping 3-Part Method”. It was invented by Injury Specialist and Kinesiologist Rick Kaselj, MS who has over 16-years of hands on experience, and a masters degree in exercise science.
In the vicious knee pain cycle above I mentioned how the doctor simply told me to not do what hurts? The entire reason I came in for the visit was to get back to what I love doing, not to stop doing what I love.
Westy3Battling knee pain has been over a decade long debacle for me. Let me give you some quick background information. Having played outside linebacker in college many moons ago I used to have running backs and full backs diving at my knees to cut block me every time I rushed the passer.
After the games my knees would swell up and it would take a few days of icing before I was back to 100%. Practicing, playing games and strength training took its toll on my body.
I learned this the hard way in 2001. After college I went to Sweden to play football and tore my Anterior Crucial Ligament (ACL). Throughout the season I kept trying to rehab and keep playing but obviously this wasn’t possible.
Once I returned to the states it was time for surgery. To be perfectly blunt with you the rehab process was very painful and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. In fact, I remember bribing my physical therapist at the time by bringing him free Critical Bench tshirts and supplements hoping he would take it easy on me.
Powerlifter, Best Selling Fitness Author
and former sufferer of knee pain
It’s true, close to 36% of all exercise related injuries affect the knee joint, making it close to the number one cause of pain suffered by those who love working out.
Doesn’t that make you wonder how some people are able to train with 100% effort month after month, without ever having to slow down due to a nagging injury caused by knee pain or soreness? They don’t have to take time off, or carefully select what exercises they can and can’t do.
If so, I’ll tell you how they do it.
But first I’d like to share with you 4 Tactics to Eliminate Knee Soreness that were taught to me by injury specialist and exercise physiologist Rick Kaselj, MS. I’ve spent a lot of time and money consulting with Rick, so be sure to pay close attention and take notes. These 4 strategies could be the difference between a nasty re-occurring knee blowout versus taking the fast track to the pain free “limitless” workouts you crave and deserve.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #1: Keep Your Knee Straight Out Of The Gym
What you are doing out of the gym could be irritating your knee and leading to knee pain. Look at what you are doing right now when it comes to your knee. Are you sitting down with your knees bent? Are your feet crossed? Are your feet behind you and under your chair?
All of these positions put greater stress on the knee, leading to irritation of the knee, which leads to knee pain.
The happiest position for your knee is when it is straight. As the knee joint bends, greater stress is put on the joints and ligaments. Basically as you bend your knee, your kneecap presses against your knee, leading to anterior knee pain. If your knee is bent, you increase the tension in the ligaments in the knee, such as the ACL, which can lead to ligamentous knee pain. Lastly if you have internal knee pain, the greater the knee is bent, the more it puts unnecessary stress inside the knee joint.
If you sit in this bent knee positing for hours, it will progressively make your knee pain worse.
Quick Fix: While you are sitting at your desk, on the couch, in a meeting, or watching a movie, remember to keep your knees straight when you can to decrease stress on the knee.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #2: Don’t Get Stuck In The Vicious Knee Pain Cycle
Years ago, before meeting exercise physiologist Rick Kaselj, MS I found myself caught in this vicious cycle prior to and after having a football related ACL surgery.
As Rick later explained to me this cycle is very common and has happened to most of his clients in the past. It goes a little something like this…
At some point in your lifting career you come home and your knee just feels extra sore and you know something just isn’t right so you take some anti-inflammatory pills and throw an ice pack on. It’s not a big deal and part of playing sports and training hard right?
Hopefully in a few days it will be completely better, but usually some kind of discomfort or pain lingers. That’s no reason to miss a workout though. I know what’s on your mind, you can always avoid a few exercises that cause it to flare up and you can always train upper body after all.
Eventually this gets old and if it doesn’t feel better after a few weeks or months it’s probably time to visit the doctor to find out what’s going on. After using up a sick day and sitting for an hour in the waiting room it’s pretty annoying when the doctor tells you to rest, ice, and don’t do things that hurt.Seriously?
If your insurance isn’t that great you’ll probably have to go back to your primary care doctor to get a referral to see a specialist. They’ll have you do an MRI which is super expensive. You’ll have to schedule another appointment for that though.
After the MRI you’ll get the diagnosis at your next appointment. How many appointments is that so far? I’ve lost track already…sigh
Next you can try more physical therapy or you can cover the symptoms with a cortisone shot that will numb the pain for a couple months. After that there’s always surgery, but something in your gut tells you that’s not what you really need. Listen to your instincts.
Hopefully you’re asking yourself…Mike, how do I make sure I don’t get caught in this crooked knee pain model? I’m glad you asked and my reply is outlined in tactic #3 below.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #3: Deal With the ROOT of the Problem Not the Symptoms
Before and after my ACL surgery in 2001 I researched a lot of alternative knee rehab solutions.
With these traditional knee pain protocols, they focus on purely stretching and strengthening.
This alone does not work or at best provides temporary knee pain relief. The reality is that stretching focuses on symptoms, not necessarily the problem.
“Neither Strengthening nor Stretching Will Help You Until The Knee Joint
Has Been Reshaped Into a Pain Free Joint.”
While strengthening is important, it needs to be done when the knee joint has been reshaped into a pain-free knee joint. If you have not reshaped the knee joint into a pain-free joint, you are just adding more strength to a painful joint and making the problem worse.
In time this stress leads to repetitive knee injuries, increased knee joint damage and overall knee pain.
In the next strategy I’ll share with you how to re-shape your knees so that when you strengthen them you will NOT be causing more damage.
Tactic to Eliminate Knee Soreness #4: Reshaping The Knee Joint Can Actually Be Easy (With the KR3-Method)
The KR3-Method is short for “Knee Reshaping 3-Part Method”. It was invented by Injury Specialist and Kinesiologist Rick Kaselj, MS who has over 16-years of hands on experience, and a masters degree in exercise science.
In the vicious knee pain cycle above I mentioned how the doctor simply told me to not do what hurts? The entire reason I came in for the visit was to get back to what I love doing, not to stop doing what I love.
Westy3Battling knee pain has been over a decade long debacle for me. Let me give you some quick background information. Having played outside linebacker in college many moons ago I used to have running backs and full backs diving at my knees to cut block me every time I rushed the passer.
After the games my knees would swell up and it would take a few days of icing before I was back to 100%. Practicing, playing games and strength training took its toll on my body.
I learned this the hard way in 2001. After college I went to Sweden to play football and tore my Anterior Crucial Ligament (ACL). Throughout the season I kept trying to rehab and keep playing but obviously this wasn’t possible.
Once I returned to the states it was time for surgery. To be perfectly blunt with you the rehab process was very painful and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. In fact, I remember bribing my physical therapist at the time by bringing him free Critical Bench tshirts and supplements hoping he would take it easy on me.
Escape a Major Blowout & Fix Your Knees in JustMinutes… So You Can Get Back to Your 100% Intensity Pain-Free Workouts…WITHOUT Feeling Bullied Into Time-Wasting Appointments, Expensive Medications or Going Under the Knife
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