'BUT my joints.. quite like it when I put my feet up?'

LIFETIME HIP & KNEE

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#108: 'BUT my joints.. quite like it when I put my feet up?'

Thank you for this great question after last week's newsletter..

I think I've got it......inflammation is the body's response to something harmful and sets off a process to deal with it 🙂. So far so good...
But why then does the pain persist? We keep moving.. in the hope of helping the body to carry out its own repair.
But joints still scream and quite like it when we put our feet up for a while.’

That email both pushes me to explain myself with more clarity..

And cuts to the heart of what we all feel some point. A version of..

'If it hurts, don’t do it'

I agree.

BUT only in the short term..

Over hours to days..

Do something excessive and it will hurt.

I'm feeling that as I draft this Newsletter..

An Update on My Update..(!)

I ran the flat, fast Frankfurt Marathon last weekend. I couldn't walk downstairs on Monday..

My legs did, indeed, just want to sit!

Stiff, achey marathon legs*.😖

*Delayed Onset Muscle Stiffness (DOMS)

Thanks to everyone for their words of encouragement btw 😀 On a windy day in Frankfurt, I squeaked under my target time..

A decade long goal achieved 😁

I digress..

Here was my best reply to that email..

Written on the way back from Frankfurt..

Hours to Days (short-term)

‘Yes, inflammation is the same whether you scratch the skin on your arm or impinge your hip or jar your knee.

We get ongoing inflammation if we repeatedly scratch skin, impinge hips or jar knees.

BUT we don't repeatedly scratch our skin because, well, it's right in front of us..

Scratched skin => PAIN

But what hurts our hips + knees is less obvious..

So, yes, one answer 'might be' to stop doing those things, and put your feet up

The hip and knee pain that goes with inflammation will settle..

BUT only in the short term..

If we just do that and stop there we're going to get into trouble 😕

Days to Weeks (medium-term)

Hips and knee are different.

Different from a skin scratch in 2 important ways:

Our joints are stabilised by stronger muscles (over the medium term). Stronger muscles help us avoid impingement and jarring.

AND

Exercise itself is anti-inflammatory in moderate doses. Acting at a molecular level to dampen inflammation.

From Rest to Movement..

That understanding explains the flip in medical advice over the last 20 years.

From ‘If it hurts rest’ => ‘Movement is medicine.’**

**All caveats + tips apply

In particular Scaling up Slowly.

I hope that’s clearer. And thanks for helping me to clarify 😁

Oh, and the answer to my marathon legs? Keep moving 👊 Here was my gentle recovery run before work on Thursday..

Next week 🙏

I will get to the underlying cause of Knee Osteoarthritis.

But that question was exactly what I asked for and it got me thinking more clearly about what I write.

It's another step towards an information resource that really helps other people with their hip and knee pain👏👏

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