01/18/2024
Well, my first New Year's resolution-er just came into my Injury Care & Prevention clinic. I usually see the bulk of them in February as their usual resolution is to get fit. They've built it up in their mind that they are going to increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of their workouts all at the same time. Their minds are ready, but their bodies are NOT. The body says, 'hang on there good buddy'.
This employee-athlete arrived into the clinic with general knee cap pain; a 2/10 level on the pain scale. She was not sure exactly why the pain has risen, but she could tell me that she increased her squatting, squatting weight, leg press, step ups, among other activities. With an ortho knee evaluation, it was revealed that there was general patella pain (nothing specific), her quads & hip flexors are tight, and her foot arch drops upon standing (over-pronation). No navicular drop test was done this time as I believed that I had enough info to say that she should go to one of those shoe places with a force-plate for further evaluation and to ensure proper footwear. I provided a general lower quarter stretching routine. She would like to add yoga as well - fantastic! A manual muscle energy technique took care of her pain during the session. In addition, I (a seasoned AT who has seen this every year since the 90's) had to drive across to her that her quad and patella tendons could only progress strength only so fast. I presented to her the general 10% rule of progression.
You can use the rule to stave off any building aches and pains which may turn into an outright injury. How you use the general 10% rule of progression is simple and you can use any metric (ie. time, steps, weight, distance, etc.). The math can be done 'on the back of an envelope'. For example, if you find this week that you had no issue walking 1000 steps, rowing for 10 minutes, pressing 100 lbs, bicycling 10 miles that's great. Next week, you can progress your regimen to 1100 steps, 11 minutes of rowing, 110 lbs of pressing, and cycling for 11 miles. You get the idea.
Again, it's a general rule but you can save yourself a lot of pain and down time. You'll be ahead of all of the other New Year's resolution-ers that quit because they are in pain and pain is punishing.
If this QR code works, you'll have some general stretches on your phone ready to go. I'll test it to see. If not, I'll try another way.