Dear Body,
Hi, it’s your knee just writing to say hello. I’ve been rather upset with you lately. For years, you have been running off and on, always blaming me whenever you had to stop running or cut back on your mileage. You push me to the point of tears because you signed up for a race and don’t care how much I hurt; you are still getting to the finish line. When you don’t hit your PR or have the best race, or you hobble across the finish line, you blame it on me. You tell your friends, “I have a bad knee so I just can’t run like I used to.” You ice me and pop ibuprofen hoping your “bad knee” will behave. You spend tons of money on wraps and straps, cortisone injections, PRP injections, even as far as arthroscopic surgery to clean me up. You even take up triathlons thinking that less pounding on your poor knee will give it some time to heal. Then, you lace up your shoes once again and head out on the road, only to discover your “bad knee” is not yet healed. It’s a vicious cycle, my dear body.
I have new for you, body: IT’S NOT MY FAULT! Just because I’m the one hurting and being abused, I get in trouble for being bad. Have you ever thought about the neighbors, the ones who are a bad influence on me? I’m talking about our ankle and hip! I’m just stuck in the middle between those two, and let me tell you, they fight all the time. And as a result of their fighting, I get trapped and tugged in positions I don’t like to go so I send you warning signs of pain. But do you listen? No, you just put a band-aid on ME! It’s those other two that are causing the trouble. Remember in high school when you sprained your ankle multiple times playing soccer? And when you tore your hamstring jumping over hurdles? Or how about the time where you broke your ankle skiing in college? Your pain stopped, so you just kept back at your sports without getting those guys properly fixed. As a result, for years you have been compensating for their inadequacies. You have some significant weaknesses and motion restrictions that are limiting your body to do what it’s supposed to do. Your ankle doesn’t have the motion to control the tibia when it strikes the ground when you run. Guess what? I’m connected to the tibia. Your hip doesn’t have the strength to control the ankles mistake because it’s too weak and therefore causes the femur to do strange things. Guess what? I’m connected to the femur. You see what you put me through? I’m stuck in the middle of a battle and I have no one to help me. I just cry out for help in pain, but no one seems to be figuring it out! You see, I love to run with you! I want us to run until we’re old together. But now, you’re not 20 years old anymore and you can’t compensate for everything’s inadequacies like you once could. So please, go look at your ankle and hip in further detail and teach them how to help us work together instead of against each other. This way we can run happy and harmoniously together for many years to come.
Tracy Hill PT, DPT, CSCS, FAFS
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