Joint pain - where does it originate?
QUOTE OF THE MOMENT:
"We need to have more life in our years ...not just more years in our life!"
I seem to have spent a lot of this Easter observing how others choose to move ..or don't move. It must be my age but I am getting even more passionate about the importance of maintaining strength and joint mobility. Over Easter break after a few days of decent dog walks and generally being out and about, l needed to get onto my mat and back into deep hip range/Dusting into the Corners, Thread the Needle, Cat/Cow etc. My knees and hips especially thanked me for it, and it made such a difference to any notion of morning tightness and discomfort.
Both of my adult kids have intermittent knee issues - (to be fair most of the time I have the ability to totally ignore any complaints of joint pains that seem to come my direction from various family members!)...but no, this time I actually took a moment. Interestingly, one is a sporting issue, the other a prolonged sitting issue, but BOTH originated from a lack of movement in the hips, which therefore puts the strain on the more vulnerable knee. So often we blame the joint where the pain surfaces, and overlook the fact that many muscles cross over that joint, eg knee, from other areas, ie the hips and ankles. Muscle tightness and stiffness/restrictions in the joints above and below can often be to blame.
Eg if someone has low back pain, we need to look at how the hips and thoracic (ribcage) spine is performing, or shoulder pain can often originate from a stiff thoracic spine and postural/container stacking issue. Mobilising these bits can really help our bodies function more optimally and offload the sore bits. And certainly Osteoarthritic knees and hips need to keep as mobile and lubricated as possible. And strong... which comes from load, which means some form of squats. How else do we lower and rise from a chair/loo?
Pilates definitely gives us the tools to address these stiff parts of our bodies and build strength, while keeping a really good alignment eye on proximal joints.
Also...a very active 82 year amazing lady I know well is now struggling to climb the stairs at her daughter's house so had resigned herself to never achieving that again.
Dear love her. Big mistake to confess that to me. I had her doing small squats and leg lifts in her kitchen so fast she didn't know what hit her! She has the range available - just not the strength. To maintain function, we MUST keep our strength.
Great article in The Guardian on 28/3/23. How to Live a long, strong, and happy life. Quote from Dr Peter Attia (medical expert on longevity and preventative medicine) on keeping resilience as we age.
"Strength is such an important part of ageing....if you look at the majority of the people over the age of 75 and 80, you'll be struck by how many activities they can't do because they lack strength. It can be as simple as: "why can't most people at a certain age not even get up off the floor?'. They simply don't have the strength in their hip muscles...the data is unambiguous on this. And when you compare strong with not strong, the survival difference and mortality difference is in the order of 200%"
I strongly believe the ongoing importance of maintaining as much range and strength in our bodies cannot be underestimated. At least until we are 99 and a half.