Do you suffer from chronic knee pain? How about tennis elbow? Do your hips hurt when you squat? How often does your lower back flare up and bother you?
If you suffer from any of the aches and pains listed above, don’t worry you’re not alone. Joint injuries are extremely common and unfortunately no matter how fit and healthy you might be there is no guarantee that you’ll go through life injury free. There is however a way that you can increase your chances of remaining injury free and decrease your odds of developing muscular, joint and tendon issues as you become older such as osteoarthritis, tendinitis and bursitis. Best of all, it won’t cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars in physiotherapy and chiropractic care. And don’t worry, if you have already been diagnosed with a chronic muscular or joint condition not all hope is lost. In fact, no hope is lost at all.
Over the years I have worked with hundreds of clients. From athletes to senior citizens. I’ve seen multiply injuries (none of which have been caused by me!) and have helped the majority of our clients either get rid of their injuries completely or at least learn how to live with them so it does not effect their quality of life. Every client is different and therefore I must vary the way I go about working around the injury while at the same time helping my clients become more healthy and fit. So are you ready? Want to hear my big secret as to what I believe can help cure or at least manage joint and muscle pain and soreness? Here it is……..Weight Lifting!!!!!!
Weight Lifting also known as Resistance Training is in my opinion the absolute best medicine when it comes to fixing up our bodies. Now by no means do I believe that simply going to the gym and lifting weights for a few weeks will cure all of our health issues however I do believe that by incorporating this type of training into our daily fitness routines that we can significantly improve our bodies both physically and mentally. More importantly I believe that by strengthening our muscles that we are in turn strengthening our joints. The more weight that your muscles can handle the less strain your joints take and therefore the less work they have to do when doing everyday activities such as walking, running, typing, climbing stairs, etc.
Let’s take knee pain for example. Without a doubt, one of the most common injuries that I hear about from clients in my initial consultations is that they suffer from some sort of knee pain. Whether its a chronic injury or a mild discomfort that bothers them doing particular tasks, this issue is one that I hear of very often. I have clients tell me that they can’t squat because they have bad knees. Well truth be told they most likely have bad knees because they don’t squat! Most of these clients have tried everything from physiotherapy to acupuncture, some have even gone through the painful process of IMS or even reconstructive surgery if it was needed. However for the most part, none of these treatments worked for them and therefore the joint pain they have has never been solved.
Bring on the Weights!
The first thing I do when working with a client that suffers from knee pain is test out what he or she can and cannot not do when it comes to lower body training. Our clients are often surprised to find out what they can actually accomplish with their leg training once they are warmed up correctly and are training intelligently. As I always tell everyone – “There is an alternative exercise that targets the same muscle group so don’t get focused on a particular movement or exericse”. Just because someone may be unable to do barbell back squats does not mean that they can’t do ball wall squats. And maybe you can’t do a reverse lunge but when was the last time you tried a walking lunge? My point is that rather then think that we can’t do something or are limited to what we can achieve due to an injury, that we need to be creative and not get stuck on a specific exercise or training regime that just isn’t working.
In this particular case, once we are able to find a few exercises that work for the client our next objective is to strengthen the muscles surrounding the knee such as the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and even the calves to some degree. After a few months of intense, consistent physical training these muscles will become stronger and so will the joints. Remember strong joints mean less pain. Less pain is good.
Bottom line – Weight lifting increases muscle strength which in turn supports joint stability which ultimately leads to an injury free physique or at least an injury that is manageable to livc with.
I want to be clear that I am not suggesting that the use of RMT’s and Physiotherapists are ineffective and a waste of money, I’m only giving my opinion as to an alternative treatment that most people don’t even want to try. Perhaps it’s easier to just go to an office and have someone massage out your knee or back for an hour rather then go to a gym and push your body through some temporary pain and discomfort. But easy isn’t always better and I personally don’t believe that this type of treatment works long term. The only thing though that does work long term is working on your strength and fitness everyday. The stronger your body is the less likely you are to develop or suffer from joint pain and/or muscle soreness.
So if you are frustrated joint or muscle pain and it’s starting to effect your quality of life perhaps it’s time you join a gym. And if you already belong to a gym and are afraid that weight training might make your injury worse then you may wish to consider hiring the services of a reputable personal trainer to ensure that you are performing the exercises needed to help you accomplish your goals in a safe and effective manner.
Now if only we knew of a reputable personal trainer or personal training company……hmmmmmm……(insert shameless plug here _______________).
Yours in Good Health,
Nick Cosgrove