There are 2 types of knee pain where doctors and physical therapists fail to help. The first type is where there was an injury yet nothing was broken or torn and the knee still hurts. The second type there was an injury followed by a surgery to repair a torn meniscus or ligament in the knee AND there is still pain. Either case the knee is mechanically sound however knee pain is still felt.
Knee pain in general is a very very broad category which can encompass all sorts of different types of knee pain sufferers. Knee pain can mean a hiker who just twisted their knee on an extra long trip in the woods, to a professional athlete who has knee pain making cutting moves on the field or court, to the grandma who has had sore achy knee for over 30 years. In diagnosis terms it can be a knee strain, sprain, torn ligament or meniscus, chondromalicia, arthritis, or bone on bone
For the purpose of today’s discussion I’ll narrow down the type of knee pain we are talking so we are both on the same page.
From a 30,000 foot view “knee pain” falls into 2 main categories:
1.) You injured your knee and went to the doctor. Possibly got an x-ray, CT scan or an MRI and the doctor diagnosed your knee as being “normal.” Meaning nothing was broken or torn yet you still experience pain.
OR
2.) You injured your knee, you found out something was broken or torn and had surgery to fix the injury. Whether that be arthroscopic to repair a torn meniscus or an open knee for the repair of a bone or torn ligament.
In both cases the knee is considered by a conventional medical approach “mechanically sound” yet it still has pain. No matter how many times you go to the doctor “NOTHING” will come up on an X-ray, CT scan or MRI showing damage in the knee joint.
These are the 2 main categories of knee pain I’ll be addressing today.
Having established this criteria for the pain you’re feeling in your knee. The conventional medical approach has 4 primary options to address these 2 types of knee pain.
Your options at this point are RICE therapy, physical therapy, prescription drugs, or pain killing shots. (Sheila I’m thinking you could include links to these topics to other blog posts on your site)
If we look a little closer at the source of your knee there’s only one conclusion I’ve been able to come with over the past 18 years since my own knee injury.
The knee pain your body is feeling is due to irritation which comes from only one source.
The source of all knee pain are the tiny little nerves in your knee the width of an eyelash being irritated sending a signal to your brain that you have knee pain.
You see when you feel pain, the knee tenses up to protect itself. A normal natural response to pain. This tension reduces the space in the knee joint. The reduction of space squeezes on the nerves causing more pain.
So…The more pain you feel, causes you to feel more pain AND now you’re stuck in what I refer to as a “Pain-Tension Loop.”
Your body will experience this “Pain-Tension Loop” to varying degrees based on the stress in your life from work, finances, relationships, training, etc.
Regardless your body will continue to be stuck in this “Pain-Tension Loop” going forward in your life. This overtime creates the ideal conditions for the knee joint to become continually stiff, painful and achy which dehydrates the joint, arthritis to set in and the joint to degenerate.
The key to unlocking the “Pain-Tension Loop” is to begin creating “Pain-Pattern Interrupts.”
“Pain-Pattern Interrupts” gets pressure off the irritated nerves in your knee by making a tiny bit of space around those nerves. The nerves are only the width of an eyelash and the amount of space I’m talking about is only a fraction of a millimeter. This tiny amount of space relieves the pressure from the nerves causing the joint to relax. When the joint relaxes the knees begin to feel comfortable. The more comfort the knee feels, the more the knee joint relaxes. It essentially begins to reverse the process of the “Pain-Tension Loop.”
Creating these “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” on a consistent and regular basis is the cornerstone to getting your knees out of pain and setting up the conditions so your body can heal your knees.
It’s simple, straight-forward, and the first step towards beginning to eliminating your knee pain.
There’s no need to complicate the process of creating “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” when you’re feeling your way out of pain. Since you’re NOT dealing with anything that’s broken or torn there’s no other variables un accounted which are creating the knee pain.
There’s a bigger picture though…
There are 3 essential component to completely eliminate knee pain
1.) Physical
2.) Diet
3.) Mindset
Here’s a 3 step process every body needs to go thru to completely resolve knee pain:
- Physical – when the body experiences pain/trauma/injury it tenses up to protect itself. That restricts the knee joint which restricts the nerves causing more pain. The body gets stuck in a pain/tension loop, and it doesn’t know how it got there. They need to create a pain pattern interrupt and take the pressure off the nerves, thereby creating more space. More space creates comfort so the joint can relax and the body can move from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state. “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” move the body into a state that is ideal for recovery.
- Diet – Inflammation – When the body experiences pain, there is local inflammation wherever the pain happens to be. There is also global inflammation in the body as a result of the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. Stress creates global inflammation also. This uses up the total amount of the available healing resources the body has to heal the pain. When you have all of that inflammation, it slows down the body’s ability to heal. Clear the cache. Set up conditions on the physical level so the body feels comfortable, then reduce the inflammation and you are removing the blocks that are preventing the body from healing
- Mindset – the reality is getting out of knee pain is not linear. There are going to be good days and bad days. On bad days it is important go back to the basics which are (Creating “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” and reducing the inflammation both locally in the knee and globally in the body to shorten the duration of the bad day. On the good days its important to keep in mind when creating “Pain-Pattern Interrupts,” the knee can get out of pain quickly however that doesn’t mean the knee is ready to be “tested.”
- Here are two examples of how mindset plays out keeping pain stuck in the body…
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- Bad days – A client (Mary) I was working with shared with me what happens to her her when knee pain strikes. It was a beautiful day and she wanted to get outside and do something fun. Her knees were bothering her though. “I got depressed” she told me, “Because I felt both helpless and hopeless to do anything that was going to make my knees feel better which made me feel more depressed. When I feel that way I eat chocolate.” Chocolate of course contains sugar which causes and increases inflammation in her body. Now her body is in pain longer because of the sugar her body must process contributing to her knee pain.
- Good days – My client, Gary had been successfully doing “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” for almost a week. Each day his knees felt better and better because he was focusing on creating space for the nerves in his knees with “Pain-Pattern Interrupts.” The weekend came around and his knees felt so good that he decided to go and play 6 softball games. This threw his knee right back into the “Pain-Tension Loop.” Now monday morning rolled around and he found himself stuck back in horrible knee pain once again. Being that he was diagnosed with arthritis, bone on bone and his knees had been in pain for a years. It’s unrealistic to think that after only a few days of doing “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” his knees would be healed enough to go and push them to the extent he did on that fateful softball weekend. It’s not that the knees can’t heal themselves, they just need to be given more time do so.
It’s important to recognize that a holistic approach to addressing knee pain is the only way to eliminating the pain in the knees and live the quality of life so many people desire on the other side of knee pain
The key here is to understand that your body wants to heal your knees. That’s what it is designed to do!
It’s a phenomenal healing machine. If your body is not healing your knees then look at what “blocks” are in the way preventing your body from doing so. Once those blocks are removed and the proper conditions are put in place. your body can heal itself very quickly and very easily.
How the program works:
My program is based around a membership site. I have several hundred videos that I’ve created over the past 8 years of working with 1000’s of knee pain sufferers including professional and olympic level athletes online.
Based on which level of the program is the best fit, we meet periodically throughout the month on coaching calls. For those that live in the United States or Canada have the option of speaking with me on the phone, everyone else the calls take place on Skype.
On those calls, I ask questions to find out what exactly what sort of pain you’re experiencing.
Questions like…
When do your knees hurt? Bending or straight? Upstairs/downstairs? Twisting to the right or left? Does the pain wake you up at night or is it only during the day? During or after exercise/movement?
Each of these questions give me a clear picture as to the tension patterns going on in your knees, hips, lower back, ankles and feet which all play part in the pain you experience in your knees.
Based on the answers to these questions, I’ll point out specific “Pain-Pattern Interrupt” videos in the members area to do for “homework.”
In between calls you make note of the changes noticed in the knees and report back on the next time we speak.
The feedback, no matter what it is, good or bad, is crucial for me to know where you’re at and how your body is responding in those 3 areas essential for knee pain elimination: Physical, Diet and Mindset.
The focus is to get your body as comfortable as possible, moving it to a parasympathetic state and speeding recovery while reducing inflammation and keeping your mindset in a place to optimize the body’s ability to heal itself.
Some clients choose to work with me individually on private 3 day or 1 day retreats where we work together to help the client get a felt sense of exactly what “comfort” is while doing “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” and answer specific questions in real time while their body begins it’s healing process. These high end programs are the fast start approach for someone that wants to have that level of support in their healing.
No matter which program, all clients get lifetime access to the member area and are entitled to one call per week with me until they are completely out of knee pain.
I have over 3,000 members to my website who have worked with me personally either in person, online or one of my online products adding another 500 new members per year.
“You can’t think your way out of pain. Pain is not rational and doesn’t care what you think. You must feel your way out of pain through comfort. Through the weeks, months and years of injury and compensation patterns built up in your body limiting your movement and making you feel older than your years.”
===> Click here to setup your Knee Pain Strategy Session with me and learn <===
– The cause of the “Pain-Tension Loop” and how you think, move and feel about your knees…
– How to use “Pain-Pattern Interrupts” to break the “Pain-Tension Loop” and get relief immediately…
– How to include this in your daily life in only 20 minutes a day…
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