YouTube cured my 'Hikers Knee'
Yes. Surprisingly I found videos on YouTube which didn't include Andrew Tate telling me I'm broke and that I need a Bugatti. Fortunately for me the ones I did find just so happened to give me loads of ideas to cure my newly developed 'hikers knee'. I have no idea if it's actually called Hikers Knee, and probably just like Tennis Elbow, it can be caused by a bunch of things, probably even playing tennis. Anyway, I'd never suffered with knee pain whilst out on the peaks before, until May of this year, we had set off for a couple of days trekking about the Peak District, and after a night camping up near Lost Lad, we began to descend towards Derwent Damn. It was at this moment I knew my life was over. A twinge. A wince inducing twang. on every. bloody. step. down. I had entered the world of the knee pain sufferers; with both Kinder Scout and Mam Tor ahead of us, I knew this was going to be a pain in the balls (well, knee) of a weekend.
I couldn't figure out why, which really annoyed me, I felt in the best shape of my life, cardio is okay, so why now? Well I guess I'll never know really, and it isn't all that important, in the end I put it down to increased time spent bouldering, and having never hiked with considerable weight in a backpack, nor had I hiked multiple peaks over a 24 hour period either.
Diagnosis
Again, using the power of YouTube, and several images of the muscle anatomy found on Google - I decided I had a tight T-Band. If you had asked me 3 months ago what the T in T-Band was short for, I feel like I would have been able to tell you, however for now we're just rolling with T-Band. The T-Band, so I've learned, is a tendon which is attached at one end to your knee, and at the other to the hip / butt / glute med. The sultry model below is showing off the area you'd find your T-Band perfectly (although I'm not sure why she has her feet on the cupboard).
The interesting thing I found, was that the knee pain was not really all that much to do with the knee itself, and instead had all that much to do with having a toit as a toiger glute / hip. YES! I thought to myself, I'm not 'just getting older', although I am doing that, but being old is not the cause of my knee pain.
The Cure
With a diagnosis established, I now needed the cure, and once Robert Smith had reminded me that Boys Don't Cry, I instead searched for A cure; and I found two, incredibly useful, YouTube Channels, of which I would recommend you check out and subscribe to if you don't already. I've popped in a couple of 'knee pain' specific videos below, but their channels both a an enormous depth of knowledge and entertainment...
1. Chase Mountains
2. Hoopers Beta
The third element of my rehab, was to take on the Ido Portal 30 for 30 Asian Squat
Challenge. Which quite possibly would have opened up and loosened my hips and glutes without the other complimentary routines, however as much as this would have for sure improved posture, and range of motion, some of the very precise drills in the above videos would have for sure supported strength and conditioning.
The Result
So I put together a stretching and training routine to re-hab my leg, and just 2 months after my disgustingly miserable experience of knee pain, not only did my knee cope, but we trekked a longer distance, over more days, covering more ascent and descent, the result? Well my knee handled it just fine, the only thing bruised was my ego after getting myself and Mike lost, at 6am, in the fog, up Bleaklow. I'll post about that another time. I can't say that these things will help you if you have knee pain, but I was really keen to experiment, to really get to know my body some more, and to nip this in the bud. Touch wood, I now have this under control, and if you're experiencing knee pain, please don't just accept it as 'part of getting older' as many people had suggested was the case to me. Now then, back to ordering that Bugatti...