Knee Pain, Climbing Life
Hi Steph, I just wanted to give a big thank you for this post: https://stephdavis.co/blog/how-i-fixed-my-knee-pain/
I’m 54 and I started off as a teenager being someone who loved the outdoors and adventure and I gravitated into rock climbing. The last couple of decades with family and work that’s become sport climbing. Then I’ve had a lot of knee pain and slowly without realizing it I’ve dropped all the things that I love: long days out hiking, adventure climbing, even trad climbing, skiing, and dreaming of mountains. And with it I’ve lost enthusiasm and drive. I realized this lately and that, if I want to keep my soul alive I need to get out doing my first loves but that will involve fixing my knees. Your blog post really resonated and I’m going to try this approach. I’m certainly going to give it a thorough effort before thinking about surgery.
There was a lot of information in that post and it must have taken a fair bit of time to research and write. So I really wanted to thank you for offering me both hope and information.
Jane
Jane, thanks so much for writing! I’m really glad the information in that post helped you–I can absolutely relate to your experience, of going through the gradual adaptation we naturally do without really noticing it, and then waking up one day and realizing, “hey! I’ve gradually adapted out of things I love!” I’m happy to report that in the last two years or so since the experience I shared in that post, I’ve been trail running consistently 4-5 days a week. And, I don’t even need to do the PT anymore.
I think the biggest eye opener for me was to switch from the mindset of “well, I know I’ve abused my knees a lot and I guess now they’re just used up” to “there are some simple things I can do to change the way my muscles engage, and I don’t have to have any pain in my knees–running is not an inherently destructive activity, and I envision myself doing it into my 80s!” I really hope that you will have a similar experience and can get back to enjoying some of the activities and the places you find yourself missing! Steph
