The first post in this series asked if a pigeon toe was friend or foe. It is certainly a strategy, an adaptation that has a purpose. For me, my half with the pigeon toe also carried my biggest problems, particularly… Read more ›
Oh, the mighty pigeon toe. Such a strange little insurgent, and yet, it exists peacefully all around us. Where does it come from and how does it form? Does it afflict one leg or both? Is it the tibia or… Read more ›
Part 1 of this series explained how knee should not be used as a load-bearing joint. Part 2 showed how pressuring the knee can help build safety, alignment, and desired force at the desired time. This third and final segment… Read more ›
In part 1, I suggested that using the knee as gas instead of brakes could help free up the knee for motion and elicit the hips and ankle-foot as stabilizers. For folks with chronic pain, however, their nervous system likely… Read more ›
There are three hinges on the feature photo door. It’s a strong front door, solid and meant to take some battering. The cheaper, lighter, all-have-problems-closing-and-opening doors inside the house have only two hinges. Weight-load divided by two, or weight-load divided… Read more ›
My relationship with my knee goes in waves of excellence and issue. In periods of calm when things are swell, I enjoy and explore freedoms and push the boundaries of performance. Preferring to walk the unrestricted line of what is… Read more ›
When assessing the lower leg, it has become common place to examine the foot. The pliable and separable toes receive much of the attention. The heel, strange and seemingly uninteresting, gets neglected. Considering the calcaneous is a starting point… Read more ›
The low gait might be the truest test of healthy knees. It requires full flexion under full bodyweight while pulling the center of mass. A single knee is responsible for stabilizing load while the feet and ankles pivot and reposition.… Read more ›
Joint ‘popping’ is a curious thing. It alarms without hurting. Especially when you realize it wasn’t there before. You notice something is different when you do that particular thing in that particular way. The different becomes ‘less than’ when… Read more ›
This post serves as a companion piece to Pain Exploration: Medial Knee. It picks up right where it left off, with manipulations of the ankle, foot, and toes. A low sit with the heel up and toes extended (an expression… Read more ›
For about two months, I’ve had some chronic discomfort in my left knee. On a scale of 1-10, with ’10’ being agony and ‘1’ being noticeable/annoying, it oscillates between 1 and 4. Though this might be thought of as acceptable… Read more ›
Thirteen years ago, I had ACL reconstruction surgery using a hamstring graft. My tissues have long since ‘healed’, but the overall function still lacks behind my non-injured leg. Full flexion remains it’s biggest weakness. Here’s snapshot of the discrepancy in… Read more ›
I suffered a partial tear of my left ACL in 2003 during a rugby match. There isn’t a cool or gruesome backstory involved, just some open-field running with the ball. One cut and down I went. And stayed down. It… Read more ›
The lower leg can be a mess. The shins are responsible for two main movements, dorsiflexion (top of foot pull) and plantar flexion (bottom of foot push). … Read more ›
In part one of this series, we tried to resolve hamstring tightness by adjusting the pelvis and degree of flexion in the hips. The goal was to get the leg straight with varying closeness of the thigh to the chest. This… Read more ›