 Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. How you doing? It's Tuesday. Yes, it's Tuesday when I'm filming this Wednesday when you're watching this and I Need to keep this blog a little. I'll just say simpler. It's not my preference Just so everyone knows it is not my preference to do all the filming for the vlog in the studio I love to bring you along the journey of life outside the studio But sometimes my time is a little tight like today because some things are happening all good things I just can't anyway. I'll update you on what's happening really really soon But because of that we're gonna stick in the studio talking just about yes The runners knee it's unbelievable. I just it's frankly I don't want to call it a miracle, but I've just like so grateful that I am now on day 10 pain-free from runners knees zero on the pain scale once again again for today's run Six miles eight ten a mile definitely the fastest pace I've gone since coming back and there it is on your screen in kilometers So it's just I don't know what's going on except well. I do know what's going on I took action okay, and I'm gonna walk you through the steps that I took to get rid of my runners knee well now But I will just say That I'm not saying the runners knee could not come back. Okay? It's an overuse injury as many of you probably know or maybe some of you have experienced in the past I'm sorry if you have it can be really painful. Oh, man It's it was really bad now before I get into the steps as to why I think the runners knee popped up about six weeks ago For the first time just so everyone knows first time in my life I've never had runners knee before my theory and it's just a theory, but my theory is that I transitioned from so much Mountain running and vertical gain and when I did that everyone I could notice so I you know I stretch every day. I foam roll every day, which means I'm looking at my legs every single day And I could see my legs getting smaller and smaller and smaller as I Transitioned from the mountain running that I love in the mountain in the summertime especially getting up into the into the 14ers here in Colorado and my theory is that my quad strength really really was reduced and I've read and based on research Weak hips and weak quads can lead to runners knee Okay, now it's just based on what I've read you can't you can't believe everything you read on the internet But I'm a couple different sources have led me to that conclusion that my squad strength and my hip strength and my left hip That's where my runners knee was in my left leg So anyway, that's my theory is that transitioning down out of the mountains without supplementing some more leg strengthening Exercises, okay, and when the runners knee started I want to give a shout out to this vlog It's called runners knee discussion starter, okay it was maybe I think it was mid December mid to late December that I published it and I was just open to your experience with runners knee and your Ideas as to how to overcome the injury so if you haven't seen that vlog you can check it out up right hand corner go down to the comments and See what everyone was sharing based on their experience with this injury, okay? So thank you for sharing your ideas because I read as many as I possibly could there was hundreds of comments But anyway, it helped a lot with formulating my attack plan for how to overcome this injury now always say I'm not a doctor not giving medical advice I'm giving runners advice. Okay, so this is what worked for me over the course of three weeks Yeah, to get rid of the runners knee. Okay, so here we go number one I had to come to grips with Stopping running alright, so that was hard very difficult decision because I was getting ready for a marathon And you know the story there So I had to stop running and that was not an easy decision, but I do believe looking back It was definitely definitely the right decision Some runners have reported to me that they were able to run through the runners knee And they weren't they did not have to stop running because they supplemented they reduced their volume a lot But they could still continue to jog I chose the option of stopping running completely Because what happened was I woke up one morning after a long run and I was walking around my house And the pain was a seven or eight on the pain scale It was really really painful like just walking around my house And that's when I knew I just don't think I can push through this injury especially leading into a marathon race Okay, so that was step one. I had to stop running and after I stopped running It took just so everyone knows it took four days before I could walk around pain-free Okay, it was four days of basically limping it hurt to get in and out of my car It hurt to lay like on my stomach on my bed my kneecap when it was resting on the bed It was really painful almost a little bit of a burning sensation which I guess is kind of It's it can be not normal, but it can happen with runners the a little burning sensation around the kneecap So oh it would it didn't it was no fun. It was not fun That is the the pain scale that I was dealing with and step two physical therapy seek out professional help it's so important I Sometimes sometimes I'm a little stubborn about going to the doctors going to the medical professionals I think I can self-diagnose but sure enough I said, you know what enough is enough. Let's stop running Let's go to the medical professionals and seek out professional help So I made a vlog it was called running injuries and physical therapy. Is it a gift? So up right here in corner go check it out and when I went to physical therapy I was like man. I was cotton. I wasn't moping but I was like oh This the Houston marathon like this is my goal I want to try to qualify for the Olympic trials and he was working with me Ricky's his name He was working with me. He's like listen, man we're gonna do our best at the end of the day you got listen to your body and so we started the physical therapy and Immediately so he's a soccer player. That's a little tip of the day. I would for me I sought out a physical therapist who has an athletic background So he's a soccer player played in college played in high school And so he really came he understood where I was coming from from an athlete perspective So the amount of Knowledge that I have gained from Ricky from the physical there. It's like I'm going to school for physical therapy school It's amazing and so I started the physical therapy at about basically a pain a pain scale of like six or seven That even includes like stationary bike riding like it was so so painful to just ride the stationary bike And to do basically any of the exercises any of the leg movements and oh, yeah Okay, the first thing he did when I came into the office Ricky and I was very skeptical He did a hip strength a hip strength test Okay Where he basically pressed on my leg in different directions that he knew how to do because he's the medical professional And he pushed and he's like okay your left hip is way weaker than your right hip I didn't know that how was I supposed to know that like nobody's ever tested my left hip strength? And so it was very very apparent like my right leg He was putting all of his his weight into it And he's a kind of a big strong guy and he could barely move my right my right leg my right hip and but my left leg I could not resist his strength Not at all, but it was very very different than my right leg So of course in my simple mind without an anatomy or biology background or you know medical background I'm like wait a minute the pain is in the knee below the knee How does the hip connect to the knee and I'm not I'm not saying I still fully understand this But he walks me through you know as best he could and me like I'm trying to wrap my mind around like my hip My weak left hip is what he said in his Diagnosis and same with the doctor as well But his diagnosis as a physical therapist is that that is the issue the main issue as to why my runner's knee Flared up is a weak left hip. So it's just crazy and again So anyway, that's step two going to the physical therapist and diagnosing my left hip being much much I wish I would have filmed him doing the strength testing. I didn't film that but um anyway It was very very obvious and step three Go to the gym and do physical therapy every single day or at your house that works, too You can do all this at your house. I have found the gym to be a good routine for me But I was a little shocked Ricky told me to do this physical therapy work every single day I thought it'd be like maybe twice a week or every other day He's I know if you want to attack this you got to go you got to do these exercises every single day so that's what I did and it was tiring and it took a lot of time and You know, I had to I had to move some things around in my daily schedule to make sure I could fit in because From start to finish it's at least 30 minutes and usually closer to 40 to 45 minutes of all of these exercises to get them done so I would go to the gym and Do them you've seen me film a lot over the last 30 days No, well not 30 days last three weeks basically of doing these hip strengthening exercises, especially now I will say I've also introduced So because I'm advancing quickly He's also introduced kettlebells. Okay, and that's one reason I switched gyms in 2020 I I moved over to a new gym that has kettlebells also some box jumping and just today I've introduced single leg box jumping. So this is a big deal. There's no way I could have done single leg box jumps Even frankly, definitely not like two weeks ago Down and even maybe 10 days ago So again the knee and the leg strength is really really responding to this physical therapy that is coming from a Medical professional, but I guess my go-to step three is the gym the gym you can do this at your house But for me the accountability of going to the gym. It just helps me mentally to know Okay, I have these pieces of equipment there that I can use. Okay step four for getting rid of runner's knee These are two exercises that I'm gonna put in a separate step-forward category because I actually did not pick them up from physical therapy I was one of them was just my own just introducing on my own with Ricky's permission But I didn't pick it up from from Ricky because of my weak quads again a little bit of a self diagnosis But it's it's the experience of knowing. Okay, I'm not doing the vertical running up in the mountains I'm pointing this way because that's with the direction of the mountains from the studio So not doing the vertical means I think my quads have gotten a little weaker So I've introduced leg extensions into my gym routine now This was Ricky did not tell me to do this he gave me the thumbs up though once I asked him Can I be introducing this into the daily gym routine? And so I'm doing these leg extensions just single leg extensions lightweight 25 to 40 pounds nothing crazy and Again just to work on that quad strength until I can reintroduce some hill running some mountain running back into the regimen Okay, so leg extensions, and I think it's really actually helped quite a bit Okay, really helped a lot so and then also The slant board shout out to Mark and other folks down in the comments for Teaching me about the slant board so you see it on your screen right now. I bought it It wasn't cheap. It was about 50 bucks. Okay, not cheap, but I will have this thing for the rest of my life I use it not every day about four days a week. Maybe five days a week I'll hop on it do three sets of ten And here's the slant board and so you see me doing these squats The key is to keep your knees over your toes and for some reason that slant I don't know a lot of okay. Where did I so a lot of YouTubers who have runners runners knees Runners need the runners knee injury have said that this slant board has really helped them Overcome their injury and I would have to agree with them as soon as I started using the slant board It was honestly like a light switch moment almost like two days later the pain I woke up one morning and I told true love. I said true love I just had a shift in the pain like the pain has really really subsided quickly After using this slant board. I'm not I'm not making this up Now I think it was also because I had taken the time off of running I was doing the physical therapy But I'm telling you everyone as it was like two days later after starting the slant board work Where I woke up and I was I whoa Something feels different Something feels much much better in my knees. So anyway that's step four leg extensions and Slant board and step five. I'm gonna put it all into one one step one category. It's the the normal stretching massaging and Foam rolling, okay, the three things that I was doing a lot of before the runners knee I was but keeping up with that and again, I've learned a lot about stretching. I'm actually taking some very Active steps to increase my stretching I'm gonna talk to you about that in a separate vlog But that's step five keeping up with it very I'll just say rigorous stretching rigorous foam rolling and rigorous massaging and with that foam rolling like every day at the gym like I am really Digging in and remember with foam rolling slower is always better with foam rolling. Okay, so those are my five steps I'm trying to rethink. Okay. I did just think of two more the reason I switch gyms So I've heard someone say motion is lotion for tendons and ligaments and our joints So the more motion we can get the better So that's why I go into the pool and do the laps in the pool even though I don't love swimming I go into the pool to get that motion Also, I switch gyms because they have a steam room and I have found that heat has really really helped the knee also The hot tub so that the new gym that I go to as a hot tub and so the jets what I do is I basically place my lower quad and Right around the knee not right on the knee But right around the knee I let the jet in the hot tub hit the knee and I'm telling you It's I feel like it just helped loosen everything up around the knee. I don't know and again This is a little bit of self diagnosis or not self diagnosis, but self prescribing Things that are action items that I did to help me feel better. All right So steam room and the jets in the hot tub. All right, so once again, here we go in conclusion two weeks of no running physical therapy especially for hip strength gym work with daily physical therapy the home remedies of the The slant board and then of course the leg extensions at the gym the foam rolling the stretching The massaging. Oh my gosh. I know it's a lot But all of that added together plus the heat at the steam room I'm just gonna add that as well That is what has gotten me to this point where I was I was honestly a little concerned that I was gonna be out I was so painful. I thought I was gonna be out for two months three months four months I've heard some people struggle with runners knee for six months. That's crazy and after two and a half weeks It was gone. Okay zero on the pain scale after ten days. Okay. Oh my goodness question of the day what is a Eureka moment that you have had with a running injury and in other words What was one action item that you took to overcome a specific running injury any running injury like it was it was like a light switch like you did something and Literally the next day or two days later or maybe a week later. It was I okay that action item really helped me Okay, because we all need help when it comes to running injuries. Thank you so much for listening to my very joyful and Just overwhelmed with gratitude vlog about runners Dean I'm telling you you can you can overcome it as well It's just a matter of taking those action items and honestly at the end of the day find a physical therapist that Deals with runners or deals with athletes and really knows what they're talking about when it comes to why the runners knee started in the first place It's it appears my hip strength has got it. It has gotten better But it appears it was my my weak hip on my left side because now With a stronger hip the runners knee is is gone. It's gone. It's gone. I love you all. Thanks for being here Thanks for watching. All right. We're gonna toss it back on the right to the prehab laws all about how to get On top of the action items that I talked about today So the prehab log that'll be on the right and then the slant board vlog that'll be on the left Thanks for being there. Thanks for watching. Love you all. It's a beauty work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow