Well, after a little more than a week since the last time I tried running, I thought I would give it a try this morning. I managed to do 1 jogging interval and that was it. My knees were killing me.
Sigh.
So I stopped the treadmill and got on the elliptical instead. I forgot how easy the elliptical is on the knees. Compared to the treadmill, I felt so light and airy.
I did a HIIT session on the elliptical with 6 1-minute intense intervals followed by 1 1/2 minute recovery periods. I was a sweaty beast by the end of it, so I think it went pretty well. As I was leaving the gym, though, my knees were aching.
This past weekend we went hiking with some friends who are runners and I asked their opinion about the knee thing. They speculated it might be the IT band and showed me a couple of good stretches, which I did when I got home today. I'll try jogging again in a week and see what happens.
Oh, I also did 20 minutes of strength training this morning. I know no one else can see it, but I am totally seeing some new definition in my upper arms.
1 comment:
I suppose I'm the resident "expert" on knee pain here. There are a ton of different things that can cause it, and everyone's bodies react differently to treatments, so most of the time orthopedists end up resorting to trial and error and guesswork. However, one major thing to try is to strengthen all sorts of muscles on your leg that support the knees.
"But Deborah, have you *seen* my legs? Strength is not my problem!" That was exactly my reaction when an orthopedist first told me that, but it is possible that your swimming muscles are nice and strong and overpower other muscles on the leg that are less strong. If you'd like, I can show you a bunch of exercises that my physical therapist had me do last year, many of which I still do now.
But yeah, knee pain is extremely obnoxious and frustrating, and I feel your pain, so to speak.
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