<p>Tonight I went to a concert- for 30 min. That was all I could take standing up.
I am too young to stop going to hear live music!</p>
<p>When I mentioned to my rheumatologist that it hurt to do yoga she said to try tai chi. When I said I couldn’t walk very far, she said to walk just a little bit.</p>
<p>Geez- & you went to medical school for that?</p>
<p>I do as much as I can ( one legged knee bends etc), but it just isn’t helping enough.
I haven’t started icing them yet- cause our freezer is dead- but would welcome any other tips.</p>
<p>Please I am desperate!
This summer is the summer of the road trip!
:D</p>
<p>Have you consulted with a personal trainer?</p>
<p>I had an interesting experience today at the gym. This was probably my fourth time on the new leg press. A couple of months ago when I was working on the old leg press at some really heavy weights (540 lbs.), I felt a pretty strong twinge on the inside of my left knee. So we backed off. It seemed like every time we’d go back to it with heavier weights, I’d feel that twinge again (the seat had a sort of curved back so I was also having problems bracing myself). A couple of times I found that if I changed the way I was distributing the weight on my feet on the leg press, the twinges would go away.</p>
<p>So back to the new leg press… today we were doing more reps at less weight and I felt the twinge come again. My trainer told me he’d been doing some really heavy weights on it last week and his knees hadn’t been the same since. Today he went back to the machine and raised the level of his feet on the plate a couple of inches and said it made all the difference in the world. I did my first set at the usual place I set my feet and felt the twinge. On the next three sets he had me move my feet up the plate about 2-3 inches and I did not feel anything uncomfortable at all, so we determined that, when doing leg presses on a machine (or whatever you’re doing that puts any strain on the knee, you have to be impeccable with the placement of your feet) even a couple of inches can make a huge difference on where the weight is distributed across your knee. I’m kind of excited to have found my sweet spot for my feet now and look forward to trying the 540 lbs. again soon.</p>
<p>So if you’re trying to do exercises to strengthen muscles that support the knee, make sure you are evaluated on the positioning of your feet.</p>
<p>After my D was born 22 years ago, my knees started to give me fits. I would be crippled after an aerobics class or jogging. I could barely walk up and down stairs. </p>
<p>The two things that helped my knees were continuing to do leg extensions with weights and leg curls with weights. I eliminated squats because that seemed to aggravate pain (and I also sold my leg press machine because that seemed to aggravate the pain as well). </p>
<p>I also switched to race walking about 8 years ago because the way you plant your leg stabilizes your knee and doesn’t cause pain. </p>
<p>Hope you can find a way to reduce you knee pain and keep moving.</p>
<p>Thats a good idea to talk to the trainer.
I am double jointed and have always had problems with knees cause they hyperextend ( backward), & I don’t run but walking would be nice.
I will have the trainer check the angle of things I am working on- I may be making it worse!</p>
<p>Even better than a trainer, IMO, is a register physical therapist. Go to a sport medicine doc and get a prescription for physical therapy. They can strengthen weakened muscles and correct imbalances that so often make joints sore. Plus, most health insurance plans will pay for at least part of the physical therapy, but they won’t pay for a personal trainer.</p>
<p>For me it was an inflammation problem likely caused by gluten sensitivity.</p>
<p>Being gluten-free is no fun though. The withdrawal during the first three weeks was hell. I was pretty strict for about 2 years, now I cheat a bit, if I keep the wheat below a certain level I’m ok.</p>
<p>According to my doctor there are huge numbers of people with gluten sensitivity that doesn’t rise to the level of Celiac’s, that don’t know it. And wheat has been bred over the years to increase the gluten content, adding to the problem.</p>
<p>When I need to stand or walk on concrete for long periods of time, I put these [Sof</a> Sole: The Sole of Performance - Quality Insoles and Orthotics](<a href=“http://www.sofsole.com/womens/massaginggel_w]Sof”>http://www.sofsole.com/womens/massaginggel_w) in my largest pair of shoes; they give plenty of room for my feet to swell and pad the impact nicely. Makes a HUGE difference.</p>
<p>According to my doctor there are huge numbers of people with gluten sensitivity that doesn’t rise to the level of Celiac’s, that don’t know it. And wheat has been bred over the years to increase the gluten content, adding to the problem.</p>
<p>huh.</p>
<p>I actually did go to the Dr & was tested- because it seemed like everytime I ate wheat I got a stomachache- but the sensitivity test was negative.
It’s good to know that perhaps it is the test that wasn’t sensitive enough.
I will take gluten out of my diet & cross my fingers. ( but there are so many things that count as wheat!- like farro & does that mean I have to drink bourbon instead of rye? )</p>
<p>Happykid has bad knees (bad original equipment evidently, her paternal aunt has knee problems too but just not as serious). At her age her only options are PT (she’s had two rounds already but admits that she just doesn’t want to be bothered with the exercises) and taking over-the-counter Glucosamine-Chondroitin tablets. She’s been taking 900 mg 2x each day for several months now and reports that she can tell the difference. I get them pretty cheap at Trader Joe’s.</p>
The test I had was called, IIRC, an IgA ELISA test, the one I took measures something like 128 foods for reactions.</p>
<p>The wheat withdrawal for me was fierce - wicked headaches, grogginess, crankiness, tiredness. One theory is that some wheat proteins are in the opioid family, which is why we feel good when we eat a big bowl of pasta, but if you go cold turkey it’s like going through a form of opium withdrawal.</p>
<p>It’s actually pretty hard to get rid of all sources of gluten, because it is in a lot of things and may not show up on the labels. The more you make your food from scratch the better. And rice becomes your new best friend.</p>
<p>Gluten doesn’t make it through the distillation problem, so you are still good to go on the rye whiskey. </p>
<p>It took several months for me to notice a difference in my joints. I did drop about 10 pounds pretty quickly, too.</p>
<p>Do knee sleeves (the ones with the hole) help? They generally help those with alignment problems but can help other problems too by providing additional support.</p>
<p>EK4–the insoles I was suggesting are not for arch support; they’re purely extra cushioning. I put them UNDER my orthotics. The extra cushioning makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>Ten pounds is not an insignificant weight loss for an average person, unless s/he weighs 300 lb or more. This might be the real answer** to why your knees are doing better. It took your knees a while to go through the repair process, so the benefit of the lighter weight was not instantaneous. Congrats on losing weight on gluten-free diet - 80% of people who go gluten-free GAIN weight.</p>
<p>(** Since you changed so many parameters at once (new diet, addition of a supplement, and new weight), it is impossible to say if one of them actually did the job or if it was a combo of parameters that worked.)</p>
<p>“One theory is that some wheat proteins are in the opioid family which is why we feel good when we eat a big bowl of pasta…” Again, a bowl of pasta has much more in it than just gluten - there is a smorgasbord of carbohydrates, fats, etc. Unless you ate purified gluten and that caused your withdrawal symptoms, you cannot say with cetrainty that gluten was the culprit. There is some limited research that hints that certain food proteins can be digested into peptides with some opioid receptor activity, but more conclusive studies are needed to prove this.</p>
<p>^ I don’t weigh 300, but I am well north of 200. I eventually gained it all back too, and my knees still don’t hurt. Neither do my knuckles, which likely aren’t affected by my weight anyway, and which was actually a much more annoying issue.</p>
<p>I know it’s hard to say exactly why I went through 3 weeks of hell when I went cold-turkey on wheat, but the opioid story is more fun to tell. </p>
<p>I tore my meniscus and had horrible knee pain. Had knee surgery. Ortho doc said I would eventually need a knee replacement. Did nothing and knee still hurt and I complained. Started recumbent biking which led to weight loss which led to no pain. Orthopedic doc is amazed! Still hurts if I don’t bike so I pedal like crazy every day! ;)</p>
& does that mean I have to drink bourbon instead of rye? 
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