Dooley Noted: 12/20/2014
My mother is 65 years young.
She doesn’t go to the gym, to my chagrin. But she walks and moves often, and she watches her nutrition.
I am most impressed with the fact that I’ve never in my life heard her complain about back or knee pain.
Then yesterday, I saw her fetch a skillet and bend like this:
Although I want her body a bit more upright, she bends her hips more than her knees and definitely doesn’t use her back as her prime folcrum.
This decent squatting form that she uses all day may contribute to the fact that she doesn’t hurt.
Most people that have back and knee pain use those spots as prime drivers of movement.
It’s like bending a paper clip on one spot. Eventually, that spot will wear down.
The body knows this. At joints like the hip, knee, and shoulder, we have friction-reducing bursae to alarm us with discomfort. They prevent bone erosion.
They are not the problem. They are the symptom.
Bend through the back on one spot, and you’ve got bigger problems. You don’t have bursae here. You have discs and joint capsules, though – both innervated for pain. But they tend to only alarm you with discomfort after movement gets well into dysfunctional levels.
Don’t wait until it hurts.
Spread the movement load across many joints.
The way you squat down all day matters.
And if you’ve lost the squat, it’s never too late to earn more of it back.
Get assessed. Get corrected.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
P.S. I’m helping mama improve her upright spine in the squat with these tips:
http://www.catalystsportnyc.com/squatprogramlanding