Knees...

Do you remember that nursery rhyme "your neck bone's connected to your back bone, your back bone's connected to your hip bone, your hip bone's connected to your knee bone"?

I have just found out that this nursery rhyme is too true. I found out that my aching knees are not actually being caused by a problem with my actual knees but a problem with my hips.

My knees have ached and at some points over the last six weeks they have actually hurt. I sucked it up and made a decision to not go and get them looked at until after my competition. I had a feeling that the training and the sprint work I was doing was what was causing the aches and pains and that the doctor would more than likely tell me to rest them which I knew was not an option.

Ignoring something and hoping it will go away is not really my style. And I definitely wouldn't recommend to anyone to just hope for the best. I was worried each work out was causing more, and possibly irreversible, damage.

The day after the competition I rang and made an appointment to see my Sport's Therapist. Daryl Phillips at Performance Health in Newport is nothing short of a miracle worker. I have seen him a few times before for various exercise injuries as have members of my family. Walking in to see Daryl went something like this ::

Daryl: "Hi Erin, what's happening?"
Erin: "Hi Daryl, my knees ache. I've been training for a fitness competition and putting heaps of stress on them etc etc
Daryl: "Ok Erin, stand and squat for me
Erin: "Ok" (I squat)
Daryl: "You have really crap external hip rotations, you have your mother's hips, you get this from her"
Erin: "Shit Daryl you can tell what the problem is by just watching me squat!!!"

Everytime I have been to see him he has had a look, maybe a bit of a feel of the problem area, tells me what the problem is, what is causing it and how to fix it. Daryl is AMAZING!

If you have a problem with anything in your body, aches, pains, pulls, I cannot recommend him more highly. Go and see him, he will diagnose it and repair you.

My knees have been strapped for four days, I have new orthotics in my runners, some of my leg exercises have been stopped for the time being with new (and I am going to say harder) exercises introduced to improve my hip rotation.

And luckily the six weeks of ignoring the pain and continuing to punish my knees and hips has not done any irreversible damage. I am very lucky! These knees will be back in the squat rack in no time!