The Long Game of Joint Health
Lessons from an ex-firefighter on rebuilding movement in a world that encourages none
I recently had an online conversation with an ex-fighter and self-described 54 year old, life long athlete with a history of knee issues. He fixed his knees in a similar way to what I covered in my latest Fix Your Knees video. He raised some interesting points, so I am sharing our whole exchange below. It also touches on endurance training and how our bodies respond to it over time. It is worth reading because it is lived experience, not theory.
Here is what jumped out at me, and what it made me think about.
One: you can fix your knees and other difficult parts of your body, but do not expect to do it overnight. Progress, he says, is measured in years rather than days, weeks, or months. (But sometimes “months” is enough, I think 😜).
Two: mastering your body is a bit like learning a martial art. It never really ends, and there is no need to rush.
Three: lifelong athletes know what they have lost, so they fight to get it back. Regular folks with less physical careers often drift into a kind of cultural sleep, unaware of their bodies and their hidden capabilities. Modern life does not help. There are no monkey bars in most neighborhoods, and many environments actively discourage movement. Bad habits accumulate quietly, and for a long time people do not notice that they are losing strength and mobility. Once they do, it is often late, when something drastic happens. Maybe they struggle to get off the floor, or need help with simple tasks. At that point, they are not just losing strength and flexibility, they are losing the ability to choose how they live and their independence.
Once you restore function, the goal becomes simple maintenance. Keep up the key movements that got you there, like squats and deep knee bends that I talked about in the video, so you can hold on to range and strength for the rest of your life. Sometimes the most useful habits are the simplest (for the simplest useful habit try doing the 3 minute Radio Taiso stretches every day – links: explainer, follow-along). Everything after that becomes a long, open ended project of keeping your body awake.
Here is our conversation (edited for clarity and flow, bold emphasis mine):
Ex-fighter : 54 year old, life long athlete with a history of knee issues. I learned this movement around seven or eight years ago and it fixed my knee issues. I can’t believe what I can do with my knees today (literally, even the run I did just today that I couldn’t do in my 30s). I add the full sitting on my heels with the tops of my feet on the ground, before returning to a standing position. Great topic, Sendyka!
Me: You and I both. I can’t believe I’m hiking, slow jogging and doing breast stroke (which involves a strong kick with your legs). But you did need to take it slow and gradual. I’m almost always afraid to talk about it lest there would be people who despite all that I say would like to “fix” things in one session. Tell us how long your journey to where you are now took you!
Ex-firefighter: You’re spot on, it took years. My journey seems to have been similar to yours in a lot of ways, leading me through barefooting, slow jogging, squatting, sitting on the floor, hanging, doing natural movements with the body, etc.
My career was as a professional firefighter in a large city, where I accrued some injuries. I had to give up running in my late 20s due to terrible knee pain. I was already walking and hiking barefoot when I read Born To Run, which is not a book about going barefoot but I think that the information provided in it really unlocked a lot of problems I was having with my body because of my own lack of understanding of how it, and my psyche regarding it, worked and how to use it properly. That was around 2012. It inspired me to learn how to run properly, which I became a diligent student of, and I can now run or slow jog at any pace I choose, pain free, for how ever long I feel like... I like to wear minimalist shoes or sandals to trail run in, but prefer going barefoot if on smooth concrete or asphalt surfaces.
I’m still learning, I feel like it’s an open-ended progression. I can do things now that I wouldn’t have even dared to try 20 years ago. I also had the good fortune to live near Barefoot Ken Bob, who is actually talked about in Born To Run, and who I had the honor and pleasure of doing a barefoot trail run with. I also read his book which I learned a lot from.
I read the book Slow Jogging somewhere around 2018, and it explained, confirmed, and enhanced so much of what I’d already been experiencing through my own experimentation up to that point. That’s also around the time that I started doing the types of knee exercises that you share in this video.
My progression with those went pretty quickly because of all the years of work and learning that I had already put in, but like you, I definitely recommend taking it slowly and listening to the body. With the things I’ve come to learn through my journey up to this point, I recommend that people think in terms of years instead of days, weeks, or months, when trying to move toward learning them. Instead of thinking of them as “objects” or objectives to “get,” I like to approach them as if learning to master a martial art... it never ends, it’s open ended, so there’s no need to rush.
It’s pretty amazing, the “less is more” approach, done with diligent consistency, and also playful joy and happiness, has healed things in my body and allows me to do things today, pain free, that I couldn’t do without pain when I was younger, and I’m much happier doing them. ENDOCANNIBINOIDS!
Me: Thank you for sharing your story. You’re right about taking it slow and treating it like a long project. Btw. You know Micah True, the hero of Born to Run is dead of a massive coronary. Cardiologists have been sounding the alarm for a while. Hope you’re heeding for their advice. Just because you can run for however long you want doesn’t mean you should.
Ex-firefighter: Indeed. I’m friends with a pro-level endurance athlete around 12 years older than me, who started road cycling at a high level when he was a young teenager. He’s been diagnosed with an enlarged heart like Micah True, and he goes much easier now. He knows people in his athletic circle with the same diagnosis, and also, “A LOT” (his emphasis) of fellow athletes who have been diagnosed with A-Fib. One of the athletes in his circle, a high-level endurance athlete herself, died in her early 50’s from a heart attack. And I just learned that a guy that we both knew as an acquaintance through road cycling had heart issues and passed away. I think he was probably in his 50s.
Personally, my interests never took me to the same level as my friend, and I’m grateful to have been intuitively lead to the things that you’re sharing based on the scientific studies you research. My comments about running as long as I want are based more upon me finally learning the proper running technique along with the proper pacing that Born to Run claims allows persistence hunters (our ancestors and modern day) to run an animal to death from heat stroke. So, it’s kind of like my personal experimental way to confirm to myself that the book isn’t shitting us with the information provided in it.
I don’t think that persistence hunting or running ultra marathons is “healthy” for the body, whether pro or novice. But I find it fascinating that the ideal, “sweet spot” pace and technique that allow any of us to do both are the same technique and Niko Niko pacing that is laid out in the book Slow Jogging. And beyond that, if it’s done in a “sane” way, it actually IS healthy for the body at any age. It’s mind blowing to me.
An Obligatory Plug for Myself 😜
If what I write resonates with you, and you want to build strength and flexibility without surrendering your life to the gym, I am building a course to help you do exactly that. Support me on Buy Me a Coffee for $10 a month, and you will get access to early material already live: the 4-part Weeks Zero prep course and Weeks One through Three, with more on the way.
Later, when the full program is ready, it will be something you can buy. Right now, your support helps me build it.