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.
Oh my. Good stuff... glad you're not going into the YouTube business 😉
Hi Joelle,
I'm the ex-firefighter who conversed with Pawel. I'll weigh in on your question per his request.
I grew up going to the beach and surfing, so going barefoot was never too far removed from my life in that sense. But, I did allow myself to become conditioned by "shoe culture" because of school, work, advertising, and peer pressure.
Like I shared with Pawel, I had to quit running in my late 20's due to terrible knee pain. I didn't learn until more than a decade later that my knee pain was being caused by the design of my expensive running shoes and the poor running form that they encouraged.
Essentially, wearing shoes can be akin to putting a cast on a part of our body to help heal a broken bone... when the cast is removed after 8 weeks or so, the muscles underneath it have atrophied to the point of the body part being visibly smaller than it's comparable counterpart, which also means that it has become much weaker. And, if a joint or joints were casted, they will have lost their ability to move.
This, to some degree, is what happens to our feet if we live in "traditional" shoes, and because our feet are our body's foundation, having weak feet can and does translate up the entire bodily chain as weakness, imbalance, and pain in areas such as the knees, hips, back, neck, and others.
Our bare feet, if we are able to listen to and translate what they're telling us, show us how to walk, move, and even run in ways that not only can protect us from injury, strengthen and heal existing injuries due to the improper use of our feet and bodies because of the sensory deprivation of covering our feet in shoes, they can also help to connect us to our body and environments in ways that we've been asleep to, also due to said sensory deprivation... if you're interested, look into "Earthing" or the anti-inflammatory effect of grounding trapped static electricity in our bodies through our bare feet into the Earth.
We all naturally walked and ran about barefoot as little children. Watch them whenever you get the chance, it's amazing. And, children have 'unadulterated' naturally shaped feet... again, if you're interested, look at comparisons between natural, healthy foot shape, and feet that have been "casted" by footwear... the most extreme example being the old practice of foot binding that was popular in China, but examples of modern, everyday foot shape distortions are easily found as well. Corns, bunions, and hammer toes are just a few examples of problems that aren't found in cultures who go barefoot. I can share links to good doctors that are on to all of this if you're interested, I learned a lot from them.
Like Pawel said about his feet becoming wider, our feet will naturally move towards a strong, healthy shape if allowed to by spending time walking (and especially slow jogging) barefoot.
What really did it for me, though, was learning about Kenyan runners, particularly the marathoners. They're typically and consistently the best in the world. They're not only the fastest (which really doesn't matter to me), but they often demonstrate the best running technique, which not only makes them able to run as fast as they do, but also maintain their speed most efficiently for as long as they do.
I wanted to know how they do it, especially considering that I couldn't run 2 miles without terrible pain in my knees.
What I learned is that they come from very, very, poor living conditions, where most of them grew up as little kids running back and forth to school on dirt roads with backpacks full of books on their backs... and they did it all barefoot, some for as far as 10Km one way. Some of the best Kenyan runners didn't get their first pair of shoes until they were well into their teens.
It's because of that foundation of barefoot experience, and the resulting foot and body strength that it engenders, that they can run like they do as adults, even while wearing their sponsor's modern running shoes that distort the foot's natural shape and function.
Look up the man who won the 1960 Olympic marathon barefoot, for an example.
So, I decided to put it all to the test for myself by reverting to that childlike starting place of going barefoot.
And it worked for me.
BUT, like Pawel reiterates in so many of his videos, I went into it very slowly. I took my time and listened to my body. There was no rush because I couldn't run anyway, right?
It's been around a decade and a half for me now, and going barefoot is a major cornerstone of why my body feels as good as it does at age 54. I'm barefoot as I'm typing this.
Our mental hangups (everyone has some) about stepping on poop, sharp things, or stubbing our toes can be overcome with simple shifts in how we think about things, a phenomenon that becomes proportionally easier the more we love something.
I'm usually VERY wary of grass, I try to avoid walking barefoot in it. It can hide things that can damage our feet. I've actually come across broken bottle glass hidden by the grass in the middle of a beautiful park, while barefoot, and I was fine. Most of the things that people imagine and fear about barefooting are easily remedied by the use of our eyeballs, paying attention to where and how we step (relaxing instead of tensing our foot), and using a little common sense which increases with experience.
If you're interested in giving it a try, one way to get the benefits of going barefoot but still wearing shoes is to try foot shaped, minimalist shoes and sandals. The key is a thin sole, and zero drop, which means that the heel is level with the forefoot.
If you do, START VERY SLOWLY. A LOT of people fail their exploration by rushing the transition from "traditional" footwear to minimal footwear. Just remember that your entire body's weight and balance is being supported by feet that just came out of "casts," and soft connective tissues can take a long time to strengthen and lengthen (most of us have shortened achilles areas due to lots of years of living in footwear with elevated heels).
VivoBarefoot is one brand, and they offer a 6 month transition guideline that is based on sound experience. But you can find lots of other brands and guidelines on the internet on how to safely transition... just be wary of any that say you can do it quickly. You want to think of it like wanting to eat the fruit of a tree that you planted from seed... it takes time and patience.
It's been many years for me, and I'm still learning and growing.