[pct-l] knee pain

[radpin at gmail.com (Eric)]

Ken et all;

Just to chime in on the back pain issue:

I had pretty annoying lower back pain ever since I was in the Navy. I
have big legs from racing bicycles when I was younger, and a big upper
body from lifting weights, but my mid section (abs and lower back) was
weak as hell. On pretty much every backpacking trip I've gone on, the
minute I take my pack off my lower back feels like it's ready to
explode.

Even just in daily life, at least once or twice a week, I would need
to lay down on my back and put my knees up, which take the load of my
back and finally give me some relief.

My doctor told me it was because my upper body (arms, shoulders,
chest, upper back) had a lot of muscle mass which is extremely heavy.
He recommended doing "cherry pickers", which was an old football
excercise from high school. You stand with your feet shoulder distance
apart, maybe a little more, and bending at your lower back, try to
"pick cherries". It's like four slight bobbing motions where your
fingers are going from the ground to maybe six inches from the ground
and then back again, and on the fifth you slowly return to a full
upright posture.

The "bobbing" aspect of it has raised a lot of concerns, and he told
me that it's not always the smartest idea, but that generally it's
fine.

I've been doing 20-50 of those a day, combined with crunches and
situps (maybe 50-100 a day of those) in my little mini-work out
routine, and my lower back hasn't been a problem since.

There's a neat chair in weight rooms that allows you to hinge on your
lower back with your feet in a brace, drop your head and torso down,
and then come back to a prone position. It's the same basic movement
as a cherry picker, minus the bobbing, and that with the chair you can
hold a few pounds behind your head on the way back up for increased
resistance.

Eric


On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:37:01 -0800, Ken Powers <kdpo@gottawalk.com> wrote:
> I used to have lots of aching knees when I was hiking with Boy Scouts. The
> pain sounds similar to yours. Scouting trips ended about 7 years ago when I
> got Marcia interested in backpacking. Our trips got longer and more frequent
> and the knee pain went away. I attribute it to stronger legs and knees. I am
> just getting started with stretching, something I hope help my back pains
> and flexibility.
> 
> Ken
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Elizabeth" <betseylou@mac.com>
> To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 6:36 AM
> Subject: [pct-l] knee pain
> 
> > Hi list,
> >
> > I just returned from a five day "pretraining" hike on the AT through
> > the Shenandoah NP. While I was on the trail, I started to notice a pain
> > on the outside of my left knee whenever I was going downhill. Towards
> > the end of the hike it was pretty bad, stiff and sort of a shooting
> > pain when pressure was applied. Has anyone had this problem, and do you
> > have any stretches or suggestions for ways to avoid this in the future?
> >
> >
> > Never had a knee problem before and pissed off,
> >
> > E
> >
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> 
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