How to Stop Joint Pain: Part 2
In last week’s episode, you learned how joints can break down. In today’s episode, you’re going to learn exactly what you can do about it.
Last week, you learned how overstretching, overuse, and compression can eventually destroy a joint, even in a healthy, active person. But the good news is that with a few simple techniques squeezed into your weekly routine, this type of joint pain can effectively be avoided. Let’s take a look at three ways this can be accomplished:
1. Weekly Self Deep Tissue Work
Deep tissue work keeps joints hydrated and supple, and you don’t necessarily need a weekly massage appointment to do deep tissue work. For example, here’s exactly what I do once each week, along with a video:
Perform 20-30 “passes” with the foam roller on each muscle group outlined below. One “pass” means would mean rolling up the muscle group and back down the muscle group one time. Complete each station below once, progressing from one station to the next with minimal rest.
Station 1: 10 burpees. Foam roll achilles and calf R side.
Station 2: 10 burpees. Foam roll achilles and calf L side.
Station 3: Foam roll hamstring R side. 20 high leg swings R leg forward to backwards.
Station 4: Foam roll hamstring L side. 20 high leg swings L leg forward to backwards.
Station 5: 10 burpees. Foam roll R outside of hip.
Station 6: 10 burpees. Foam roll L outside of hip.
Station 7: Foam roll IT band R side. 20 side-to-side leg swings R leg.
Station 8: Foam roll IT band L side. 20 side-to-side leg swings L leg.
Station 9: 10 burpees. Foam roll R adductors/inside of thighs.
Station 10: 10 burpees. Foam roll L adductors/inside of thighs.
Station 11: 50 jumping jacks. Foam roll back bottom-to-top.
Station 12: 50 jumping jacks. Foam roll entire R shoulder complex.
Station 13: 50 jumping jacks. Foam roll entire L shoulder complex.
Station 14: 10 burpees. Foam roll neck (back, L side, R side)
Station 15: 10 burpees. Foam roll entire front of quads.
Because I’ve worked all the knots and fascial adhesions of of my tissues with this routine, I usually do 5 minutes of hanging from an inversion table as a finisher. And yes, I get very funny looks when the UPS driver rolls up to the house and I’m there hanging in my underwear, dripping with sweat, and wearing a breath training mask. But he’ll survive.
The video below shows the exact moves:
Ben Greenfield’s Metabolic Mobility Routine
2. Dynamic Stretching
I personally do a dynamic stretching session before (or a few minutes into) any workout. I also do about 5-10 minutes of dynamic movements after each of those yoga/meditation sessions that I do each morning.
Dynamic stretching, also known as ballistic stretching, is a stark contrast to static stretching in terms of its ability to adequately prepare you for a workout session or improve mobility, and studies have shown that dynamic stretching can improve power, strength, and performance during a subsequent exercise session.
When you’re dynamic stretching, you’re not just “pulling on” a specific muscle group like you do when static stretching. Instead, dynamic stretching, incorporates posture control, stability, balance, and even ballistic and explosive movements such as swings and kicks.
Here’s a good example: with your right hand resting on a wall, use your left hand to pull your left heel to your butt. This is a traditional static quadriceps stretch.
Now, step away from the wall, take a giant lunging step forward with your right leg, use your left hand to pull your left heel to your buttock, and then release, take a giant step forward with your left leg, and repeat for the opposite side. That’s a dynamic version of the same quadriceps stretch – and suddenly your quavering, balancing, focusing and moving the muscle all throughout the stretch. Because you’re improving stability, balance and mobility while also actively contracting the muscles, the latter example is a far superior method of stretching.
There are many, many ways that you can dynamically stretch, but any dynamic stretch session is typically comprised of basic movement preparation patterns such as lunges, squats, swings and movements of of joint and muscle through a variety of movement patterns. Here are five good dynamic stretch moves to get you started. Try these before your next workout, or just after you’ve warmed up:
1. Leg Swings:
Hold on to a wall, bar or anything else that adds support, then swing one leg out to the side, then swing it back across your body in front of your other leg. Repeat 10 times on each side.
Keeping your back and knees straight, walk forward and lift your legs straight out in front while flexing your toes. For a more advanced version, you can do this with a skipping motion. Walk for 10-20 yards.
Step forward using a long stride, keeping the front knee over or just behind your toes. Lower your body into a lunging position by dropping your back knee toward the ground. Then push forward, take a giant step, and repeat for the opposite leg. To make this motion even more effective, twist and look back towards the leg that is behind you once you’re in the lunging position.
4. Bent Torso Twists:
Stand with your feet wide apart, then extend your arms out to the sides and bend over, touching your right foot with your left hand. When you’re bent, keep your back straight and your shoulder blades pulled back. Then rotate your torso so your right hand touches your left foot. Keep both arms fully extended so that when one hand touches your foot, the other hand is pointing to the sky. Keep rotating like this for 20-30 repetitions.
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, and your arms held out in front of your body. Then drop as low as you can, pushing your butt out behind you, keeping your knees behind your toes and swinging your arms back. Stand and bring the arms back to the starting position. Complete 10-15 deep squat repetitions.
Just like a rubber band, a muscle is always more pliable and when it is at a higher temperature, so if you want to train your body to move through a greater range of motion during your dynamic stretching, you can do 5-10 minutes of light cardio before doing dynamic stretching. In other words, if you don’t want any snapping to take place, don’t get too ballistic with if your muscles are cold rubber bands.
3. Traction
Traction is the application of a force to the body in a way that separates and elongates the tissues surrounding that joint. Although you’ll most often find chiropractic docs, osteopaths, or physical therapists applying traction to patients, you can also traction yourself if you know what you’re doing.
Look at it this way: you can change the integrity of your fascia muscle, and connective tissue with deep tissue work and you can increase range-of-motion with dynamic and static stretching, but with either of those techniques, you aren’t achieving diddly-squat for the actual bony, capsular area of the joint itself.
This is because your joints are under constant tension from all muscles, ligaments and tendons that surround them, and they are constantly under the effect of these compressive forces. This causes the bones in that joint be closer proximity to each other at all times, and especially during the times when the muscles, ligaments and tendons are tight – which is often the case in just about any active individual. Similar to the “tightening a knot in a rope” analogy, stretching a tight muscle just applies more pressure to the joint which brings the bones even closer together.
And if the bones in your joints are snug and really close to each other, it can completely take away the mobility available in that joint. The lack of mobility limits the ability of the joints to glide in a smooth and frictionless way, so even if the muscles, fascia and connective tissue is mobile, the joint still doesn’t move properly.
This is actually how many active people get joint breakdown and osteoarthritis – muscles that move and joints that don’t.
But traction is a great solution for this problem. Traction basically involves using some kind of bracing to apply forces to the joints in your shoulders, hips, knees, etc. to pull apart or “distract” that joint just slightly – and release any compressive forces that are causing limited mobility.
For example, say you’re a person who gets deep, aching hips when you finish a long run or up your running mileage. Sure, you can take a lacrosse ball to the side of your hips, or do a bunch of side-to-side dynamic leg swings, but you really want to get at the hip joint itself, you can do hip traction with a band (I personally use a Monster Band from Rogue Fitness) as an extremely effective way for helping to restore mobility to that hip joint – so you quit getting the hip joint pain altogether. You’re basically “pulling apart” your hip socket. And boy, does it feel good.
To perform hip traction, you can get into an all-fours, crawling position with a long and straight spine, and then hook a giant elastic band high on the inside of your thigh, with the other end of the elastic band hooked to an immovable object, like a bed post, couch, rack at the gym, etc. Move far enough away from that immovable object so that you feel the band pulling tension on that hip. You then rock your butt side-to-side and front-to-back to move your hip in the newly opened space that the traction from the band has created. This movement under traction helps deliver small increases in lubricating fluid into the joint space and also to help to reduce any permanent cramps or spasms that have creeped into any overactive muscles surrounding that area of your hip.
I know this traction description can be tough to visualize, so for some video examples of what traction with a band actually looks like, check out any of the “rubber band” stretch variations in the mobility section of AllThingsGym.com. Many of these videos feature Kelly Starrett, the author of the aforementioned book “Becoming A Supple Leopard“. That book also includes detailed instructions on self-traction exercises.
Another traction tool that I keep around is an inversion table. You can get one of these bad boys for $100-300 on Amazon, or you could probably find on on Craiglist listed by somebody who bought one, never used it, and would practically pay you to take it away. After a long day of work on my feet, a long bike ride or a long run, I hang from my inversion table for 5-10 minutes. Not only does it apply potent traction to the knees, hips, neck and back, but it also does a great job helping to drain muscle and fluid from exercised tissue. And yes, you can do the cool upside-down sit-ups if you want extra inversion points.
Yep – that’s about all you need for traction: an inversion table, a giant band, and a decent traction website or book.
Summary
So that’s it: do deep tissue work, do dynamic stretching, and incorporate traction, and the compression, overstretching and overuse injuries that tend to destroy joints will be far less likely to happen to you as you age, costing you money, movement potential and a pain-free lifestyle.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about how to take care of your tissues as you age and keep joint replacements and other frustrating, hobbling issues at bay?
Join the conversation at Facebook.com/getfitguy.
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About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.
