Paul Sellers
Level 5 Valued Member
Sort of.
Recently got back into KBs after a loooonnnnggg layoff following the birth of our second child and a rather nasty bout of illness.
I piled on the weight over Lockdown so the motivation wasn't strength it was self preservation. Having said that the feeling of strength returning and growing has been like a banquet to a starving man.
Over lockdown I developed a knee. Friends have always told me that, because I am tall, I would inevitably get "a knee". Always a keen runner I dismissed the idea. The lifelong feeling that I am and always will be bulletproof didn't help either. So when I woke up one day last October with my left knee twice the size it should be I thought, oh, I've got a knee. After my doctor drew off a couple of pints of fluid and I treated myself to a bit of elevation and Ibuprofen I knew I had to do something to address the weigh and the knee. He advised that he could refer me but the orthopods would do nothing to try to repair any damage to the cartilage, which he said was almost certainly toast, due to my age as they rarely surgically intervene on anyone past 40yrs. Charming. Kick a man while he's down, why don't you.
Swings only caused pain followed by days of hobbling about. I was gutted. Were my lifting days over? After growing desperate I gingerly tried a different tack and what I discovered was that what didn't hurt - and here's where my brain just melts - was squats. Front squats with double 16s to be accurate. I had (past tense, now) a busted knee so how could loading it with a squat let alone a weighted squat not hurt like heck and heal the damage into the bargain? I dunno but it did. I could barely walk up stairs. I had to come down on my backside but now my knee is 90% pain free. I can understand that strengthening the supporting structures around the knee can stabilize the joint and reduce pain that way but I'd expected pain in the early days of the rehabilitation process while the joint strengthened but none occurred.
It seems kettlebell really are good for what ails you.
Now for S&S (again).
Recently got back into KBs after a loooonnnnggg layoff following the birth of our second child and a rather nasty bout of illness.
I piled on the weight over Lockdown so the motivation wasn't strength it was self preservation. Having said that the feeling of strength returning and growing has been like a banquet to a starving man.
Over lockdown I developed a knee. Friends have always told me that, because I am tall, I would inevitably get "a knee". Always a keen runner I dismissed the idea. The lifelong feeling that I am and always will be bulletproof didn't help either. So when I woke up one day last October with my left knee twice the size it should be I thought, oh, I've got a knee. After my doctor drew off a couple of pints of fluid and I treated myself to a bit of elevation and Ibuprofen I knew I had to do something to address the weigh and the knee. He advised that he could refer me but the orthopods would do nothing to try to repair any damage to the cartilage, which he said was almost certainly toast, due to my age as they rarely surgically intervene on anyone past 40yrs. Charming. Kick a man while he's down, why don't you.
Swings only caused pain followed by days of hobbling about. I was gutted. Were my lifting days over? After growing desperate I gingerly tried a different tack and what I discovered was that what didn't hurt - and here's where my brain just melts - was squats. Front squats with double 16s to be accurate. I had (past tense, now) a busted knee so how could loading it with a squat let alone a weighted squat not hurt like heck and heal the damage into the bargain? I dunno but it did. I could barely walk up stairs. I had to come down on my backside but now my knee is 90% pain free. I can understand that strengthening the supporting structures around the knee can stabilize the joint and reduce pain that way but I'd expected pain in the early days of the rehabilitation process while the joint strengthened but none occurred.
It seems kettlebell really are good for what ails you.
Now for S&S (again).
