Category Archives: Motivation

Are your children making movement errors that could harm them later in life?

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children movement problemsMost people who have used corrective exercises to perfect their body movements do so as a reaction to injury. And any adult who has successfully used corrective exercise to cure their own injuries will appreciate how staggeringly powerful these methods can be, and their vast superiority over pain-killing medication and surgery. This discovery usually triggers the person to realise that applying the same sort of training to improve the body’s movements to another area of the body can help them solve their other long-standing aches and pains. You are then left with a person with an entirely different outlook on the causes of pain, who realises they are personally accountable for their injuries, yet empowered to be able to cure and prevent them through practicing good movement. This is an outlook that everyone ought to have – and it should start before it is necessary, before injury. It should start early in life. Continue reading →

Returning to exercise – how to reintroduce strength training after time off

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reintroduce weights after time offEven with the best intentions, there are times in life when you will experience gaps in your regular training. When away on holiday, during a period of illness or when going through other unavoidable life events, training can become side-lined. While this is naturally never desirable, when the inevitable does happen, you may be left with questions as to how to get back on top of your training. Here are some quick considerations for reintroducing strength training, and the correct weights, after you’ve had some time away from exercising. Continue reading →

Can’t afford to treat an injury? Here’s why DIY rehabilitation is a good thing  

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treat injury without moneyTreating an injury, there are all sorts of problems that you have to overcome, with both psychological and physical hurdles. Not least in what holds many people back on the road to recovery can be limited financial resources. Not having the money to pay for a professional trainer, or for some of the perceived necessary equipment, can certainly hinder your progress – but if you use it as a reason not to put in the effort to overcome your problems, it is an excuse, not an insurmountable obstacle. And we don’t care for excuses here. Here’s why money should not be an issue when it comes to taking care of your body:

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Top 9 excuses for avoiding exercise – and why they don’t hold up

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exercise excusesSometimes it’s hard to find motivation to exercise. It can seem like a chore, something that needs to be done rather than something you want to do. You want to see results, you don’t want to spend the time working on them. We’ve covered that attitude a few times – in our various articles on Motivation. But to help you understand why excuses don’t hold up, here’s our list of the top 9 excuses for avoiding exercise: Continue reading →

Don’t “just do it” – why drill instruction is bad coaching

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drill instructor coachingIt’s important to have an instructor or training partner who keeps you going, and pushes you to reach your goals. But it’s also important to recognise that a good coach should do much more than just that. A coach, a trainer, or even a casual spotter, should never be there just to spur you on. If you truly want to succeed in your fitness and health goals, to achieve your maximum potential and avoid injury, you need someone to give you technical guidance as well as motivation. A good coach is not a drill instructor. Here’s why: Continue reading →

Why people should give their muscle health as much attention as their teeth

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teeth and muscles

Our culture encourages certain activities as a force of habit, because they are fundamentally good for us. Brushing your teeth regularly, for example, is drilled into children to the degree that even the most resistant amongst us will be instinctively aware that to go without brushing your teeth for a day or two is bad. We all know that brushing your teeth can prevent terrible consequences. The same should be understood of exercise, and strength/movement training, as we teach it here are KneeStrength, and we want to make it clear that your physical health is as much in your hands as dental care is. Continue reading →

Why being ‘lucky’ with knee problems isn’t always good

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lucky knee problems

“Does patella maltracking come back after it’s been heavily reduced?” one of our clients recently asked. It was an ongoing concern that if he stopped doing his knee strengthening exercises, his knee problems would eventually return. And it was a concern closely linked to the irritation that other people, at the same age with similar sports interests and training routines, had no problems to speak of. These are two matters that are closely linked and worth discussing though, because the long-term strategy behind avoiding knee problems is very important – and people who don’t necessarily have to devise a strategy are at a significant disadvantage later in life. Continue reading →

Getting Fit in the New Year – Using Resolutions to Resolve your Problems

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new year fitness resolutionsWith every New Year comes flurries of determined resolutions, and we’re no stranger to them as most seem to relate to getting fitter (or slimmer). Especially after the Christmas season, it’s a time for people to step back, take stock and consider how their physical health could be improved. The same way you might take stock after a heavy party, an indulgent holiday or a particularly big cake. But how many of us make these promises to ourselves and don’t follow through? It turns out that those who do make their commitments at New Year are more likely to see results. Continue reading →

Movement training – where will it move to next?

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movement trainingThe techniques on this website, designed to help people fix their knee problems, all centre on improving the way in which a person moves, including correcting a soft-tissue restriction, re-cueing the form of a body movement, and strengthening corrected movements. The conscious practice of such techniques has been around for centuries, although it may have focussed primarily on improving movements to aid the performance of a specific task, such as throwing a spear or striking with a sword, rather than the practice of improving movements purely to fix injuries as a means in itself. Training to correct the way a person moves is rising in popularity, though, and it has become more and more accessible with the rise of the internet. Our opinion at KneeStrength, however, is that it is not yet popular enough. Continue reading →

The Twilight Twins:
a short story that asks “Are you really fit?”

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helping old man walkAll too often we hear positive feedback about the exercises and lessons on this site, but when we ask if people are actually doing the exercises they reply “There’s nothing wrong with my knees.” These people insist that their other regular exercises, whatever they may be, are enough to keep them fit – without thinking about form of movement. Unless you’ve mastered perfect posture, and a perfect strength balance, however, whether you’ve got knee pain or not, there is likely something imperfect with the mechanics of your knees. Those who claim otherwise just don’t know it yet. Here is a little story we wrote to illustrate this point. Please read it, and consider the message carefully, because resolving knee pain through strength training is not just for today: it could affect all of your tomorrows. Continue reading →