The other night I was at my nephew’s physical therapy appointment and was asking him questions about how he programs my nephew’s rehab.
They do A LOT of quad work. Isometrics. Eccentrics. High reps. Squats. Stepdowns. Single leg leg press. Blood flow restriction.
I’m just going to be honest, physical therapist’s make me feel validated that we do good work. But it also leaves me frustrated when I face problems beyond me because I think I know. And also amaze me when they suggest or do relatively simple things that I never thought of.
Though what makes PT’s light years beyond me is diagnosing. Thank you Nancy & Sean.
As his PT and I talked, his words reminded me of a book I read “Bulletproof Your Knees”. The entire book just talked endlessly about how pretty much everything that goes wrong with your knee results in quad weakness.
Everything.
If you don’t know, the quads are the muscles on the front of your thigh. You’re probably sitting right now. Put your phone down, and put your hands on your thighs. Those muscles.
As I paced around my apartment this morning after my morning run (I ran the last 2 days without my knee hurting, though my VMO kept doing a semi-cramp-weird-thing) I was thinking about what I was going to write as an email for today.
Then the thought came to me.
Quad muscles are like moms.
Literally, as I write, I have no idea why. I’m just going to let the words flow out, and then clean out the typos. Either it’ll flow with you or you can reply “Donald, don’t type any crap like this again”
So, why are quad muscles like moms?
- When mom is joyful and supported, the house flows pretty well.
- When mom is too stressed out or feeling horrible, everyone notices and is likely poorly affected.
- When mom doesn’t have a strong presence, it messes up the house up indefinitely
- When mom is empowered, the house flourishes
Now read the poem this way. Yes, I’ve decided now that this is a poem.
.
- When your quads are joyful (not in pain) and supported (getting trained) the knee (house) flows well.
- When your quads are too stressed (overused) or feeling horrible (injured), the knee doesn’t perform very well
- When the quads aren’t strong your, your knees don’t work very well
- When your quads are strong, your knees flourish
And if you’re like, what about dad? In this poem, dad is your glutes. The article is just about quads, not glutes. I’ll put that in my storage bin for next year if this article hits well.
So, what’s your big takeaway other than probably some reflection on your mom?
When anything goes wrong with your knees, work on your quads, there’s a good chance it’ll be helpful.
It’s basically like calling your mom (or whoever that supportive older adult is for you) about pretty much any inconvenience or source of confusion.
I run a business with a growing team and responsibilities, I lead other organizations that people think are a big deal, solo backpacked nearly dozen countries, and other things that people would assume require a lot of ability to “adult well”.
I STILL call my older sister about all sorts of things.
Like just on Monday, how to open the Pillsbury cinnamon roll package. You know, you gotta press the spoon down and twist it and get the pop.
She was on the phone talking me through how to open it. It’s hard for me yall.
LOL
Go work on your quads, if you’re reading this, they’re probably too weak.
And if you need a “training mom for your knees” myself, and our team at GHP, can be that for you.