Are You Joint Savvy?

I'll admit it...I'm an anatomy geek.  I not only love studying anatomy but also teaching it to others.  What I find so incredible is the amazing structure that we...our body. Although each of us is uniquely different, we are all basically assembled in the same way.

Our fundamental structure is that we have about 700 named muscles in the body which makes up about half of our body weight. A typical adult human has 206 bones many of which come together to form joints.  Joints come in a few different varieties and mainly include synovial (e.g. knee, hip, shoulder), cartilaginous (pubis symphysis) and fibrous (sutures in the skull) joints as well as a few others.  When we talk about joints and joint pain we generally refer to synovial joints.   They are the most movable joints in the body and are largely held together via connective tissue forming joint capsules. 


Our skeleton is able to move because of the over 700 muscles that enable it to do so...they need each other for us to ambulate, dance, do yoga or play a sport.  Yet, they act in very different ways and have different expiration dates.  If we stay active, well-nourished and are able to bear our body weight (or move an imposed weight such as a dumbbell), our muscles can stay strong and functional.  But our joints begin to get creakier over time.  We become more brittle and form tears in the connective tissues through wear and tear over a lifetime.  Joints degenerate and can lead to pain, swelling, arthritis and dysfunction.


So how do we optimize the relationship between our muscles, bones and joints?  Isn't all activity a positive step toward maintaining and/or improving health?


We begin by recognizing that we need to be mindful of the impact we put on our joints.  Our muscles respond to overload, as does the density of our bones, but where our bones meet up to form a joint, we need to be kind and careful.  Joints work in a particular range of motion and can be compromised if our biomechanics don't match up with the imposed movements.  A good example is twisting an ankle hiking downhill...our ankle isn't designed to move in that direction under such a downward force.  


We also create movement patterns throughout a lifetime that often reflect a particular posture such as someone who has a career where they've sat for extended periods of time or have had an injury that created a compensated movement pattern that never went back to normal.  It is said that a limping person with a sprained ankle, can embed that movement pattern within three days!  One thing is certain, we are adaptive creatures and sometimes adapt inefficient patterns of moving that stay with us forever unless we begin to explore them.


So if you're now wondering if what you're doing is hurting or helping, ask yourself these questions when exercising:


1.  Does this feel safe in my body?
2.  Will I be okay tomorrow?
3.  Can I move in a pain-free range of motion?
4.  If I do have pain, can I keep moving without dialing up its intensity?



We want to answer "yes" to these questions as well as noticing if what we feel is simply unfamiliar or whether it is painful?  It's okay to have an unfamiliar sensation, but we want to question it if it's eliciting pain.  Pain manifests in the brain and we can learn over time that a past painful movement still feels painful even without any actual injury being present.  Think of someone who has phantom pain in an amputated limb.  So often to feel more comfortable in our body, we need to un-learn what triggered our previous pain.


In yoga, our self-talk is vital to maintaining safety in our practice. Answering "yes" to the above questions, building strength progressively over time and paying attention to the inner voice raises our level of awareness to keep reaping the benefits of our practice over a lifetime.  Many people I have worked with who have recovered from injury try to do too much too soon.  One of my favorite sayings when returning to activity is to "tip toe back, rather than sprint".  Of course this requires additional practices of yoga-patience and discipline (but more of that in another blog post).


So the next time you step onto your mat remember to challenge your muscles and be kind to your joints.  Then we can all live in harmony in the most optimal way!