Movement Coaching - Video Your Injury, Aches, or Pains

Training
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Want help with an ache or pain in your movement?

Do you want to avoid injury due to poor biomechanics?

The Cause and Fix

Most chronic aches and pains are the result of poor biomechanics, and here’s your chance to enhance your movement!

Upload a Video

  1. Video the motion that causes pain.
  2. Point with two fingers where you feel the ache, pain, or restriction.
  3. Write a short description of what you feel and when you feel it.

We can work together here to fix most problems.

Now go, and let’s see the vids!

Disclaimer: This is not a place to get a diagnosis. It’s your responsibility to see your doctor as necessary.

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Still Broken After All These Years
Can You Please Check If I Have Anterior Pelvic Tilt?
Silver and Steel
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@Dr_Grove_Higgins thanks for doing this - I’ll go!

I’ve had a couple ACL surgeries on my left knee, and some damage (and surgeries) at L4-L5 and L5-S1 that left me with some very mild paralysis in my left foot. With that said, it’s now my right knee that’s most arthritic and noisiest.

Nothing bothers me to the point it’s a big deal, but I do feel like I shift a lot when I squat. If I don’t really focus on keeping the bar straight, the right side will dip significantly lower than the left.

In this video, I was really paying attention, so I don’t think it looks terrible. You can still see my hips trying to do something a little silly at the bottom though.

I guess I’m just looking for your opinion on how aggressively I need to address this, or if just being aware is enough. If it’s not serious enough that it’s going to cause me further damage, and just being aware is enough, then I’m good to go! I don’t have any competitive intention, but I do enjoy pushing myself and don’t want to take time off from self-inflicted injury if avoidable.

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@TrainForPain
Great video. You could not have shot that any better. It is very helpful.

  1. Noisy joints, in general, are not too concerning unless there is pain or discomfort associated with it. However, it is worth looking at since it has your attention.
  2. The history is very helpful too. We know there is impeded nerve function on the Left, so that makes me look at how your body compensates for that - it always will!
  3. You have great control, and I noted only one rep that you let the bar dip on the right; otherwise, you are very conscious and controlled.
  4. You are right about the pelvis/hips - note the pictures below. However, you do a great job of consciously compensating. Note the Left lower pelvis and the bar as well. This is your second repetition.
    Second Rep
    At this point, your knees are almost parallel in their movement. However the last repetition, things change…
    Last Rep
    Last Rep1726×1138 105 KB
  5. This is where a little fatigue shows the real compensation. The right knee’s tibial angle increases greatly while the Left does not change. I suspect your Left is at its near-end range of motion (either foot/ankle or knee), and the mild neuromuscular weakness you know already forces the Right knee to compensate to keep the bar level. Normally I love the ability for a great tibial angle where the knee can drift over the toes, but not in this case. Under load, the shearing force here is huge through the knee, especially since your load is very off-center and asymmetrical - not balanced through your center of gravity between both legs now. This will greatly accelerate the wear/tear of the Right knee and its degeneration.

So, to answer your question, “how aggressively” should you address this. The answer is somewhat determined by a few questions like what your goals are with your fitness, are you doing competitive loaded movements and such. At a basic level, I’d address it aggressively just from a functional standpoint. It may mean simply re-acquiring the range of motion on the Left and training the neuromuscular patterns with the improved ROM. In the meantime, limit the ROM and the asymmetry in knee ROM. Also, when the fatigue from the reps exceeds your ability to control the Right knee angle, that’s your last rep for the set.

If you want to take this to the next step, shoot me a video and show the following. (Both legs)

  1. Deep forward lunge with how far your knee can go over your toes without discomfort. I want to see the knee and ankle motion on a profile (perpendicular to your body)
  2. Make the same lunge but from directly in front.
  3. Do one set with your lifting shoes on and one barefoot.

After that, we can go one more step to identifying specifics for you.

Thanks for your post! - Doc

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Wow! What a great write up! Thank you for doing this.

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@Dr_Grove_Higgins this is terrific - thank you so much!
Everything you described makes complete sense, and my right knee feels much worse than the left these days.

For goals, I’m not competitive per se, but I’m extraordinarily competitive with myself and I like pushing it in the gym.

I’ll get the lunge videos - do you want them weighted or unweighted?

I’ll try to explain what I’m feeling once I send the videos, but I always have trouble answering the discomfort question; I don’t really “feel” things until later. I have trouble assessing when a rep was my last good one for the same reason, but I can probably solve that with more consistent filming. I’ll have go figure out a setup without my beautiful assistant (we’re rarely on the same schedule/ willing to disrupt one another’s plan).

Thank you for the incredible review!

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Great! Unweighted - point to areas where you have pain or restriction in the video when you experience it. Gives extra info.

This is definitely were having a training buddy who can you can train to give you objective feedback is super helpful.

2 Likes