Multiple Joint Pain From Exercise
As we have discussed in my weekly visits to you, I am extremely pleased and excited with the recovery I have made since I started seeing you last November. I attribute this to you.
When I first came to see you, I was truly a mess. Every large joint was extremely painful, but it was not really a joint problem, but a tendon problem. I had always been an active and dedicated exerciser but have suffered for many years with “overuse” injuries. I used to walk for miles, work out on an exercise bike for 1-1/2 hours a day and do weight work three times a week. It was only after my knees finally could no longer sustain this type of activity that I tried yoga. Unfortunately, after two years of “power” yoga, my elbows, knees, hips and shoulders were so weak and painful, I had to curtail this as well. In desperation, I went to several specialists who simply could not understand why my joints were so painful and why my tendons were weak. The only remedy they could offer was to prescribe drugs to kill the pain – which I didn’t want to take and which did not work.
I went to my general doctor and he suggested I come to see you. On my first visit to you, you asked me what was wrong – and I really didn’t know where to start. Everything hurt. I couldn’t even lift my arms because of the pain in my elbows. I couldn’t stand because my knees hurt so much and were weak. My hips hurt as well as my shoulders, but I chose to only tell you about my knees and elbows. However, you knew where my body hurt when you first examined me. You always told me that “I feel your pain.” And, often you knew precisely where my body hurt even when I couldn’t narrow it down.
As the weeks went by, some weeks were better than others – depending upon the exercise I would attempt to do. Unfortunately, I stubbornly pushed the limit and didn’t heed your admonitions to “treat my body with respect and care” and not exercise beyond what I was capable of doing. However, your advice to work with a trainer has enabled me to both fulfill my need to exercise and also do the exercises correctly. It seems as if I had been doing my weight work incorrectly. Bad form and years of aerobics just made everything worse.
So, today, I am a new person. I know what my limitations are. I know that I won’t be able to do everything that I used to do, but I now exercise differently. I can lift heavy weights (under the strict eye of my trainer) and feel 100% better. I still come to see you, but I am hard pressed at times to tell you what hurts! I’ll mention that something is a little sore and you zero in on exactly where the pain is and treat it. I’m still not sure how you do what you do or why it works. But, your professionalism, experience and expertise are priceless. I can’t thank you enough for giving me my body back.
– Barbara Strongin