I am back with another exercise and injury interview for you and today it focuses on a knee injury.

The specific knee injury we are going to talk about is osteochondritis.

I am going to talk with Zach Moore who is a strength coach and he is going to talk about how he overcame numerous knee surgeries and osteochondritis.  In the interview he talks about how it was a bit of a journey to find a place that got him doing the right exercises for osteochondritis.

Enjoy!

CLICK HERE to listen to the interview with Zach Moore on Exercise and Osteochondritis.

CLICK HERE to listen to the interview with Zach Moore on Exercise and Osteochondritis.

What Zach Moore Goes through in the Interview on Exercise and Osteochondritis

• Zach talks about his injury, osteochondritis
• What osteochondritis is and how Zach got it
• The variety of surgeries he had to have for osteochondritis
• He did all kinds of rehab after his surgery and for his osteocondritis, but was not happy with the results
• How getting an assessment from Bill Hartman was the key to helping him to finally get on the right rehab track
• The importance of focusing on the hip when it comes to knee injuries
• Exercises to focus in on for osteochondritis
• Key exercises to avoid if you have osteochondritis
• Important exercise techniques for lower body exercises
• The mindset you need to have in order to overcome your injury
• The right kind of research to do for your injuries
• How being a client at IFAST and meeting Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman was the start of his strength coach career
• Tips for those recovering from knee injury and pain
• Who is Zach Moore

A few things you need to know about listening to the interview:

•  To listen to the interview, scroll down to the bottom of this page and click the play button symbol.  If you do not have time to listen to it right now, just click the “download” button and download it to your computer.  Then you can listen to it on your computer when you like.  Plus you can subscribe to the itunes podcast and get all the interviews when they are ready.  Enjoy!
• If you use Chrome as your web browser, at times it can act up when playing the interview.  I would suggest listening to the interview in another web browser (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.)
• Here is a video explaining how to download the interview recording

If you are looking for the knee injury exercises that I use with clients, you can check out Knee Injury Solution by clicking here:

If you liked this interview and are looking for other exercise and injury advice, check out these other articles, videos and interviews:

• Exercise after C-Section with Carmen Bott
• Rapid Recovery from Neck Fusion Surgery with Josh Henkin
• Hip Flexor Injury Exercise Considerations with Dr. Casey Kerrigan

If you have an injury recovery story, I would like to hear it.  Please do contact me – I would love to interview you.

Rick Kaselj, MS

Exercise and Osteochondritis with Zach Moore [ 21:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I was talking with my friend, Shawna Kaminski, about squats and knee pain.

Shawna runs bootcamps and helps train women over 40. One thing she hears a lot is:

“I can’t squat or lunge because I get knee pain.”

I did an interview with Shawna on what you can do about your knee pain during squatting:

==>  Squats and Knee Pain

In the interview with Shawna, I talk about:

• The importance of squatting and lungeing
• How you can modify the squat
• How flexibility can help you with your knee pain during squatting
• A different kind of lunge that decreases knee pain
• Vicious cycle of knee pain
• Importance of using a mirror for feedback on your technique
• Master your lunge and squat exercises with no weight and added weight

As I discussed in the interview, one of the things you need to address when it comes to knee pain during squatting are muscle imbalances.  I go into detail about this in Muscle Imbalances Revealed.

I am having a tough time keeping up with all the kind words about Muscle Imbalances Revealed.  Here are a few more that I just got:

“Addressing muscular imbalances is of paramount importance when training athletes. Muscle Imbalances Revealed provides the background, assessments, training strategies, and specific exercises to restore balance across the lower extremities, lumbopelvic area, and shoulders, and therefore equips you with the knowledge you need to help prevent the most common sports-related injuries. Even better, you can benefit from all the content from the comfort of your home.”

Kevin Neeld
Hockey Strength and Conditioning Coach
KevinNeeld.com

“I am glad I had the opportunity to review Muscle Imbalances Revealed by Rick Kaselj. These are DVDs that you should NEVER let out of your education library. We all know how good DVDs just “disappear” all of a sudden. I am not only writing this review from the eyes of a fitness & sports performance coach but also a person that has suffered from knee and lower back injuries from my days in the US ARMY.

Muscle Imbalances Revealed is an indispensable resource for coaches and fitness trainers with an “all-star cast” of some of the best rehab and post rehab exercise specialists in this business. It’s not a perfect world and eventually your athletes or fat loss clients will get an injury you need to work with and around. This program has enlightened me and added a new toolbox to help my clients in a more effective way, and improve my own performance and past injuries I sustained while in the ARMY. Muscle Imbalances Revealed is a comprehensive and easy to follow program that I wish was around years ago. Not getting this program is leaving you unprepared for inevitable injuries that you or your clients may receive.”

Nii Wilson
New York City
USAW-Sports Performance Coach/ Underground Strength Coach Certified
NiiWilson.com

“One of the keys to my success as a personal trainer has been my ability to work with and around the nagging aches and injuries of people from 35-55, the very demographic that has the time, money, and demonstrated needs for our services.

The information you’ll gain in MIR is exactly what you need most to differentiate yourself from generic “just-make-em-tired-and-sweaty” trainers. Rick and the crew have done an outstanding job, and Bill Hartman continues to defend his title as “the Smartest Man in Fitness.”

If you want to elevate your skills and, therefore, your income, you need these DVDS. You owe it to your clients and to yourself to be the best you can be.”

Stephen Holt
“One of America’s Greatest Trainers” – Men’s Fitness
2003 ACE Personal Trainer of the Year
BabyBoomerFitnessAuthority.com

Okay, before going.

I remembered that I did an interview with Shawna a few months back where she talked about knee pain.

You can get her tips in this video:

In the interview with Shawna, she goes through:

• The importance of technique
• Where your knees should be positioned
• How you should place your hips

I think that is it.

Have a great day and thank you for reading.

Rick Kaselj, MS

I am always talking with people and last week when I was at Fitness Business Summit I got talking with Dr. Peter Osborne.

He had some amazing information on knee pain, diet and cartilage.

Can What You’re Eating Damage Your Cartilage and Lead to Knee Pain?

==> Knee Pain, Diet and Cartilage

Thank you so much Dr. Peter Osborne.

Just to sum up what he went through in the interview:

• Most don’t think of diet as an important component of the healing process
• We need these nutrients in our diet to help collagen to heal damaged cartilage
• With poor diet we may heal but we heal in a weaker state
• Inflammation of the body is a key to slowing down recovery
• How a component in wheat can be slowing down your cartilage recovery
• What glucosamine and chondroitin does to inflammation
• Other foods to consider when it comes to inflammation
• What supplements are as effective as medication

Thanks for reading and listening.

We will talk to you soon.

Rick Kaselj, MS

This little blog keeps ticking away.

I just got this email about Knee Injury Solution.

I thought it would be helpful if I sent it to you.

I am missing the ACL in my right knee (tore it in a horse accident & never repaired).

I have full range of motion, but when I run or do too many deep knee bends (i.e. to clean or to pick up something) I get pain in that knee and have to rest it until the pain goes away (could be weeks).

Will your product help me strengthen my knee so I can avoid this?

I am female, 57 and would like to be able to run more and do more hiking on rough terrain, as well as normal chores.

Thank you.

- D

Yes, Knee Injury Solution will help you.

The components of the program that will help you are:

Component #4 – Exercises to Improve Your Walking and Decrease Pain During Walking

These exercises will help strengthen your knees and  prevent future knee injuries with quick, easy and simple exercises that you can do at home.

This will be great for helping you with hiking and as you progress, you can perform the exercise onto an unstable surface like a balance board to help you with hiking on rough terrain.

Component #1 – 9 Exercises a Day Keeps Knee Pain Away

These exercises help improve the stability in your knee in all directions and loosen up your hip so it puts less stress on your knee.

This will work great to get you back to running.  It will slowly strengthen your knee and build stability around your knee for running.

Component #1 – 10 Minutes to Strong Knees

With these group of exercises, you focus on strengthening your knees.  The exercises can be done with a little equipment or even no equipment.  I have videos of the exercises and a handout you can print out and follow the exercises.

These exercises will help strengthen the knee so bending down will be easier.

D, I hope this helps.

Have a spectacular day!

Rick Kaselj, MS

If you are looking for resources to help you with knee pain or injuries:

• Knee Injury Solution
• Exercises for Prevention, Rehabilitation & Overcoming Knee Injuries

Other articles related to knee injuries and knee pain:

• Knee Injury Stuff – exercise good for knee health, gluteus maximus and the lunge, cartilage and osteoarthritis
• Do Men and Women Squat Differently?
• Ending Your Knee Injury Ends Today
• Fun Stuff about Solutions for Knee Injuries

Courses related to knee injuries and knee pain:

• Exercise Rehabilitation of the Knee

Balance Training for the Rehab Client

That’s all!

I have taken the afternoon to work on a presentation that I am doing for a group of group fitness instructors.

It is called Exercises to Strengthen and Prevent Knee Injuries.

It is a custom presentation that I am creating for the group.

I am getting more and more requests to do private fitness education for various types of fitness facilities.  On Friday it is a wellness facility and next week it is a personal training studio.

Private Fitness Education for Fitness Facilities

While putting my presentation together, I wanted to share with you a few of the cool things I found while taking a look at the research while preparing for the presentation.

Is Physical Activity Bad for Knee Joint Health?

There is the eternal debate if physical activity is good or bad for the knees.  The researchers looked at things from the point of view of: physical activity is encouraged in school, but is this increase in physical activity leading to osteoarthritis?

What They Looked At:

They went back and looked at a lot of the research that was created on physical activity and knee health.

What They Found:

• Strong evidence that physical activity lead to tibiofemoral osteophytes (bony outgrowth covered by fibrocartilage).
• Strong evidence that there was no decrease in knee cartilage based on radiological joint space narrowing.

So What?

This research challenges the belief that if we get our kids to exercise in school, we are increasing their risk of getting osteoarthritis.

We need to get kids moving because the benefits of doing so are much greater than just improved knee joint health.

Where to get more information:  Urquhart DM, Tobing JF, Hanna FS, Berry P, Wluka AE, Ding C, Cicuttini FM. (2011). What is the effect of physical activity on the knee joint? A systematic review. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Mar;43(3):432-42.

How to Target the Gluteus Maximus Better During the Lunge

What They Looked At:

They looked to see if trunk position (upper body) had an effect on the muscles in the lower body during lunging.  They got a group of 10 to perform an upright, trunk forward (hip flexion) and trunk back (hip extension) lunge.

What They Found:

• Something About Gluteus Maximus – Performing the lunge with the trunk forward (hip flexion) lead to greater gluteus maximus activation.

So What?

We talked about the lunge earlier this week in this blog post, where the researchers showed that females have greater gluteus maximus activity when performing a lunge compared to men.  If you need to get more muscle activation for gluteus maximus in your clients, then look at getting them to move the trunk forward.

Where to get more information:  Farrokhi S, Pollard CD, Souza RB, Chen YJ, Reischl S, Powers CM. (2008). Trunk position influences the kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activity of the lead lower extremity during the forward lunge exercise. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2008 Jul;38(7):403-9. Epub 2008 Apr 15.

How to Prevent Cartilage Damage and Osteoarthritis in the Knee

This was more of an opinion on preventing cartilage damage and osteoarthritis in the knee.

It does show how one injury can lead to another injury which is an important thing to remember.

They had some interesting observations:

• Articular cartilage has a difficult time healing and often times progresses to osteoarthritis.
• Athletes are at greater risk of getting osteoarthritis compared to the non-athlete.
• Those with osteoarthritis often times report joint pain, decrease range of motion and joint stiffness.
• The diagnosis of osteoarthritis is confirmed by the symptoms and the radiological findings (narrowing joint space, osteophyte formation and subchondral sclerosis).
• There is no strong link between symptoms and what is found in radiographic findings.  This is a common theme with most injuries.
• Risk factors for osteoarthritis are excessive musculoskeletal loading (at work or in sports), obesity (based on high body mass index), previous knee injury, female gender and muscle weakness around the knee (quadriceps, hamstring).
• Cartilage injuries are often seen in young to middle-aged active athletes.
• Cartilage injuries often predisposes someone to osteoarthritis.

Where to get more information:  Takeda H, Nakagawa T, Nakamura K, Engebretsen L. (2011). Prevention and management of knee osteoarthritis and knee cartilage injury in sports. Br J Sports Med. 2011 Feb 25. [Epub ahead of print]

Well that is it.  Thanks for reading and let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Rick Kaselj, MS

If you are looking for resources to help you with knee pain or injuries:

• Knee Injury Solution
• Exercises for Prevention, Rehabilitation & Overcoming Knee Injuries

Other articles related to knee injuries and knee pain:

• Do Men and Women Squat Differently?
• Ending Your Knee Injury Ends Today
• Fun Stuff about Solutions for Knee Injuries

Courses related to knee injuries and knee pain:

• Exercise Rehabilitation of the Knee
• Balance Training for the Rehab Client

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I would like to talk about some fun stuff about Knee Injury Solution.

I am very proud of Knee Injury Solution.

After 11 webinars, 3 manuals, and numerous books, I am getting closer to what fitness professionals are looking as it pertains to exercises and injuries.

I have made some mistakes, and I have received great feedback from thousands of health and fitness professional on how I can improve my programs.  With Knee Injury Solution, I feel that I am there.

Fun Stuff #1 – Video of the Exercises

The number one feedback from trainers, coaches, and therapist was that they wanted videos of the exercises.

In the past, I would write things out and talk about them in my video presentation. People also want to see the exercises being done.

I have started to do this.  Sometimes I don’t do the exercises right or they are too advanced for me, but I hope people see that I am not perfect and have lots of room to improve on as well. I know having me or someone else go through the exercise will help people out.

Fun Stuff #2 – Hottest Day of the Year

I decided not do the videos myself for the 9 Exercises a Day Keeps Knee Pain Away and 10 Minutes to Stronger Knees workouts.

I got a local female soccer player to help me out.

We filmed her doing the exercises during the summer.  Of course, we picked the hottest day of the year.

She was a trooper, but she went through 4 liters of  water before we knew it.

We had to head into the shade to finish the rest of the exercises.

It was great to take the exercises outside and show people that the exercises can be done anywhere.

It was also great to have a female go through the exercise, so that you can see how she does them and how her body reacts to fatigue.

Fun Stuff #3 – A Guide to Refer To

Other feedback I received was that people like something they can print out and quickly refer to.

I created a little guide with photos, descriptions, and a few details that people can refer to quickly in order to remind them of the exercises and what to do.  If they want more detail, they can watch the video.

I think that’s it.

Make sure you email me and let me know what you think of anything I do.

With Knee Injury Solution, I know that I am closer to getting it perfect.

Take care, and I will talk to you soon.

Rick Kaselj, MS

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Thank you for participating - well over 40 people entered the Knee Injury Solution Program draw.

There were so many great entries, and a lot of nice things were said about myself and my various products.  Thank you so much.

Just after the video below, I headed into the Fitness Centre in the recreation center to train a rotator cuff injury client that came from Victoria to see me.  While I was there, I saw 4 other fitness professionals that recognized me and who had very kind things to say about the blog.  Thank you.

Now, here is what people have been waiting for:

The Winner of the Knee Injury Solution program is……

This is what the Winner of the Knee Injury Solution Program gets…..

Can the Knee Injury Solution Program Help You or Your Clients?

If you would like to see if the Knee Injury Solution could help you with your knee injury or your clients with knee injuries,  CLICK HERE to find out.

Thank you so much for reading the blog and for leaving comments.

Please keep commenting even if there is not a prize to be won!

Have a great day, and I will talk with you on the blog soon.

Rick Kaselj, MS

I took a break from research reviews.  Well not a review, kind of a filtering down to help you, compared to a full-blown research analysis.

During the break I was getting feedback from you on what you want to see.

I have heard you loud and clear on the things that you want to see when it comes to injuries – elbow injuries, ankle injuries, shin splints, iliotibial band syndrome, tensor fascia latae issues, acute injury recovery tips, chronic pain injury tips, and dealing with pain at the back of the knee when walking.  I will be working on this throughout 2011.

Let me clear out a few of the papers that I have put to the side and still need to look at.  Now let’s get to the article.

What They Looked At

They looked at 10 anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury videos from women during handball and basketball in order to determine what biomechanical factors lead to the ACL injury.

Here is an example of the injury that they looked at:

What they did for the video analysis was very cool in the article.

Cool Points

Few cool things that they said in the introduction:

• Noncontact ACL injuries in women occurring during cutting or one leg landing movements.

What They Found

• At initial contact there was a valgus movement (knee going in).
• The tibia rotated internally and then externally.
• ACL injury occurred at about 40 milliseconds mark after initial contact.
• The mechanism of injury was the valgus movement of the knee with the tibia rotated internally, and then after the tear, the tibia externally rotating.
• The valgus and internal rotation movements contributed to the ACL injury.

A few other things that are not in the abstract:

• 6 injured left knee and 4 right.
• ACL injury occurred during the game and were handling the ball.
• There was a rapid valgus movement of 12 degrees.
• There was a low flexion angle and injury.

Here is a great visual from the paper that I thought was great on how they feel a noncontact ACL injury occurs:

Take Home Message

Focus of a Prevention Program - Prevention programs should focus on good cutting and landing technique with knee flexed and without valgus loading of the knee.

More than Lines and Side Shuffle - I remember when I played basketball.  All we would do for prevention were lines, side shuffles, and drills.  This does not cut it anymore.  More needs to be done with landing and preparing the knee in all planes of movement.  This can easily be done with an 8 minute program that focuses on neuromuscular re-education of the knee.  This can be done before a game or as a drill during practice.

Where to get more info – Koga H, Nakamae A, Shima Y, Iwasa J, Myklebust G, Engebretsen L, Bahr R, Krosshaug T. (2010). Mechanisms for noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries: knee joint kinematics in 10 injury situations from female team handball and basketball. Am J Sports Med. 2010 Nov;38(11):2218-25. Epub 2010 Jul 1.

I go through my knee injury rehabilitation exercises here:

If you are looking for other ACL articles to read, I have a stack of them:

Thank you so much for reading.  Let me know if you have any questions or what you think in the comment box below.

Rick Kaselj, MS

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In March of this year I was in Indianapolis.

I was there to live one of my dreams, which was to go to the NCAA March Madness Final Four Basketball Tournament.

It was an amazing experience.

Yes, it was Madness.

While I was out there, I met up with Mike Robertson.

While we were chatting about things, we did a quick video answering a question that I got from a blog reader about knee pain.

Have a look and listen to what Mike had to say:

(REMINDER – The Bulletproofing Your Client’s Knees & Lower Back Course increases by $100 this Wednesday.  So if you want to go, save $100, learn great practical stuff, and get your CECS, CLICK HERE)

What to do About Knee Pain Due to a Sloppy Knee?

Read the rest of this entry »

I like when I get to go to conferences, seminars, and courses.  I learn a bunch of new stuff, and am reminded of stuff that I forgot – plus I get to meet other trainers, coaches, and therapists.

The cool thing I have seen of late is health and fitness professionals specializing more.

As you know, my specialization is effective exercises for injuries.

One person I ran into that specializes is  Rochelle Gravance.

I have interviewed Rochelle before.  CLICK HERE to view the other video I had done with her on knee pain.

You Need More Than Exercises to Overcome Knee Pain

Read the rest of this entry »

After sending out the update on Muscle Imbalances Revealed 2.0, one of the contributors of MIR, Dean Somerset, sent me a great guest blog post for you.

Muscle Imbalances Part 2: The Long and Short of It

The 3 Hams

What is the solution?

I was happy to find this research.

I know, I try to do these research blog posts once a week.  I like them and I learn a lot.  I hope you do as well.

I know, it ends up being once every two weeks.

Here we go.

What Increases Your Risk of Another ACL Injury?

It is research day.

I like research day.

This week I looked at what is new in Journal of Orthopaedic Sports Physical Therapy and International Journal for the Spine.

Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome and the Hip

What they Looked at

It is thought that the hip during weight-bearing activities contributes to patellofemoral pain syndrome.

They looked at knee and hip motion during stair stepping (ascending and descengin) in female athletes with and without PFPS.

What they Found

What they found was females with PFPS descend stairs with the knee in a more flexed position and have the hip in a more adducted and internally rotated position at foot contact during stair stepping at a comfortable speed.

Take Home Message

The take home message is for those with PFPS, their gluteus medius is not working and needs to be addressed.  I go into this in detail in the Core Stability of the Hip program.

Where to get more details – McKenzie K, Galea V, Wessel J, Pierrynowski M. (2010). Lower extremity kinematics of females with patellofemoral pain syndrome while stair stepping. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010 Oct;40(10):625-32.
Read the rest of this entry »

Today I got a great video for you.

7 Exercises to Help You Improve Your Squat

I had a few emails from people asking for videos of ACL surgery.

I spent some time on YouTube and picked out the best ones I could find.

Here are two.

I hope they help show you what an ACL injury is, how they determine if you have an ACL injury and how they do the ACL surgery.

ACL Injury & Surgery Information

I like this video because there is great information on what the ACL is, causes of an ACL injury, how they test for an ACL injury, how they determine an ACL injury and how they do the ACL surgery.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is part 5 of my knee pain and knee injury series.

If you missed part 1, you can see it here. If you missed part 2, you can see it here. If you missed part 3, you can see it here.  If you missed part 4, you can see it here.

Risk Factors and Incidence

It is estimated that the overall ACL injury rate in the United States is about 200,000 annually. This figure suggests that 1 in 300,000 individuals in the U.S. will sustain an ACL injury for the first time each year. ACL injuries commonly occur between the ages of 14 and 29 years, occurring in non-athletes and athletes. Those engaged in football, soccer, basketball, soccer and skiing activities are the most susceptible to ACL injury in the athlete group.

I got  a guest post for you.

It is from Ben Greenfield.  I have been reading his stuff for some time and I asked him to send me a blog post.

I liked it and I know you will as well.  It talks about inflammation which is a huge issue in recovery from injuries, enjoy.

How To Recover Like Wolverine From X-Men

By Ben Greenfield, MS – Author of The Bulletproof Knee & Run With No Pain

Let’s make just one giant assumption and assume that you know all about Wolverine from X-Men.

You know he possesses animal-keen senses.

You know he competes like a super-human weapon.

You know he has retracting bone claws made from space-age metal.

And, perhaps, most importantly, you know he possesses a special healing factor that allows him to quickly recover from virtually any wound, disease or toxin.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hey, it is a Friday.

A Friday before a long weekend.

Let me take a few minutes to ramble.

Facebook is So Cool!

It is great to get things like this on Facebook:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is part 4 of my knee pain and knee injury series.

If you missed part 1, you can see it here. If you missed part 2, you can see it here.  If you missed part 3, you can see it here.

Here is part 3 of my knee pain and knee injury series.

If you missed part 1, you can see it here.  If you missed part 2, you can see it here.

Muscles

The movements and the stabilization of the knee joint are supported by the quadriceps and the hamstrings. The quadriceps is actually composed of four individual muscles located on the anterior upper leg. These muscles are the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius and rectus femoris. These muscles fuse, forming the quadriceps tendon. The quadriceps straightens the knee by pulling the patella up on contraction.

Ligaments

Medial and lateral collateral ligament