If you’re struggling to put your finger on it, to discover the reason why it keeps happening almost every year, at this time of year, then chances are you’re not alone.
The phenomenon that knee joints appear to get stiffer, ache more, clunk more and even swell more when the temperatures drop is one that many men and women aged 45+ can hold there hand up to having suffered.
And many are bracing themselves for another blast of those symptoms heading their way again soon.
A whole host of reasons exist as to why joints in your body, seem to be more problematic come the wintertime. Two villains in the story include the cold temperature naturally restricting the warmth of the blood that flows around your body, and the fact that you’re much less likely to be active or mobile in winter.
Keeping mobile is to your joints the equivalent of spraying WD40 on the stiff rusty joints of a bike or car. It’s essential oil that makes the ride much easier and smoother.
And here’s the thing that many fail to grasp: the long winter months and a sustained period of inactivity can be the root cause of many years of what I call ‘all of a sudden’ life long knee pains.
You see, as your muscles get a long rest this winter, there’s the chance they will atrophy. That means they’ll waste away to the point that they’ll not be able to support your knees like they once could. Worst yet, you’ll likely not even notice it happened.
But when it does, a chain of events is triggered and your knees without support of their big powerful muscles are quite literally being walked by the hand all the way to arthritic and degenerative problems.
The temptation will be for many to almost automatically begin to exercise again when the good weather comes around in a few months time.
Problem is that very few people understand, or even if they do, practice the idea that your muscles and joints must be strong to let you do that exercising.
Lesson number two of this story is that there is a huge difference between exercising and doing exercises. I’ve seen many people fall at the first hurdle when it comes to trying to find life in their stiff achy, knees.
And it’s because they try to run before they can walk. Following any injury or period of activity, you need to rebuild the strength of those muscles (doing exercises) before you can even consider exercising.
And walking is included in that.
Because walking for any period of time with muscles that have been weakened because of an entire winters hibernation, then your putting your self in the line with many others who can never quite work out the day that their knee troubles began.
Reality is that it will have been a period of time like now. A period where you experience a lull in your activity and then think it’s ok to automatically begin to do all of the stuff you did before the break.
Hint: Make the most of any and every opportunity you have this winter to active and keep joints mobile. If you’re lucky, you’ll never get to know what life with “dodgy” knees might have been like had you not.
For more help and advice on this go here www.paulgoughphysio.com/knee-joint-troubles.
You might know Paul as an expert Columnist who writes weekly health articles for TWO of the North East's biggest daily Newspapers, The Northern Echo And The Hartlepool Mail, he is a regular Speaker at Industry Seminars around the globe and a Radio Personality, often heard on the BBC. Paul has been an expert guest on dozens of Radio shows and regularly interviewed in newspapers, magazines and trade journals all over the world, including the Guardian.
Paul’s background included working extensively in the Premier League with a Top Professional Football Team, and since quitting his job in Professional Football in 2007, his Physio Practice has become the fastest growing in the UK and biggest in the North East. So successful, that companies like BUPA, ASDA, The Vela Group And Coast & Country, repeatedly retain his Physio company's services to keep healthy their own staff and workforce. Paul Gough Physio Rooms is now a large multi-physio, multi clinic speciality practice in Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool.
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