Re: RC: RE: knees

[JPascu@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/18/99 9:05:54 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
ISLNDGRL@aol.com writes:

> ..thought I was just 
>  doing some compensating for my scoliosis. and being right sided dominant 
and 
> 
>  this all affected my left side...........well then the dislocation 
>  occurred.........the physical therapists........told me about my lateral 
>  (outside) muscles naturally pulling and shifting with age (and less 
exercise)
>  
>  and these muscles actually pulled my patella out and away from the knee.  
( 
> I 
>  don't use my legs to "grip" either)  I had to ride a bicycle lots and lots 
>  and do floor excersises  to develop my other thigh muscles.  Squats were 
> done 
>  well into my months of therapy.......with my back against a wall and ONLY 
>  bending to the point of discomfort then backing up and holding  at  a 
> comfort 
>  zone for as long as tolerated.

This is an excellent example of how our body's uses up it's adaptive capacity 
then we have an injury that grounds us. 
When we feel pain in the pattella we need to look for an imbalance in the 
forces being applied to it. The pattella is inactive and only acts a fulcrum, 
if we are expereincing pain in it then it's not following the correct path. 
The "pull" from the quadraceps is not balanced. 
The squats you are doing are very beneficial. I would make on addition to 
this exercise. If possible have someone hold your quads in place, in "proper" 
orientation while you do the exercise. This will start to "teach" the quads 
to stay where they belong when contracting. 
The same applies to stretching the horse, always take the limp on the "path" 
you want it to follow in normal flight. 

jim pascucci
Advanced Certified Rolfer
www.equisearch.com/ibt


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