Balance Your Life

The feet are made up of many bones and muscles to help you move fluidly throughout the world If we did not have feet, you could imagine that we would have a tough time walking or running. Biologically speaking, without our ankles we would not be able to push off our feet with any stability and it would be extremely possible that we would increase the chance of foot pain or much worse, knee and back pain. Those who work in office setting or are not incredibility active, suffer the risk of losing overall stability in the feet and ankles. Increased knee pain was one symptom to have been recognized in a 2002 study of strength and balance. The results from this 30 month long study showed that an overall correlation to balance and joint pain. “…an overall significant decline in knee and ankle strength , and balance..,” (Messier, Glasser, Ettinger, Craven, Miller, 2002). If you experience pain in any of these areas you might want to read on. The most common thing people do when they experience back or knee pain is to take an over-the-counter pain killer. While this may relieve you of the pain symptoms, this can actually further damage the joint and create more pain in the long run. The best thing to do is to take a brief second to analyze the activities in your life. Active people are not necessarily exempt from the pains. As a runner, I used experience pain in my knees all the time. I had tried every stretch possible and even resorted to prescription esthetics. It was not until I had taken a ballet class in college (thank you liberal arts education) that I had found that the strength in my ankles was extremely weak. After a semester of ballet, I never experienced any knee pain while running and subsequently broke the 200 meter record by almost a second in the NCAA conference championships. Many of the exercises employed by instructors at Valley Forge Fitness are designed to strengthen you in ways that would other wise be impossible with barbells and treadmills. No matter if you are training for a triathlon, strong man competition, or specific sport, you have to train properly. Let nature train your body; not machines.