Physiotherapists like me. I’m a model patient. I come in before I’m completely laid up with whatever’s bothering me and I do the exercises they assign. I’m disciplined like that. I listen to instructions. I respect their expertise.
That’s learned behavior. It’s worked in the past.
I’m also lucky. I have a great job with excellent benefits including physio and a sports medicine clinic not far from my office door.
I was there Thursday for my initial assessment about my knee pain. So different from family doctors and their usual advice of taking it easy for six to eight weeks and seeing if the pain goes away. The sports medicine team instead focus on keeping you active. (I’ve written before about how much I love their attitude. See Aging and the myth of wearing out your joints.)
If your knee feels better after a given activity, that’s true for Aikido and cycling, go right ahead. If it feels worse, stop now. (Running and I’ve already stopped. It hurts! ) Jury is out on CrossFit. I’ll see what I can do this week.
Their claim, which I believe, is that people do as much or more damage to their bodies through inactivity.
One bad thing about me as a physio patient is that I don’t watch television. Not very much anyway. (Though I’ve mentioned my thing for Once Upon a Time here.) What’s the connection? If you’ve got an hour of physio exercises to do a day, it’s easy. Just watch your favourite show and do your physio homework. Bing bang bong, done.
It’s true I’m watching House of Cards with my partner, Jeff. But he works in Toronto and is there some weeknights. When we pledge to watch something together–and it’s tricky to find something, we have pretty different taste–we generally don’t watch ahead. No Netflix adultery at our house.
So I need a back up physio show. I haven’t watched Orange is the New Black yet and that’s on my list. And this morning Nat posted to Facebook about watching and loving Orphan Black. So I’m scoping out my options.
What’s the physio drill?
Clam shell leg exercises to strengthen glutes, bridges (ditto), also lots of stretching and foam rolling quads and glutes.
That’s week 1. More to follow.
No word back on the x-rays, and I’ve got an MRI in my future, but assuming all that stuff comes back negative–but for mild osteoarthritis which I know about–and it’s just soft tissue stuff, then I should be good to run the Kincardine duathlon in June. (I’d already said goodbye to the Cambridge race in June.
Assuming I do all the physio regularly. Which I will. Because I’m good like that.
Good luck with the physio. I recommend Mad Men, Breaking Bad (my all time favorite), or Weeds (drags a bit in the middle seasons but generally a good show). Also Orange is the New Black. Very good.
Yeah, no Mad Men or Breaking Bad for me. Too many depressed men in mid life crises. Though House of Cards is close to that genre. Prefer sci fi fantasy, aliens etc. Middle class middle aged men in midlife crises not my cup of tea. Just depressing.
I’ve never liked Breaking Bad or Mad Men very much, and haven’t really understood why given all the praise these shows have received. But now I think I do – they really are alot about men’s mid-Iife crisis, aren’t they, on different levels or in different ways? I really don’t and never have completely understood the mid-life crisis thing, and I certainly don’t “connect” with it when watching movies and tv shows – probably because I don’t understand it. Thanks for giving me some insight as to why I’ve never been able to get into these shows!
How about House? I liked that for awhile. But it’s got the angry midlife male at the centre. It’s practically a genre. Think about the Sopranos….
Good Wife is definitely the show for you.
I love that clamshell exercise and I recommend the same drill of watching tv while working out for all of my new clients. It’s an easy way to convert them. That and doing ab exercises during commercials (none on Netflix thought). I recommend Orange is the New Black. Also, if you want a flashback to 80’s soap opera acting with a modern twist, try Revenge.