I’m 21, 6’5" and around 175 lbs. As you might guess I’m quite skinny with no the best posture in the world. I have a slight amount of knee pain also. It’s not always there and doing exercises outlined in Bulletproof Knees and Magnificent Mobility has helped alot.
I don’t really know where to start but my idea is to follow the Neanderthal No More program and focus on improving my posture and mobility with a focus on getting healthy knees. Does this sound like a good idea to you guys?
I’ll sample todays diet so you can see where I am at right now:
Breakfast:
4/5 cups oatmeal (4/5 cups raw oats, not 4/5 cups cooked)
1 cup of milk
Dinner:
1/4 pound beef (Meatloaf)
3/4 cups of rice
Cabbage
This is what I ate/will eat today. The rice is measured in its UNCOOKED state.
My number one priority is to have pain free knees. Secondary is just overall improvement of my posture, strength and mobility. Long term goal is if my knees alow to start practicing BJJ and Muay Thai.
As of now I haven’t done much at all in a gym. I get about 30-40 minutes of walking each day to and from uni.
Serious question: Why do you eat like a fat woman on a diet? You have a BMI of 20,7 (who gives a shit, but that’s close to underweight, especially for a T-Nation member).
Bad knees. Have you seen a doctor? Tried fish oil?
Why are they bad? What kind of job do you have? Do you jog or something? How long have they been bad, how did it happen? What kind of shoes do you wear?
You’re not giving us a lot, but maybe some muscles on your thighs would have been good for your knees.
As I stated in my first post, this is just what I’m eating today. I haven’t thought alot of about the amount of food I eat. Usually I just try to keep it clean and my stomach full throughout the day. My only real reference frame in everyday life is friends telling me I eat shitloads of food, but then they’re not professionals either.
The knees just started out of nowhere. When walking in stairs or similar movements I could feel a sting of pain.
This is getting alot better though since starting with some foam rolling, some mobility exercises and as you said fish oil.
I’m a university student so I guess you could call that my job. I don’t jog I just walk to and from uni wearing Nike Free shoes.
EDIT:
From just reading your answer my first two steps would be to just eat more and see a doctor about the knee. Right?
I think you should see a doctor. Knee pain at your age, level of activity and weight… isn’t that normal.
About the Nike Frees: I haven’t tried them myself, but aren’t those shoes with extra little cushioning? Designed to toughen up your feet gradually until it’s basically like you’re running barefoot or something like that? Since your knees hurt, I think you should (at least try to) wear something with a lot of cushioning. So your knees won’t have to absorb as much force with each step. I actually think this is the problem.
Get good knees by using shoes with more cushioning and seeing a doctor. I like fish oil for my tricep tendons, play around with doses and find out if more is better. Keep in mind that some fish oil pills contain almost no fish oil at all and you’ll need 30 pills a day of those to see an effect. I’d use Flameout if I could.
Eat more, lift weights, get stronger
Do MMA, live happily ever after. While still performing step 2 of course.
I don’t think eating more would be bad for you, but getting much heavier with bad knees wouldn’t be too good for the knees. So knees are your first priority. They lay the foundation for your physical activity for the rest of your life. And by all means, keep doing the things that have improved your knees until now. But shoes and doctor should help.
I might have expressed myself wrong since English is not the native language for either of us.
The pain in my knee is not a chronic pain as in it hurts every time I walk up or down stairs or as soon as I do something. They just sting from time to time and that doesn’t even happen every day.
It has stopped happening more and more since reading and following advice in Bulletproof Knees. The stuff I’ve done is just focus on a proper walking gait and done some mobility work as well as working on recruiting my glutes.
About the shoes, I actually bought myself a pair of Vibram Five Fingers this summer. They have little to no cushioning and they actually helped with the knee pain. Aside from setting my calves on fire they also seemed to improve mobility in my ankles.
I’ll be calling the orthopedic clinic in my town tomorrow and see if I can get my knee checked out!
When I first started lifting I was about your size, 6’4" and upper 160s. Some things I finally learned after wasting a lot of time:
Your lifts won’t be that impressive at first. Mine were laughable, and still aren’t awesome by any stretch. But if you’ll swallow your pride and add weight slowly, use excellent form, it’ll go a long way toward correcting your posture and easing those aches and pains (mine was my right hip instead of knees).
EAT. A ton. You’ve probably got a very fast metabolism, plus it’ll take a lot of weight to fill out a frame that size anyway. Eat as much as you can stand. Do your best to eat healthy, but if you want some pizza, go for it.
Get a yoga basics DVD, or take a class if you can. It’ll go a long way towards injury prevention and help your BJJ when you get that started.
Be patient. If you try to do too much too fast, us gangly thin guys can hurt ourselves pretty easily. Remember that you’ll be old someday, and if you think you’ve got aches and pains now, wait till you’re 60.