Fishing in the comment section ...
Richard, thank you so much for your book which I have just come across. Your symptoms and journey are very similar to mine and I have switched from treating my knee pain as a muscular-skeletal imbalance to treating it as a chronic cartilage injury.
I work very long hours at a desk and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the ideal sitting position that allows the knee cartilage to heal. In your book, you mention that you spent a lot of time sitting on the floor. I am giving this a go - legs straight out in front with my knees slightly supported at the back with a pillow so that they aren't over-extended. But as you rightly point out, modern offices aren't set up this way! And there doesn't seem to be anything online about how to work long periods at a floor desk - there aren't even any floor desks.
I exercised my editorial prerogative and cleaned up a few small spelling errors in the above, so as not to detract from the main message: how do you sit at work with a pair of knees that ache and burn when bent?
There probably is no great solution here (well, the best solution is not to have to sit at a desk for eight or nine hours a day, but I realize, most of us don't have the luxury of walking away from our white-collar jobs).
So the first thing I would warn about: Be careful about contraptions that you rig to help alleviate your knee pain. Make sure they don't put a strain elsewhere on your body. I wrote about my underdesk sling that I thought was fairly clever ... until I developed back pain that just wouldn't seem to go away.
Don't trade one problem for another.
The idea of a "floor desk" is interesting, but then: what's your "floor chair" look like? If it's not properly designed, then once again, you could wind up with back pain.
What I would think about trying, if I had it all to do over: an underdesk "pedal exerciser" that I could pedal occasionally, to give my knees very light movement. I even bought one of these for use during my recovery, when my knees every so often would burn a little. It may even have been this one here.
In the end, I never used this exerciser much. The short periods of discomfort just went away, and they're all history now. But if I had more serious chronic knee pain, and I was stuck in an office, I might try it. You have to try something! Don't suffer in silence.
Anyone else with suggestions?
I just elevated mine as often as I could but yes it can start causing some back pain issues but for me that was much less severe than the knee pain. I also found one chair is not equal to another chair. Someone across the hall had a chair that just felt different for me than mine, so she traded with me, for me it was one that was ever so slightly higher than mibe that worked better....so possibly trying various ones is a thought.
ReplyDeleteI recommend getting a standing desk and a stool or high top chair so you can cycle between standing and sitting on the stool. I keep a desk chair around when tired and try to elevate the knee as much as possible then. Also, if you can, taking walks during calls is a good way to break sitting.
ReplyDeleteIf you can work from home and move whenever you need to, take a 10-15 min walk every 3 hours. Do not do squats or anything that annoys your knees i.e running and lifting heavy. Have baths every now and then to relax your legs. Ultimately do what is best for you
ReplyDeleteTo add to this I elevate my legs quite a bit too, especially on a reclining chair
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