Hi friends,

Social media is an interesting place in the healthcare community, and it can be difficult to discern good advice from bullsh*t.

I want to talk about the type of posts where a "healthcare specialist" labels a few exercises that claim to fix your "fill in the blank" pain.

While they may be useful to a select few, these general exercises don't address the root cause of your pain.

For example, let's say that someone tells you to do clamshells and bridges to target your lateral knee pain. Great. But what if your pain is coming from something completely different? Those exercises might be useless for you.

Here are just a few things that can cause lateral knee pain:

• Lateral collateral ligament sprain

• Meniscus tear

• IT band syndrome

• Lumbar radiculopathy

• Peripheral nerve entrapment

And that's just scratching the surface. These are just a few potential causes of knee pain, and each diagnosis requires specific interventions to address the strength, mobility, or neuromuscular deficits.

Your knee pain is not the same as everyone else's knee pain.

YouTube and Instagram can have some valuable information in educating you on pain. But ultimately, every person is an individual and should be treated as such.

Your biomechanics, your history, your pain patterns—they're unique to you.

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all approach to treating knee or back pain, so the best advice I can give is to seek out a specialist near you to help you figure out why you hurt.

Pain is a complex phenomenon that is caused by social, psychological, and biological factors. It's not just "do these three moves and you're fixed." A movement expert can help guide you in making a program that addresses each aspect of your specific pain.

So the next time you see one of those flashy posts promising to fix everything with a few simple exercises, take it with a grain of salt. Your body deserves better than a cookie-cutter approach from someone who's never even assessed you.

Until next week,

Kevin

✍️ Quote I’m reflecting upon

“If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”

— Mother Teresa

❤️ Things I’m enjoying

1. TV Series - Squid Game. I’m just finishing up season 2 of this Netflix thriller and it is just as good as the first.

2. Exercise - Hack squat. Exercise variation is a great way to prevent injury and to add new stimulus for muscle mass and strength. I’ve been doing the hack squat once a week to compliment the barbell backsquat that I’ve been doing for years. Even though they are the same relative movements, each exercise has the potential to work different muscle fibers and motor units.

3. Song - “Could You Be Loved” by Bob Marley & The Wailers.