The 'Secret Sauce' For Overcoming Knee Pain While Hiking

In this episode we explore a few ingredients which go into the 'secret sauce' of overcoming knee pain (and other type of pain) for your hiking adventures. 

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If you are a hiker who struggles with knee pain, and are interested in exploring what a specific and structured program can do for you, email me at [email protected] with the words "I'm interested'.

From there we can have a chat, and see if and how one of our options may be right for you. 

Episode Transcript:

[0:00] All right, hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen. So in today's episode,

[0:03] we are talking about the secret source to overcoming knee pain while hiking. And I'm going to be telling you a couple of different stories about hikers and their journeys to overcome knee pain. And by the end of this, I'm pretty sure you'll have a good understanding around what this secret source is. Now, I will also say, you know, this is specifically talking about two different hikers who struggle with knee pain. However, this same ideas, this same source, as I'm going to put it, is relevant for pretty much any pain prevention journey. So, if you do struggle with foot pain, ankle pain, back pain, hip pain, whatever it may be, it can still be very, very relevant to you. So, let's start with the first story. Story number one was a hiker that came to us and they were a long-time hiker. They had lots of things they want to be doing and they struggled with knee pain. They came on our program and they'd signed up for 12 weeks of training, so three months worth of training. And they said, look, I'm really sick of this knee pain. It's been bothering me for ages. I've tried a bunch of things, but it hasn't really worked. So I'm taking this chance to come on board and get on top of this. And essentially, when we first started working together.

[1:18] We sat down, and as with every single client and every single hiker that we work with, regardless of whether it's pain prevention or not, we basically tell people there's three big things that we need from every single hiker in order to see results from our programs. And we say this to every single person. So if you've been on a call with us before, or maybe you're with a hiker with us, these are going to sound really familiar. Now, expectation number one, and we tell everyone this, is that we need you to trust the process. In the sense that a lot of people come into these journeys and they have a particular way of going about things they've done in the past. Maybe they've done personal training in the past. Maybe they've got a background, a training, or whatever it may be. A lot of people have their own particular way of going about things which they've done in the past.

[2:01] And at Summit Strength, we do have our own particular way of going about things. We've got our own methods. We've got our own systems, the way we go about things. What we tell people is if you're coming on our program, what we do need you to do is potentially put aside what your previous knowledge it is and just trust the process that we lay out for you. And what that means is trust that we have a longer term plan for you, trust that we're doing everything we can to get you where you want to be, and trust that what we actually lay out for you is kind of what we want you to do. So that's expectation number one, and we have this conversation. Number two, and again, we tell every single hiker this, we need you to communicate. Now, this is so, so, so, so crucial for any hiker that we work with in the sense that, and even more so with pain prevention journeys, because communication is a really big thing. Because if people are struggling with things or something's not working for them or whatever it may be, we need to know as coaches so we can adjust, we can stay flexible and we can keep things moving forward and we can address things quickly and early and make a difference. And then expectation number three that we tell everyone is we kind of need them to stay positive through the ups and downs in the sense that every single training journey.

[3:13] Is never a linear process. You know, we do not expect to be every single week to be good. We do not expect to continually every single day, every single week get better. There is always things that come up. People get sick, people go on holidays, people get stressed out, and people have scheduling changes. In the particular situation or pain, we say, look, there will be flare-ups. There will be sort of periods where the knees or the body gets a bit uncomfortable. And what we need to do is during those times, just make sure we keep this longer-term ambition in mind, keep on moving towards that, as opposed to completely falling off the wagon. So at the start of this journey, we covered these three things. We said, hey, is this doable? And they were like, yep, absolutely. So we started going into the training and we worked through a program where incorporating some strength training, some cardio, some hiking programming,

[4:01] and some recovery mobility work. And in the first six weeks, it all went really, really well. We actually saw some really, really quick changes in the discomfort. And in the first two or three or even four weeks, I can't remember exactly what it was, but we actually saw a big reduction in regards to pain. Things were feeling more comfortable both on and off the trail. They could get out there and do their hikes and like, oh yeah, this is really, really feeling good.

[4:28] And realistically, when we're looking at this type of thing, and when we see these sort of short term changes in regards to pain, it's not usually a case of saying, hey, all this training is really, really working for me in the sense that we build all this strength, we build all this fitness, we build all this resilience. We know as coaches, it takes a little bit longer for that type of stuff to properly kick into effect. Typically, when we see these really short-term changes, it's usually coming from maybe asking people not to do things that aggravate them, or maybe asking people to be a little bit more conservative with their hiking, or maybe asking people just to do some simple stretching and mobility, which can give a bit of pain relief, or whatever it may be. So as coaches, we're pretty aware that these short-term things are great, but there's often a long way to go. Now, what ended up happening was around about six weeks, after all these really, really good results, and about five weeks or six weeks worth of hiking really comfortably, this particular hiker went out and did a hike. It wasn't too much more dramatically more than what they'd been doing before, but maybe the trail was a bit rougher from memory, and they went out. And what happened was, on this hike, they got knee pain again.

[5:40] And they came back and they were like oh my gosh where did that come from that sucked my knee sore i've been doing all this training and all of this like it's come up and it's really really unfortunate and we had a bit of a conversation we were like look you know realistically it's still pretty early days in regards to the training you know these types of flare-ups as we sort of said in week one it's to be expected sometimes they can just come out of nowhere and the pain prevention journey there are so many factors that can contribute to pain So we discussed a plan. We said, look, right now we want to help the knee recover. We're going to do what we can to settle it. We want to adjust your training so we can keep you moving forward while the knee is settling. And then we're going to keep on chipping away at this because we are literally only at the halfway mark in regards to this journey together. And that was what we sort of explained.

[6:27] And what ended up happening was that was the last we ever heard from them. And for the next six weeks, every single message went unresponded. Not a single session got ticked off, and we really never heard from them again, which was really unfortunate because going back to those initial things that we talked about, trusting the process, we had a long-term plan. We were chipping away. We were doing really, really, really well. We were getting there. But then one thing came up, and instead of being flexible and adaptable and working around it and keeping positive because we've been seeing all these really good results, one thing completely threw them off the wagon, which is a bit of a shame. Because looking back, I haven't really heard anything much from this particular hiker in a while, well, in a long while, but I would hazard a guess that the knee pain is probably still there.

[7:18] Now, story number two, very, very, very similar story. This particular hiker, again, signed up with us wanting to get on top of knee pain while hiking. We had that conversation at the start. We said, trust the process, communicate, stay positive through the ups and downs. We started with the training. And even in this particular journey, it was way more up and down than the first one.

[7:41] First week went fine. Second week went fine. Third week got a flare-up, had to reduce things. Fourth week got a flare-up, had to adjust things. Fifth week went fine. Sixth week went fine. Seventh week introduced something that was a little bit more difficult. That went quite tough and we had to really pull things back. And it was kind of a case of almost every two steps forward, one step back. And we introduced things. We're like, hey, we want to try this out for the knee. We want to expose the knee to this type of challenge so we can get stronger, sometimes a little bit too much. So then we adjusted it. We pulled it back. We made it a little bit more doable and then built up. And it was a very, very, very back and forth journey for quite a while.

[8:21] But we had a plan. The communication stayed up. And most importantly, this particular hiker stuck with it and kept on working through and stayed flexible, stayed adaptable and followed that process and right now they are in a awesome position after stringing together months of training they build up that strength they build up that resilience they build up that endurance and we have gone from a position where they could previously i think it was only about 45 minutes where they could actually walk before they started getting flare-ups to now they're doing miles and miles on the trail with a loaded day pack and they're feeling really really confident and they're at this point where they're like you know what, I've got this big, big, big adventure that I'm planning for for this year and I'm going to do it. I'm feeling happy. I'm feeling great. I'm feeling confident. And they have transformed from this hiker who was on that verge of like, oh my gosh, I'm never going to get on top of this to like, you know what, it's almost there now. Can you tell the difference between the two stories?

[9:23] If you can't i'll lay it out for you number one consistency consistency over time is the one of the most important things because pain prevention journeys can take a while building up strength and significant strength to affect pain can take a while building up fitness and, exposing the knees to all the different challenges that you see on the trail can take a while it It takes consistency over not just one or two or three or four or five or six weeks.

[9:57] Typically, it usually takes nine, 10, 11, 12 weeks for the first real significant changes to begin. Some people a little bit slower, some people a little bit quicker. And then after that, that's when all the good stuff happens, when we can continue to apply things again and again and again and again. So consistency, ingredient number one in the secret sauce. Ingredient number two in the secret sauce is staying positive, being aware that one flare-up is not the end of things, being aware that if something goes wrong, you just need to step back, reconsider, let it rest, and keep things moving forward. And yes, we don't want to just keep on running into the same issues and keep on poking the bear, but we want to stay positive because there is a line at the end of the channel.

[10:50] That's ingredient number two. And the ingredient number three is staying flexible and adaptable, in the sense that no matter what is going on with your knee or with your ache and pain, there is always something you can be doing to work around it. So for example, if you've gone out on a hike and you've been training, training, training, and then all of a sudden you go on a hike and it's uncomfortable and the knee flares up, then you're probably not going to continue with the original plan for that week. But then you want to think about, okay, adaptable. What can I do to rest my knee right now? What can I do to speed my knee along and speed my recovery? Number two is what can I do to adjust my training in these first days that I can still keep on moving things forward, but it's not going to aggravate my knee. It's going to be appropriate for that and not be uncomfortable. And then number three, when I'm kind of midway there and then the flare up is kind of halfway there, but it's still maybe a little bit uncomfortable. What can I do to again, push things forward while that's getting to normal.

[11:51] Or in the situation, if we say introduce something, like an example in story number two was at a certain stage in the training, we've been doing a lot of flat walking and a lot of flat hiking. And one week we were like, look, we want to introduce some specific hill sessions because we know this is a trigger. We know this is going to be tough. So we want to introduce this and slowly build things up. And with the first week we did it.

[12:16] The NEAF letter. And we're like, oh, okay, the original plan, maybe that was just a little bit too much. So, we were flexible. We were adaptable. And we were like, you know what, actually, what we're going to do is we're going to take the initial session that we did, we're going to reduce it. We're going to make it a little bit more doable. We're going to pull it way back. And then we're going to slowly build up. And again, that's just another thing of being flexible and adaptable. The secret sauce, it isn't so secret. Consistency over time, doing the right things, staying positive over these longer-term journeys, and staying flexible and adaptable.

[12:46] Really, really, really important things. I'll tell you, I've worked with so many hikers over the years. I've worked with so many hikers who struggle with pain over the years. And these things, they're just so, so, so crucial. And I would sort of say, like, I won't say this is 100%, but the grand majority of hikers who see success have these things. And probably the grand majority of hikers who don't see the results they want, maybe are missing something here. And again, I won't say it's 100% because pain can be complicated. Some people have really long, drawn-out processes. Some people have things that actually need different interventions or whatever it may be. But for the vast majority of people, it kind of falls into this.

[13:32] So if you are going on a bit of a pain journey or if you struggle with an ache or pain and you're considering a pain journey, just keep these things in mind. Training takes a while to kick into effect. You may get quick results in one way or another, which is great, which is fantastic, but don't get too hung up on that because long-term consistency is key. There will be bumps in the road. You'll get sick. You'll go on holidays. You'll have to go on a road trip and be cramped up in a car for 10 hours, and you'll have a massive flare-up. You'll step in a pothole or get knocked over by a dog or slip on the trail or whatever it may be. These things come up, and the people who see the best results are the ones who pick themselves up. They're just around where they're at and they keep on moving forward. Keep this in mind because it's so, so, so important.

[14:21] So with that being said, the very last thing I'll say on this podcast today before I wrap it up, and one of the reasons why I'm talking about knee pain today is this week we are doing a big push looking for hikers who struggle with knee pain on the trail. And specifically, we're looking for hikers who are interested in getting some help with their training and with their programming to help improve their knees, help improve their hiking, and ultimately be able to allow them to get out on their adventures, feeling comfortable and capable, and just feeling confident on the trail. Now, if you did want to learn a little bit more about this and just explore if and how, you know, this may be right for you, what I'd like you to do is email me at rowan, r-o-w-a-n at summitstrength.com.au. Just email me the words, I'm interested, or whatever you want, in all honesty. From there, we can connect. We can have a little bit of a chat. We can dive into your situation and really discuss what's going on with you, your knees, your hiking.

[15:24] And from there, if it does sound like something that feels within our scope of practice, falls within that falls within what we're confident in dealing with and falls within something that we are confident that we can actually help you. From there, we can talk you through one of our packages, one of our training ideas, which may fit into your situation, and we can see if and how it may be right for you. So if you did want to find out a little bit more about all that, and if you want to explore this, please email me at rowan, R-O-W-A-N, at summitstrength.com.au, and we can have a chat from there. So with that being said, thank you so much for listening today. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope it gives you a little bit of insight and we'll talk to you very, very soon. Bye.


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