Things I Used to Do Before My Knees Had Opinions

When I started as a trainer ten years ago, I did parkour as a pastime. Not the careful kind. I was throwing flips off of rooftops on a regular basis, on purpose, for fun, in front of witnesses.

This year I turned 30.

I can still do flips on flat ground. I want that on the record. But I have noticed something, and it is the reason I am writing this instead of filming another rooftop video: I am now noticeably more careful about the dropping part.

My knees have started having opinions

That is genuinely the best way I can describe it. They used to just do what they were told. Now there is a negotiation.

Land wrong once at 22 and your knees say nothing at all. Land wrong once at 30 and your knees bring it up again on Thursday. As time goes on, my knees tolerate less and less of my nonsense, and they have gotten very good at letting me know.

Things I used to do without a second thought

• Drop off a roof onto concrete. Multiple times. In a row.
• Skip the warm up entirely because the warm up was boring.
• Sleep four hours and train anyway.
• Sit cross legged on the floor for two hours and then stand straight up.
• Carry something heavy up a flight of stairs in one trip out of pure stubbornness.

I still do one of those. I will let you guess which one.

Here is the part that is actually the point

I am not telling you this so you feel better about your knees, although if you do, good. I am telling you because of what I had to do about it.

I do the exercises. The same boring, unglamorous, nobody-films-them exercises that I give my clients. Hip thrusts. Hamstring curls. Squat patterns done properly instead of quickly. The stuff that has no highlight reel.

I am not vigilant about this because I am a trainer. I am vigilant about this because I would like to still be doing flips at 45.

Growing up, I watched all the men in my family end up with protruding beer bellies, barely able to keep up with the kids. Strong, some of them, but no endurance and no capacity. I made a decision a long time ago that I will be damned if I end up fat and feeble.

You do not need a rooftop for any of this

Most of my clients have never done a flip and have no plans to start. Their version of this is different. It is getting off the floor after playing with a grandchild. It is a flight of stairs at the office without thinking about it. It is a trip where you walk all day and you are fine the next morning.

The mechanism is exactly the same. The joint tolerates what you have trained it to tolerate, and it tolerates a little less every year you ignore it. That is not a doom sentence. It is just a maintenance schedule, and almost nobody is told they are on one.

So no, I am not going to tell you that you are too old, or too far gone, or that the damage is done. I am 30 with loud knees and I am still throwing flips. I am just doing my homework first.

If your knees have started having opinions too, book a free discovery call. We will train around what hurts and build up what is weak, in your own living room, with no gym and no contract.