What My Knee Injury Taught Me

By: Sumera Garcia-Quadri

Dear members, instructors, and peers,

Since January, I’ve been on an intense rehab journey. Just as my jaw pain got better after two long years, I hit a frustrating setback: knee osteoarthritis, knee tendonitis, and a hip impingement.

Luckily, my youth Baseball back round, sport coaching tools, and my strength, conditioning, and corrective exercise training helped me kickstart my own recovery. Over several months, I moved through what you can call the “Return to Sport” stages which has allowed me to begin jumping again (HUGE! for me) and get back to instructing and dancing more regularly.

However, I realize that not all of our members have sports or rehab training in their back pocket which is why finding the right clinician matters so much.

In a city saturated with stunning clinics, finding the BEST person for your pain and recovery is critical, especially when you’re paying out of pocket. Many clinicians are great at hands-on care, but their exercise plans often stop at the basic level. Because many of you are active outside of our seasonal dance and fitness classes, I feel you would benefit from having an active or athlete clinician who understands high-level movement progression vs. a rest and wait approach. Their goal is usually to get you back to real life as soon as possible without them, instead of keeping you coming back.

Personally, I drive 30 minutes to see a manual osteopath. She was a personal trainer who overcame paralyzing back injuries to Olympic weight-lifting over 200lbs while pregnant. She got my whole body back into alignment to reduce the strain on my hip and knee. Within weeks, I was walking up and down stairs and squatting again with less pain.

If you’re experiencing pain and hoping to return to an active lifestyle OR just trying to stay pain-free, here are 3 tips to finding the best person for you:

Match backgrounds: Look for a clinician (i.e. Osteo, RMT, Chiro, Physio) who lives an active lifestyle and understands the specific demands of your physical activity. If the person has personally overcome injuries, they may have greater empathy and practical knowledge regarding your recovery timeline and which exercises they want to begin using to get you back to real life.
Ask around: Ask friends and family members who successfully bounced back from debilitating injuries about who helped them recover and what they did for them.
I noticed some spaces are not made for kids and seniors (like when they don’t have that wheelchair door opening button) which makes it difficult for them to get good help.
Ask for a return to activity plan: Choose a practitioner who conducts a thorough assessment and can create a clear return to activity plan. They should be able to lead you safely through the stages OR refer you to someone at their work - like an experienced trainer who has training in injury recovery, strength and conditioning, and/or corrective exercise.

Every recovery journey looks different, some days will feel good and some days won’t. My hope is that you find the right rehab person to support you through all of it.

Hoping you dance and move for years to come,

Sumera

I Tried The Retro Walking Trend!

By: Sumera Garcia-Quadri

As part of my summer break routine which focuses on recovery, mobility, and light training, I thought I may as well add in slow RETRO WALKING (basically it's walking backwards).

Retro walking has blown up all over Instagram with some people doing it on a treadmill and others with sledges. Some sports like hockey and soccer train their players to move backwards so that they can see their opponents, which means that they end up targeting and strengthening muscle groups that the average person, like me, does not train everyday. While some dances do have backwards movements, they aren't performed for long period of time.

After reading some articles by Cleveland Clinic, McGill, and UCLA (cited below) on retro walking and learned that it can help reduce knee pain, burn more calories, and work the glutes, hips, and hamstrings more than forward walking which relies on calf and quad muscles more, I knew I had to hop on board.

Here’s what I found from backwards walking off the bat:

It’s FUN! I ended up laughing a lot as you see in my clips because it felt funny doing it
I didn’t feel any pain in my knee joints or on the bottoms of my feet, specifically my arches. This was a BIG bonus for me as I still need to move while I recover from right knee pain and foot arch pain caused by fallen arches.
I was pretty slow because I didn’t want to hit my toes against anything and hurt myself. This forced me to concentrate and make a mind, body, and soul connection.
It forced me to stand up tall (like a posture correction) so that I wouldn’t loose balance and fall
I felt my hip flexors and heels take on a lot of the impact (not sure if this is good for me yet)
I found that walking backwards with weights in both hands or in one hand pushed me down into my heel and toes
I will continue to do backwards walking with weights because it has not hurt my knees or feet so far
My tips if you’re going to try it out:
have a clear space free of any objects and toys and put padding on anything sharp
start with your shoes on to prevent any slip and falls and hurting your feet and ankles
try walking backwards close to a wall in case you need to hold it for support
do not use any weights yet

Check out the articles below for more about walking backwards and it’s benefits:

Cleveland Clinic: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/benefits-of-walking-backwards

UCLA Health: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/walking-backward-may-have-link-increased-cognition#:~:text=It%20can%20strengthen%20the%20muscles,be%20kinder%20to%20those%20joints.

McGill University: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/benefits-backward-walking-are-not-solid-ground

BBC: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231110-why-walking-backwards-can-be-good-for-your-health-and-brain

Performance Lab: https://www.performancelab.com/blogs/joint-support/why-is-everyone-walking-backward-on-tiktok?srsltid=AfmBOopcCrXwq4UAIi04r34tdozu_tNddpB2_BPhjL4qSqYBkQH4W3-m