The BIGGEST secret in regaining & maintaining the functional health of my knees, was NOT do more knee specific rehab !.
And this secret was what allowed me to get back to consistently exercising, playing sports, and doing the activities that I love (and honestly keep me sane around my family and career 
).
The challenge most of us active individuals have is that we are regularly dealing with tweaks, tightness, recurring injuries, &/or chronic soreness, whether: fitness junky, weekend warrior, or just a person who is constantly moving each day…
And as we all know when these injuries or even tweaks occur, we can’t stay active the ways we love week in and week out.
Unfortunately, this often gets us in the dreaded “SYMPTOM CHASING” cycle, where we get localized treatments to the impacted area in the short-term…
Which may often be needed in the initial weeks after an injury or surgery, but beyond that don’t resolve the full body issues which are the root causes of our recurring soreness & injuries 
.
Then over the years our body starts to feel more and more out of balance from all the compensations it has learned, more tweaks and injuries show up, and more treatments needed…
I know this cycle all too well, and have personally experienced not only how it impacted my physical body, but also my daily energy levels around my job and family, as well as my mental sanity.
So what was the secret? Retrain my CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM how to move my body correctly again, by first relearning to move well…
Then, practicing those good movements over and over and over again, in mini 30sec breaks throughout each day.
Every hour or two, still to this day, I get up and go through 1 or 2 full body exercises that wake up my CNS and remind it how I want it to move consistently.
These exercises obviously vary from person to person from what they need at their stage of recovery.
If just coming off an injury or surgery, it could be a gentle range of motion movement, or it could be 5 fast twitch squats in a particular way to set us up for skiing this season, or anywhere in between.
No matter what though, the #1 secret that has made the BIGGEST difference for not only myself, but EVERYONE my team and I work with is retraining our CNS by, as Gray Cook puts it: “First, move well. Then, move often.”
Write a “
” in the comments if you can relate to the SYMPTOM CHASING cycle.
Wishing you the best with your fitness & health goals going into the new year.