Have you ever stopped to consider the way people talk about the act of stretching? They say things like:

“I have to stretch,”

“We should stretch, right?”

“It’s too (cold, hot, late, windy, insert favorite excuse here) to stretch.”

They hardly ever say:

“It’s a great day to increase my range of motion.”

“That was some awesome strength, let’s combine it with some killer length.”

“I want to be as flexible as Gumby on a griddle. Let’s stretch Pokey!”

I say lose the word stretch and all of its negative mutations. Pursing flexibility is really about “range of motion training” or “motion training” for short. Flexibility work trains your muscles, bones and joins to operate in fuller ranges of motion, giving you freedom of movement and protection from injury.It’s time to think about flexibility as a positive, desirable part of your fitness life. Here are a few excellent phrases to get you started:

“Sorry dude I can’t bench press now. I’m focusing on motion training today”.

“Gee honey, maybe if you did more motion training you could scratch you own back.”

“Wanna see me grab my toes? That motion training is really paying off!”

It’s time to show flexibility some respect. Why is it that running without stretching is considered a workout and strength training without stretching is considered a workout, but flexibility training is not (usually) considered a stand alone workout. This is a shame because range of motion is every bit as important as endurance or strength. Without healthy, flexible joints and muscles strength and endurance activities become impossible. A flexibility session is every bit as important as any other component of fitness. Take this moment to consider how you really feel about stretching? Do you think it’s slow and boring? Is it something to be endured like taking out the trash or cleaning the bathroom? Do you check out and day dream when you’re stretching or are you fully present and aware of what’s going on with your body? Are you doing the same stretches you learned in junior high and do you wonder how long you’re really supposed to hold each position? Consider how much time you have invested in revising your flexibility routine, learning new stretches or setting new goals and you can see why you might be bored, confused or both. Come back next week for ideas on how to spice up your flexibility life and make motion training a valued part of your fitness routines.

Ignoring a nagging, chronic pre-injury is a risky proposition, especially in a weight bearing joint. That is because once you are feeling pain in your precious knee, hip or ankle lots of damage may have already been done.

Cartilage, the miracle substance that lines the articulating surface of joints and allows bones to move pain-free, has no nerve endings. It will suffer in silence, allowing itself to be worn away, eaten alive by misguided inflammation or other wise destroyed and not utter a peep. Think of chronic inflammation and swelling like cartilage dissolving acid. As it attempts to clear out other foreign bodies in the joint it will also eat your joint cushions for lunch. Pain is not usually felt until the bone and nerves below are exposed. Things you should not ignore or tough-out:

• An old injury to a major joint that is chronically swollen. For a good rule of thumb compare the size of the battle ax joint to the more innocent one.
• Decreased range of motion in a major joint.
• Pain that is minor and tolerable, but chronic.

Wait too long to have an old injury looked at and you may find yourself like me, forced to undergo surgery and endure a long, psychically painful rehab. I spend most of my time on my couch with my leg elevated making conversation with my monkey slippers and praying to the bone gods that the seeds planted in my cartilage lesions will grow. Pay attention to that that amazing body of yours before its too late, good advice from the bone gods, right monkey slipper, left monkey slipper and me.

Someone burgles your house; breaks a window, comes in, makes a royal mess and helps themselves to whatever they like. So you do what anyone would do: call the police, and if it’s really bad, some professionals to help you deal with the mess. But what if after a day or two none of them wanted to leave? What if the cops ended up on your couch asking how many cable TV channels you get and if anyone in your neighborhood delivers donuts? What if they started helping themselves to whatever was in the fridge, borrowing your clothes and sleeping in your bed (on your side no less). What if the cleaning crew just kept scrubbing, through the paint on the walls, the finishes on the furniture and the porcelain on the bathroom fixtures? What if they turned out to be obsessive monster’s who seemed to gain super human strength from the inhalation of toxic clearing fumes and wouldn’t ever stop no matter how sweetly you asked?

This scenario is a crazy shut-in’s dramatization of what happens to your body when it sustains an injury, also known as the inflammatory response and what happens when that response goes awry. Shut in because I just had a second knee surgery to try and get the damn cops and cleaners out of my knee for good.

The inflammatory process sets in motion a cascade of chemical reactions. At the site of invasion cops called mast cells get the ball rolling by releasing the chemical histamine. As any allergy suffer knows histamine causes things to leak and on cue plasma seeps out of nearby cells in order to slow down invading bacteria. This is one cause of inflammation’s tell tale swelling. Then ass kicking cops without pot bellies called macrophages begin terrorizing unwelcome germs, parasites and viruses. When macrophages get busy they release a chemical called cytokines, which sends a signal back to headquarters that reinforcements are needed. Soon the site is jammed with cop like immunity cells bent on the destruction of unwanted invaders. The cleaning crew is right behind to dissolve any thugs or unwanted materials in their wake. This well orchestrated immunity response prevents infection and destroys any unwanted bodily invaders.

But sometimes the process doesn’t shut down in order to allow healing to begin. For whatever reason, and there are many, the cops and cleaning crews don’t leave and chronic inflammation sets in. When this happens the processes that were designed to keep the body safe eventually begin to destroy it, as healthy tissue is irritated and destroyed by the ever vigilant immunity cells.

I had chronic inflammation in my right knee and the cops and cleaners took a bunch of my cartilage, the smooth surface on your leg bones that allows your knee to move pain free, before I finally had my swollen knee looked at. There had been a battle going on in my knee for years, ever since I had had my original ACL replacement surgery, and I had chosen to ignore it. The inflammation had caused some stiffness and warmth, but it had never been (too) painful. I had chosen to ignore it because I didn’t want to be told that I couldn’t do all the things that I loved to do. This was a mistake.

Chronic swelling and inflammation in a joint is a sign that something is really wrong. The bodies healing mechanisms are being overwhelmed and may be turning on the healthy tissues as they attempt to heal the perceived (or real) injury. So if you have chronic swelling in any joint, even if it is not painful, get it looked at by a good orthopedic doctor. If it helps to motivate you imagine a crazed housekeeper scrubbing your joint with a piece of iron wool. Call now my swollen friends, call now.