Two years ago, I thought a knee replacement was in my near future. After decades of steep scrambling on rough rocky terrain, my knees started screaming at me. X-rays revealed “bone spurs,” for which minimally invasive surgery is no longer recommended. I was told to rely on analgesics, maybe try a topical cortisone shot, wait for it to get worse, and then replace the knee.
Since I wasn’t about to give up hiking, I found a regime I could live with: prophylactic ibuprofen before starting hike and icing afterwards; trekking poles and bands below my knees. I stopped doing the most extreme scrambles and gave my knees time to heal. The symptoms were alleviated, but I thought I was on an inevitable downward trajectory. I would never have believed that my knees could get better.
But they did.
Summers in Tucson, it’s too hot to hike. Usually I leave, but I stayed home in 2012 and spent more time in the gym. I strengthened my knees with systematic targeted exercise (aka squats and lunges) using weights. I had never done this before. I had thought that hiking was my workout, and that the best way to get a good workout was to hike the steepest and rockiest trail possible.
WRONG! The main feature (and pleasure) of scrambling on steep terrain is that every step is unique. It’s completely different from the controlled, focused stress that results in muscle building. I realized that I’d been stressing my joints without building up the muscles that would have reduced that stress. I needed to work out in order to hike.
When it got cooler in the fall, I was AMAZED to find that my knees no longer hurt and that ibuprofen was no longer a necessity. Now I’m hoping to keep these knees for a long time. At least until injectable cartilage comes on the market.