When the Masai and Swiss get together
Few things have been more frustrating for me (in my relatively trouble-free life) than having my left knee give me problems for the past two years. Since Agi and I like to be active it's not been fun to have issues with running, biking or even driving a stick-shift car. I've also held off on playing tennis for over a year.
Over the past two years I tried all kinds of things:
- ignoring it;
- seeing a doctor who recommended taking a huge amount of ibuprofin for a month and stretching a lot;
- getting prolotherapy needle injections for 6 months!...
- walking a lot and not running
- running "through the pain."
Unfortunately, none of this worked. But I am thrilled to say that in the last 3-4 months my knee has improved dramatically. I simply started regularly wearing a pair of shoes called MBTs--Masai Barefoot Technology-- and my knee is much stronger and probably 90-95% healed. (I should probably become an affiliate for these guys and put a link here...haha).
The shoes weren't cheap but were definitely worth it. The idea behind the shoes is fascinating: humans weren't designed to walk around on flat concrete all day long and parts of our knees and other joints begin to atrophy because they're not stimulated as they normally would be if we walked on uneven surfaces. A Swiss engineer made this discovery when he was working with the Masai in Africa and found that NONE of these warriors had joint or knee problems. They walk around barefoot all day and thus keep themselves in good shape (getting eaten by a lion is another matter though).
So I highly recommend these shoes (they even come with a dvd explaining how they work). And yes, I'm off to play tennis with Agi. Adios.