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KneePreventionWhat I Do

WHAT I DO: Don’t sit on my foot and ankle

Last week I had a couple of female patients tell me they felt a twinge in their knee when they sat down on their bent knee. Women do this all the time, and I honestly believe it’s built into our ancestral neuromuscular memory, because almost all of us do it, and it’s hard to stop unless you have a stiff knee or hip. You know what I’m talking about. You go to sit down on a couch, and like a giraffe, your leg comes up under you as you dump your weight down into that cushion. You’re getting in bed, and here comes that leg. Why do we do this? The couch and mattress are softer than our foot and ankle. Why would we prefer to sit on them?

As anyone who has read my posts knows, I often break it down to the natural human, and here is why I believe the cavewoman sat on her foot. You gotta go back in time. We’re walking around nekkid as j- birds. Time to sit down. What’s between the grass, sand, ants and our business? Nada. Ergo, we put a foot or calf there. Guys…well, not to get nitty gritty about it, and not to diminish the importance of guy business, but there just isn’t as much business down there on the guys. Maybe easier to brush the sand off, right?

Well, this is 2020, and we usually have two layers of fabric, chairs, mattresses, or Pima cotton sheets protecting our business. And we also live 80 long years. When we sit on our foot, we hyper-flex our knees up under varying degrees of weight, and we pinch our delicate meniscal cartilages between the ends of our bones, just as if we had fallen down on them. When we get to be over forty, our meniscal cartilages weaken, and we’re more susceptible to tearing them. To find out more about this common condition, please read my post on the subject.

And I hate to get all sociological on you, but once again…curling up makes gals look and feel smaller. Guys don’t mind taking up their space…spreading out. Somewhere along the line, diminutive size and strength in women was selected…and we continue. Once again…Sit Like A Man! It’s good for you.

So, just sit down…like guys do. After you drop down in the couch or bed, then go ahead and curl up. Have you ever seen a guy curl up and sit on his foot and ankle? If he does, then bring him a cup of warm tea and a romance novel.

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