Be Kind to your Knees, You’ll Miss Them When They’re Gone

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Life

I really rather enjoy sports. Watching. Playing. At school I was never an all-star athlete or anything, but managed to play for a few teams for everything from lacrosse to tennis and athletics (Can you believe I was a javelin thrower?).

Back when I was just a little ‘un, I remember watching my folks play squash. They used the old wooden rackets and everything. Eventually I played. Enjoyed it a lot. But never picked it up again.

Day 271  Me and my new habit - squash.

Day 271 Me and my new habit – squash.

In August we moved to a new flat in a new building. One that’s got a squash court in the gym. In an effort to maintain some sort of healthy lifestyle (Working from home isn’t kind on the hips.), along with regular gym-ing, the OH and I took up squash.

At the beginning we both sucked. Could barely play for 15 minutes before puffing and panting. It is a brutal sport. Fast forward a couple of months, combined with regular squash with a good friend who actually knows how to play squash, and we’re getting better. Not just that but it’s FUN. Workouts have got to be fun.

BUT. MY. KNEES.

It appears my knees don’t like squash. Or it could just be an injury. My sneakers not being quite right for squash. Whatever. My knees are unhappy. Stupidly, I’ve been trying to ignore the pain. Thinking it’ll go away after a bit more warming up or exercise. Yeah, that ain’t working.

Then I remembered this line from Baz Luhrman’s Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen:

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Now my knees aren’t gone, but when I could barely put my own bodyweight on them today I realised that taking a proper, actual break from squash is probably definitely the intelligent thing to do.

So it’s with a heavy, heavy heart that I’m saying goodbye to squash. For now. Only for now. Definitely only for now. Back to the regular, old gym routine. Pack it with some light leg work, rowing, cycling and get my knees (and legs) up to scratch.

4 Comments

  1. Strengthening the leg muscles in the gym sounds like a good idea, without overdoing it of course! I agree, look after your body πŸ™‚
    I do too much sitting, so for me, varying my position/activity is key, in order to prevent discomfort.

    • Yeah, I do a lot of sitting too – I need to change that up and just get up every half hour or so. Wish I had a standing desk – those are meant to be great for posture and all sorts.

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