Everyone has that childhood dream they have always wanted to accomplish when they grew up; some dreamed of being firemen rescuing damsels in distress, others wanted to opt for sport-related activities mirroring large stars like Kobe Bryant, or Wayne Gretsky. For me, I had always wanted to be a dancer waltzing on the stage, awing the audience with my superior flexibility and dance steps, and becoming a star featured on every magazine, appearing on TV shows, and signing contracts.
Honestly, it sounded like an amazing dream in my imagination. I'm sure you've experienced it when your imagination runs wild. I didn't give up on my dream though as I grew up; instead, I began to actively pursue it. That's when it all started to happen.
I would experience exceptionally painful posterior knee pain when rehearsing my dance routine. It felt as if no matter how much talent I had, the posterior knee pain would win over at the end as it began to interfere with my abilities to dance.
Every dance step ended with spurts of pain running across the back of my knee, and what it felt like was my knee cap was about to deteriorate and explode. I felt so embarrassed having to take breaks every few minutes, and the knee pain became exceptionally hard to deal with.
The posterior area of my knee would constantly feel swollen, and as if every single one of my tendons and knee muscles had been strained. It wasn't helping my dream as no one wants to see someone hop around on stage without any ability and no expression other than pain I would be the Biggest joke on stage!
After chugging down pain pills to ease the pain that was running down my knee one day during rehearsal, I realized that constantly consuming pain medications wasn't going to be a permanent solution to the strain on my knees. No matter how much I wanted to perform, the posterior knee pain would eventually catch up to me.
I had to other choice, so I went to a physiotherapist who specialized in treating dancers. I'm not particularly fond of physicians or having someone examine my knee, but after all my training, I just wasn't about to throw in the towel until I had exhausted all of my resources.
After being interrogated by my physiotherapist, I learned that the posterior knee pain I was experiencing was the result of strenuous dancing without properly stretching and resting. Boy was I embarrassed.
In my haste to master the dance steps, I neglected to properly do knee stretches. I figured dancing in itself would be enough stretching, but it obviously wasn't enough stretching for my knee. Strengthening knee and hip muscles are critical in preventing injuries, and stretching the quadriceps, hamstrings, and hip muscles will actually ease the majority of the posterior knee pain by strengthening the tendons and muscles for the intense exercise to come. Stretching your knees actually helps to encourage the muscles to elongate; thus, reducing the strain on my knees when I begin rehearsing.
Also, I had failed to properly allow my knees to rest; I was always short on time with my family, and I was always pushing the limits that my knee could handle. Turns out, I didn't listen to my knees enough. When it began to hurt after rehearsal, it was a crucial sign telling me to allow my knees to rest. I didn't,which led to three exceptionally painful months.
I learned that it is important not to push your limits; instead, let your knees rest until they stop hurting. Accumulation of stresses can actually cause the majority of posterior knee pain.
At the end, I ended up having to rest for a month to heal my knees! Now, that's a lot of time to be resting. On top of that, I had to do proper stretches daily in order to strengthen the muscles that I had strained. It took a lot of time before I could finally perform and rehearse again!
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