On the Run: The ABCs of knees

Paula Wolfson, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – My knees have always haunted me.

My grandmother had really bad knees and used a walker by her 60s. I adored Nana Glick, and it broke my teenage heart to see her move ever so slowly across a room.

I decided then and there that “bad knees” would never happen to me. I began weight training and then cycling (6 a.m. spin class anyone?).

Finally, I turned to running, much to the consternation of my cousin Phil, the rheumatologist who swore that pounding on the pavement would only hasten the family curse.

It did and it didn’t.

No sore knees. Not ever. But there was a messed up right hamstring, not to mention a strained iliotibal band on the same thigh that no one could quite figure out.

No one, that is, until I met Mike Hill, the director of Sports Performance at Georgetown University. I originally went to interview him about ways to prevent knee ligament tears in young female athletes .

Mike asked me to jump off a box about the size of a milk crate: once, twice

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