By Doug Kelsey, PT, PhD
A simple internet search on exercises for knee pain will return thousands of options.
And many of those options can work for some people some of the time.
The exercise selection though, while important, is not the rate limiting step in overcoming knee pain.
Navy Seals know this.
Why?
Because the physically demanding training of a Navy Seal is not a mystery.
The drills, the challenges are not designed to just improve physical strength and stamina.
The larger objective is to train their mindset; to overcome situations that appear impossible, to not give up no matter how daunting the task may be.
In a similar way, someone who has unrelenting knee pain and has watched their life become as narrow as a toilet paper roll, needs the same kind of mindset.
How you do this is executing a plan day after day, always showing up to do your drills no matter how slow or tedious the process might be.
You show up, do the work, work the problem and repeat.
For many of the people I worked with over a 40 year career, this was by far more challenging, more demanding than any of the exercises I prescribed.
Here are a few things from a Navy Seal mindset that you can use.
Discipline and Attention to Detail
Discipline is derived from the Latin discere - to learn. You learn what to do and then practice to perfect the knowledge and the function.
Something as simple as a "quad set", often used in programs for knee pain, has elements that must be performed in a certain way for maximum benefit.
Focusing on what to do and how to do it yields much better results than mindlessly contracting the thigh muscles over and over.
Purpose Driven
What's the point of executing a series of exercises?
If the primary objective is to eliminate pain, there are a lot of options beyond exercise.
Instead, the objective should be formed by your purpose.
Maybe that's something as simple as walking or getting down and up from the floor or maybe it's getting back to a sport you love.
Holding your purpose in mind helps overcome the inevitable setbacks that occur as you train your way out of the problem.
Navy Seals have a strong sense of duty which fuels their relentless pursuit of physical and mental strength.
Likewise, your commitment to the long term objective does the same thing.
Embracing Failure
A Navy Seal often runs into situations, or training challenges in which they fail.
They have learned to embrace that failure and use it to learn, rather than allow negative and ultimately self-defeating thoughts to slither into their mind and take root.
How often have you encountered failure during your recovery from knee pain and how do you most often react?
Many of my clients would feel down, get discouraged and some would even give up.
If you quit, well, you'll never achieve the outcome you desire.
Failure never feels good. If you feel blue, or discouraged, that's understandable.
Feel it, express it and let it go.
Then step back and ask, "What can I learn from this? What needs to change?"
Quiet Confidence
From their training, a Navy Seal develops a level of confidence in their ability to overcome difficult and in some cases life threatening situations.
You likely are not dealing with that level of threat but you can develop that same mindset - a sense that despite the odds, you can do it.
If your mindset is rooted in positivity, you will learn from failures, press on when things seem doubtful and when you have even the tiniest degree of success, it will fuel that confidence.
Look for what has improved, or changed, even if that feels small.
Small changes compound over time.
The clients I worked with who have had the most success all shared one thing - the elements of a Navy Seal mindset.
And, in most cases, it was not something they arrived with in my initial consultation but rather developed over time.
You can do it too.
“The mental work was tougher than the physical work.”
