I'm constantly telling people to look up physical therapy movements/stretches for whatever they've got going on. Slept wrong? Tweaked your neck? You absolutely do NOT have to suffer with that until it goes away on its own, they can show you how to fix it.

If your insurance covers it, go see one! Them being able to actually see and feel what's going on specifically with you makes them markedly better at their jobs.

Can’t find the link now but a very comprehensive analysis of surgery vs physiotherapy for lower back issues found that physiotherapy was as effective as invasive, often dangerous spinal surgery. The only difference was time - surgery with recovery + recovery physio fixed the pain in about 4-6 months, while physiotherapy took 18-24 months

But on the plus side, physiotherapy is “free”, has no real risk, and most people who opted for the physiotherapy path found that they were happier and also fixed a lot of other pains simply because of regular stretching and exercise

Would be great if you could find that link.

I f'd my knees running track in HS - i suspect some kind of structural problem that alters the way my knees move. Sr year wsa awful, i was just about crawling to class in the morning. MRIs showed nothing and I learned to live with it and eventually it got better when I stopped running.

10ish years later I had started riding my bike a lot during the dotcom explosion induced downtime, I kept it up after I was employed again. Knee pain came back. Went to the ortho again, this time was told "oh you have a torn meniscus, lets go fix it.

So I went under and woke up to be told that my meniscus was fine, and that I had worn grooves through the cartilage and into the bone - doc told me to never run, jump, ski, ride, etc. I was to sit on the couch.

Somehow I ended up taking karate, and the knees hurt for a bit, but the stretching we did helped loosen up my hams and quads. It didnt make the knee pain go away, but it made it tolerable in that it no longer affected my day to day.

riding a bike someone told me - pedal 90 rpm, otherwise it is hard on your joints.

I tried it.

At first I felt like I was all knees and elbows akimbo. Felt like I was learning coordination for the first time. But after a while it worked fine and became my method of cycling.

I think it works your heart a little more, less strain on your frame (body), especially pulling out from a stop. Higher gearing on your bike helps.

Please share which stretches helped you.

These are the ones: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2gS8RYc9lus

"Frog Mobility" -- Get on hands and knees, spread knees but keep your feet closer together, rock back towards your heels and forward.

"Frog Cat/Cow" -- Same position as above, but tilt your pelvis; curve your back up then down.

"Tactical Frog" -- I haven't done this one yet, but it is frog mobility but with each rocking forward twist one of your feet up into the air; IOW rock back then as you rock forward keep one knee locked so that your calf/foot stays in the same relative position as you move forward.

these look like they have ... other uses.

Every physical motion has other uses. (Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/940.)

It's helpful to combine fitness with fun.

These may not be the same as the one suggested above, but when I fell back in early 2025, my lower back, discs, spine got wrecked. I was sent to Physical therapy and was giving exercises similar to these which helped me, may help you. Keep in mind that it is not a cure... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wAw1-1MHa4

When you're a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Good thing you were able to find a good alternative solution. I suspect a lot of ailments could be resolved with non-medical interventions, but there's little money to be made there and also, a lot of people want the perceived "easier" way out.

Can you please share which stretches helped?

I had a similar thing happen. What multiple doctor visits could not even diagnose was fixed with resistance band side walks.

When doing stretches, don't forget the opposite side of the equation which is strength.

Not the "I'm going to bench 200lbs" type strength, but the musculature that supports movement.

It's quite easy to always focus on stretching, but not build the muscles that support good movement. You can turn yourself into a floppy noodle, which brings on more injury.

The two kinds of strength are correlated and ability to push heavy weights is super useful. In my experience, it helps.

The body is very weird and finds ways to compensate

I had a football injury when I was 13 that badly damaged my knee meniscus (though I didn’t know it at that time). At 16, I had a complete menisectomy - total removal of the lateral meniscus in my right knee

I was told that I would need to get a transplant and/or new knees in 10-15 years. I was also told that I shouldn’t put too much strain on the knee

I’m now 38 and my knee is mostly…fine. I can run, squat a reasonable amount of weight, walk for miles. Only thing I can’t do is fast directional changes (like in football) or bending down on the lateral side of my right knee

My plan is to extend this as long as possible and hopefully in 10 years, they’ll have tech to fix this for good

Some anecdotal knowledge I can share on why they used to say wait as long as you can for a hip replacement:

We were told this was because it used to be that they could only do the hip replacement surgery once, and the replacement joint would only last around 20 years max.

So basically it had to be for the expected life span of the patient!

But now this is no longer true. Well, in Australia at least with access to modern replacement parts, surgical techniques and specialists!

I could be muddling it up a bit, so happy to be corrected :-)

I recently got told something similar in Europe, and anecdotally anyone who’d had a hip replacement and waited on it regretted not doing it as soon as the doc told them.

This has been my experience with every sports of weightlifting injury I've had and I'm in my 40s. The body wants to heal or at least compensate in some way. Light activity is often better than rest. I've got a knee that is acting up a little bit but I think I've figured out how to keep it healthy while running.

Hey, could I ask which stretch it was?

Look for the reply with "Frog Mobility" in the body, I posted in reply to another comment.

thanks for sharing, that’s wild! i’ll definitely take stretching more seriously now