My Joints Hurt, Crunch and Throb 
Do your joints hurt? Mine sure used to! When I went away to college, 15 years ago (gasp!), I took up running. I went to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we had a beautiful campus along with a really nice running trail along the river. Running became my getaway, my time to unwind and let go! I was no track star and I wasn’t signing up for any races. It was truly just my happy place. My knees hurt often so I tried to stay off pavement while I was running. I switched from the indoor track to the outdoor track when possible and ran on the grass alongside the track whenever I could. One day, as I was running, in between classes and work, I just fell over on the track. My knees gave out. Later on that night, in the middle of Chimi’s, the Mexican restaurant where I worked to pay my way thru college, I bent down to grab a pack of crayons out of the bottom drawer and right there, smack dab in the middle of the restaurant, I fell over again, this time right onto the dining room floor (embarrassed, much?). My joints hurt and I didn’t know what was wrong. Instead of going to the doctor (hey, I was a college student), I just decided to stop running.
No More Running, but My Joints Hurt Stilllllllllll
I suffered from knee pain for years. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was definitely annoying. I knew it was there. I invested in many knee braces and weird strappy things and ended up going to an orthopedic doctor years later. My joints hurt, but I thought the crunching sound every time I bent my knee was of greater concern. The doctor told me to stop running (I had –years ago–GO ME!), to stay off the stationary bike if I was adding resistance (I had discovered the virtual bike where you can bike up snow covered mountains, so this bummed me out), to take up swimming (which I wouldn’t–not a chance! Have you seen my hair?? Ha!) and to start taking joint medicine daily. I have always loved a challenge and placed great importance on exercise, so I still had to do SOMETHING. I had purchased my husband (boyfriend at the time) P90X after he begged for it after seeing the infomercial. He never opened it, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! I wasn’t sure if it would agree with my knees or not, but I was hopeful!
AMAZINGLY, it helped! I completed the 90 days of P90X and over the course of the program, I strengthened the muscles around my knees, thereby taking the pressure off my joints. They still crunch, but the pain is gone! The combination of the program and the joint medicine, left me feeling young and sprite again 🙂 So, if your joints hurt, I highly recommend P90X or some other strength building program!
Digging Deeper, Jessica Bowser Nelson
P.S. If your joints hurt, try this!