Are you shredding your joints?

This analogy was a big Ah-ha moment for me.  I was travelling to a conference and had the pleasure of finding myself next to a delightful German woman, who was leaving after visiting her brother in the Rochester, NY area. 

We got to talking about health and she told me a story about when she went backpacking and her knees hurt.  She went to the Doctor and he said, “you can either carry a 30 pound backpack or carry 30 pounds extra on your body but not both.”  She lost weight and went backpacking again and there was no problem with the knees. 

It hit me then that our cartilage is a lot like cheese on a cheese grater.  If you don’t push very hard,  you don’t burn through very much “cheese.”  But when you do push down hard, you can really shred that cheese!  Movement is the cheese grater.  If you are moving with a lot of extra weight on your body,  you are pressing hard on that cheese grater and burning through cartilage. 

Once the cartilage is gone and you get to bone on bone,  there is not much else to do besides a full joint replacement.  If you weigh less,  the cartilage has a chance to recover and you can do so many things. 

I hope and pray that if you have goals of enjoying retirement actively that you can get any extra weight off as soon as possible to give yourself the best chance. 

If you are unsure as to how to get started because you don’t want to burn too much “cheese” during your exercises, you will need to meet with a fitness professional.  They will be able to help you lose weight in a manner that effectively protects your joints.  

Have fun Be Safe!

About the Author:

Jeremy “the tall trainer” Biernat is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Strength Coach, has his Bachelors in Exercise Science, and enjoys writing, speaking, and inspiring people online and in person. See his new book!  More importantly he is a husband, father, and follower of God. His practice is in upstate NY (Canandaigua) where he works with people in one on one and group sessions to make awesome changes in their lives. He doesn’t do everything perfect, cries in movies, and would love to hear from you. You can contact Jeremy by commenting to this post, emailing [email protected], or calling 1(800)380-7047. 

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