The Tale of Lord Gimpyknees
[11/16/2002] [Corum Hibernius]When I was about 24 years old, I heard of a live-action roleplaying group called 'Barad Duin'. I was a limber and fit fellow when I started playing Amtgard. I remember flurbulating supremely at the time, posing, fighting and punishing my body with no thought of the consequences later on in life. Hell, I was having fun. A few years passed, and I became older, wiser and no longer fell prey to the pitfalls of flurbiness. I had filled out quite a bit, grew a few more inches in height and, if anything, became even more abusive of my body because of the extra 60 pounds I was carrying. Epic battles were fought then, including many tourneys and duels where I would throw myself to my knees with no protection. Yes, it hurt, but I was still young and indestructable. Heck, who cared about injuries? I was a Warrior! Almost 13 years later, I am definitely feeling the pain of those battles past, and I get excruciating jolts of agony every time I try to "quickly" go to my knees after getting legged. That being said, I have picked up some tips to assist all those "Lord Gimpyknees" out there whose knees feel like they should belong to Methuselah. | 1. | Icy Hot is your best friend. Nothing is better than this stuff before and after battling... believe me. | | 2. | Get some protection. Mecs or kneepads are good, but I saw Syko make some leather greaves with MC19 foam sandwiched between the leather and they were wonderfully soft when landing on your knees.
| | 3. | Stretching and P.T. (That's physical training or personal torture, depending on your preference.) I recommend some simple exercises to assist in strengthening the muscles surrounding the knee subsystem. Both a hurdler's stretch and stretching the hamstring will help with the knees. Also, use ankle weights and leg lifts to strengthen the muscles around the knee. This stuff helps and will give you a little added longevity in the game. | Since I have returned after a few years absence, I experienced some of the worst coming-back pains ever, but I have been applying these tips and have seen a much better recovery time after fighting. What used to take nearly a week to recover from is now cut down to a few days. I recently fought in a tourney where I started off doing well, but had a gimpy knee moment and my fighting suffered because I was trying to avoid the jolting pains. Since then, my methods have both given me a new lease on the life of my knees, and will allow me to have fun stickjocking for longer than I had thought possible.
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