Truth be told, I am shocked the knee has not given me issues before now. I have been putting it through some very serious work lately. My latest program is Tapout XT which lives up to all of its hype as a very intense workout. I have made it through P90X, Insanity, Asylum and three rounds of Turbo Fire and the knee has managed to be fairly pain free. But, there are several things at work here which makes it an actual shock that I am only now dealing with this knee injury.

First up, I am a woman. Because of the way that the knee joint is formed in a woman's leg she is at an increased risk of serious knee injuries, especially the torn ACL. Most of these injuries will involve some form of surgery and may spell the end of certain activities, depending on how well the knee heals as well as age and weight. Second, without revealing my age, the risk factors for certain knee injuries go up starting at age thirty five and climb every year after ward.

All of the programs that I have used in the past were high intensity and all included some jumping and some directional changes. In my first round of Turbo Fire, I did all of the modified moves so there was no jumping. At the time it was probably in my best interest to do so because I had not lost enough weight to make the jumping a reasonably safe thing to do. By the time I go to Insanity I was not only able to jump but was able to do so without serious worries that I would hurt myself in the process.

In addition to all of these factors, I have a previous knee injury that cost me not only the pain of the initial accident but a rather frustrating rehabilitation process as well. To add insult to injury, my leg is so short that the immobilizer that they put on me at the time would pinch me in odd places and left me feeling more miserable than before. Yes, I am back in the immobilizer once again.

This time, the doctor who looked at my knee in the emergency room listened to my regular training schedule and discussed my health status fairly and honestly. Because I am a no holds barred kind of call doing extreme workout programs he said that I could expect at least one or two set backs with this injury- because again, I am a woman of a certain age with a woman's knee. Here's to hoping that my set backs are few and minor and that I am back into my schedule where I left off without losing any of my stamina, speed, strength or form.