Recommendation for anyone who has ankle, knee or hip problems…

Things you learn while figure skating—I applied this one to the daily walk with Jane, and it's made an immediate difference.

Patellar tracking correction, available usually in the Ace bandage display in the pharmacy section of your mega-grocery, or in a drug store. It's a simple band that fits around your leg just under the kneecap, pass one tab through the hole in the other and snug tight. Wearing it under your jeans or outside makes no difference.

To skate well and long on one foot, you need to have your kneecap aligned over the space between your big and second toe, your tail somewhat tucked and your shoulders back. Let that knee go off that track and you'll start to have a problem, culminating in having to catch your balance.

How this applies to ankle, knee and hip pain, including lower back AND shoulder pain: If you walk around with your knee going out to the side (particularly women tend to do this, due to hip structure, likewise bowlegged cowboys) you are throwing your ankle to the side, your hip is having to compensate, and may turn outward, complicating things even further, and your lower back and butt are having to compensate for what the hip is doing. Result: lower back ache, even shoulders and upper shoulders, depending on how much, and on general posture.

When you tighten that little strap around your upper calf, just under the kneecap, you are compelling the knee to track correctly. This allows your hip to align correctly, keeps your ankle from compensating, and straightens your stride. If you have tended to be swaybacked in any degree, work at simultaneously tucking your tail bone under your center of balance, and walk that way. Main muscles now are pulling the way evolution designed them to pull, and you'll develop more strength and less pain.

If you don't have the problem, won't work miracles for you, but I'd estimate a majority of women acquire it from a combination of broad hip structure and typical lifestyle of carrying groceries and standing, and no few men get it from carrying heavy loads. It sure shows up if you practice a balance sport like skating.

The Ace knee band is not cheap, but far from expensive.