I'm 49, been doing kung fu for about 5 years. My knees have gone through various stages of creakiness and pain during my training, with more problems as my legs have gotten stronger. So I've allowed myself to progress more slowly than my mostly younger classmates. When it gets to where it's worrying me, I just back off for a while and do Tai Chi and Yoga instead.

But here's the strange thing. At each belt level there's a new form to learn. Each form is progressively more difficult than the last, so when I got to Crane Form, I didn't know if I was going to be able to get through it because there are a couple of leaps you have to do.

There's also some very low stance work you have to do, imagine being in a wide squat and moving from side to side, putting a lot of stress on the knee. So one evening we were going over the low part again and again, and my knee just gave out for a moment. So I sat down for a while, and then got into a horse stance and staid in that for a few minutes. That seemed to tighten things back up. So I laid off the form for a week and just did static horse stance. Then when I started up again things were much better, and the leaps were no big deal.

I've used static stances to fix a lot of injuries. Usually it's a horse stance, even a high horse stance is good if you hold it long enough. But it can be applied to any part of your body, it's just a matter of holding static tension for a long time. For example, I injured my shoulder slightly, so I held my arms in front of me as if holding a basketball at shoulder level.

And once I received a strong kick in the ribs, which slightly loosened the cartilage interface there. So I would lay on my back and do one shallow situp, but hold it for a very long time. The muscle tension kept the rib together and static, which speeded its healing. Breathing "into the belly" also helped with that one too. Did you know it isn't necessary to use your ribs at all when breathing?