Penetrex works by keeping your pain at bay so YOU can find and fix the underlying problems
Let's get something straight from the get-go; Penetrex is a pain reliever (even said so on the label) and as a pain reliever, it works surprisingly well. However, many customer placed too much faith in the creme as a "cure-all" for their disorders/diseases/pain (basing on the 3 stars reviews and lower). In my perspective, Penetrex works by keeping your pain at bay so YOU can find and fix the underlying problems. And there lies the problem. There is a major emphasis on the YOU part. Now to paint my scenario. I was diagnosed with Patellofemoral Syndrome by two different clinics. The pain became so unbearable that I was limited to upper body exercises for three whole months. Usually in these cases, icing and rest would be prescribed, and since X-rays and MRI both showed no signs of abnormalities, ice and rest seemed like the only logical solution. I too was under the impression that my knee would recover in time but as the clock ticked, long car rides and extensive sittings became more and more unbearable. After 3 months of doing nothing, I took it upon myself to find a solution and after extensive reading and tinkering and soul searching, it seems my vastus medialis (inner quadriceps muscle) was at fault. This "little fault" caused a myriad of messes: My lateralis tightened up, I always felt a tug in my right hip flexor, and because of the tug, my t-spine (I'm a nerd, I know) would prematurely round when I squat. EMG results confirmed my hypothesis; my VMO would shut down as soon as I ventured beyond parallel during any sort of exercises. Now that I am armed with this discovery, I was ready to make drastic changes. The only drawback was the massive, excruciating pain that accompanied rehab and therapy work, even the lightest workload, such as bodyweight squat and peterson step-up. That's when I discovered Penetrex. The creme allowed me to progressively strengthen my VMO, without having to endure the torment. Here is another scenario: My friend who is currently suffering from a similar knee issue. His VMO rides even higher than mine, almost 4 inches above the kneecap. He is a long distance runner and I am a powerlifter. Two people from two different sports, suffering from the same problem. After convincing him to drop running for a while (athletes can be very hard-headed) and go through an extensive rehab program, his kneecap no longer slides and I bet with a little more time, the pain will disappear altogether. Yes, I do wholeheartedly recommend Penetrex for all acute injuries (and some chronic). I came to realize that there are a certain few customers who view Penetrex as nothing more than a glorified DMSO product, and to a certain extent, I agree with them. However, that is not necessarily a bad thing! Pure DMSO is extremely potent and works well to ease tendinitis and other symptoms. I myself have used DMSO but found that with multiple applications in a day, even with less potent concentration and/or mixes, it tends to eat away the skin fairly fast. Penetrex does not do this and eventually you have to ramp up the dosage (while doing rehab work, of course) to speed up the healing process. Whether it is straight DMSO or Penetrex, like I said, YOU will have to play a huge part in the recovery stage. Do not expect to dabble on the creme and by some miracle, your tendinitis will dissipate. If you play golf and suffer from elbow and back pain, common sense would dictate that you take some time off and REALLY find that kink in your kinetic chain. Common sense also tells us that golfing is a very one-sided sport, so wouldn't it make sense to focus on a bit of weight training to strength the oblique/back muscles and biceps/triceps? If you're a long distance runner and are suffering from knee pain, don't continue grinding your knees to dust! Stop running and find the underlying problem! Take up weightlifting to strengthen the entire posterior chain; more muscle = less force absorption on the knees when the feet hit the ground. And judging from the numerous runners who are diagnosed with some kind of patella problem, the VMO is at fault. This review should not be viewed as me chastising or as a lecture but as me sharing one of my humble life experiences :) We all have to do things that we hate and being a strength athlete who absolutely loved to squat, it was heartbreaking and a blow to my ego when I was reduced to doing peterson step-ups and body weight lunges. If you truly love what you do, be it golfing, running, lifting, or playing competitive sports, then do everything in your power to make sure you can continuing doing what you're doing! Read more