Without lubrication our bodies will not function – marvel at how your eyelids slide on your eyes, how tendons always glide, how joints are almost friction-free. Intervertebral Discs and the lining of the lungs need lubrication, and sexual intercourse simply wont happen without it. Luckily, we are all powerful self-lubricating machines!

Much of our lubricating ability comes from a juice called ‘lubricin’. The quality and quantity of lubricin improves with movement, but deteriorates with stress… You can build up a lubricin reservoir in your joints with healthy movement. Want more lubricin in your knees? Get walking and your synoviocytes (lubricin producing cells) will start manufacturing the stuff. What’s more, they’ll work twice as hard if you go on a gentle jog or run!

Adapted from Explain Pain Supercharged (2017), Lorimer Moseley & David Butler.