Injuries and RehabTell us where it hurts! Do a quick search before asking about your shoulder injury to make sure your question hasn't already been answered (about 50 times), and read the sticky post first.
About 2 years ago, I was on the leg press sled and did a sloppy junk rep with too much weight. I heard and felt ripping in my left knee. The idea of having a knee injury was much worse than the actual pain, which was honestly probably about a 4 out of 10. There was little, if any, swelling, although I iced it just in case.
I got it checked out at my school's student clinic, and was prescribed "quadriceps strengthening" exercises. I never did them, because the injury didn't stop me from doing my normal workouts, and the prescribed exercises weren't challenging at all.
My knee has clicked (it's not a proper percussive click, it almost sounds like glass marbles moving against each other) ever since the injury whenever I move from less than 90 degrees. It never did this before, and started doing it immediately after the injury. Although the doctor said it was not a big deal, I'm still bothered by it.
Lately, I've been getting urges to "pop" my injured knee by turning my thigh inward (feels like a knuckle crack). I can't do this with the uninjured knee, and I never did it before the injury. The "popping" doesn't take much pressure (I often "pop" it just by moving around normally), and it seems harmless, but I'm wondering if I'm breaking ligaments that are trying to heal whenever I'm doing this. Should I be wearing a brace to stop it?
Occasionally, the knee hurts. I didn't ask what the proper name of the injury was, but I did some amateur research, and I think it may be a minor meniscal tear, but I'm not sure.
Should I be doing "physical therapy" exercises on top of my normal exercises? If so, which are best (there are tons of exercises/stretches, I don't think I can do them all!). Would wrapping my knee at night help improve blood flow?
I really enjoy my active lifestyle, and I really want to make sure I'm not going to screw up my knees even more. I can't really afford it, but I'm thinking about purchasing either Cook and Jones's "Secrets of the Hip and Knee," or Mike Robertson's "Bulletproof Knees." Which of these is best? Are there other, better and/or cheaper options?
Last edited by hansolothejedi : 08-29-2009 at 02:11 PM.
Squatting below 90 degrees seems to aggravate the pain, although it occasionally aches on its own for no reason. I've recently learned that my poor gluteal activation probably contributes to the pain, after failing these drills: Figure Athlete - How Strong Are Your Glutes, Really?.
The pain itself is probably a 2 out of 10, is an aching pain, and is centered around/below the kneecap, mostly on the "inside" half. I don't ever feel "unstable" on that knee, nor do I lose any mobility. It just starts to ache enough that it really worries me.
I've also read that biking is supposed to be something that's generally considered good for your knees, so I've stopped running and started taking my bike out for exercise.
have you gotten an MRI or X-Ray on your knee? If not, I recommend that because you may have tear something. It may not bother you right now very much, but will as the days go on if you don't get it checked by a doctor getting an x-ray or/and a mri. It is just going to get worse and end up turning into athritis. Massaging and mobility work probably won't work for this kind of condition. You said you felt and heard a ripping in your left knee, so a doctor is a must for this.
Here is a quote from the article...
"When athletes change direction quickly during their games, they twist their knee inwards. This increases the strain on the ACL and places the ligament at risk of tearing. The ACL tears when the knee is forced downwards and inwards beyond the ligament's ability to hold it. Athletes who tear their ACL often report hearing a ‘pop' on injury."
Ligaments typically require massive shock loads or blunt force trauma in order to tear, like running and suddenly changing directions, ankle somehow getting twisted/hung up causing a fall or getting hit by another player in a contact sport.
Not saying you didn't tear a ligament but it's unlikely to happen while lifting weights - If your knee structure was compromised in any way, it would have reared its head long ago while running when there is far greater impact placed on the joint. Plus, the pain from ligament damage doesn't stop. It hurts while training, while walking, resting, etc.
You probably did tear the tendon on either side of the knee cap, which connects the quadricep to the tibia. The knee cap is a leverage point for the quad to extend the tibia, kind of like a pulley system at the gym, that allows the tendon (cable) to change direction on the line of pull. The knee cap also rides in a track in the end of the femur, which is lined with cartilage. So, under heavy loading the cartilage can become compressed and will inflame, causing pain, and if the tendon partially tears from the knee cap, the knee cap will not track properly or in alignment, causing uneven pressure within the "track", grinding noises and more inflammation.
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Mike Pipes
Massive fat loss survivor and aspiring trainer in training
mpipes - my knees make a crunching sound sometimes when I walk and always when I am squatting. Is that a sign of a tear of the tendon on 1 side of the knee cap or is that something that is normal? Your post is making me wonder about that. There is no pain or anything and there are a lot of people that have crunching sounds not only in their knees, but on their elbows and shoulders as well. Some people call it "creptitus" if I am spelling it right. I have a crunching sound on my elbows too when doing push ups on most of the reps. My shoulders are quiet though. just the elbows and knees are crunchy. (elbows only when doing push ups..nothing else by the way)
If there's no pain I would doubt you have any kind of tears, they would usually make themselves known, especially when training.
I haven't put a whole lot of time looking into noisy joints but what I have read seems to boil it down to either gases expanding within joint fluids or rough surfaces rubbing on each other. Now, I haven't seen anything that theorizes what may CAUSE those things to happen, seems like everyone just says "Yeah, some people just get noisy joints, no big deal" and they leave it at that.
This is only my own theory but I'm guessing it's as simple as minor misalignments caused by increased fluid pressure within joint capsules, or muscle imbalances also pulling joints out of alignment slightly. You've got extra fluid going into a joint to aid in cushioning and since fluids don't compress well, the other more mobile components of the joint get pushed around and they might bear against surfaces they normally wouldn't, or the pressure between two mating surfaces is increased which increases friction and you end up with grinding/crunching/creaking.
Just throwing ideas out there. I have noisy joints and most of them come and go as I periodize training and work on balancing things out. My cervical spine grinds when my traps are out of whack, it echoes if I do it with my mouth open and freaks people out. LOL!. My knees don't pop or grind, they chatter though, like when you drag a finger over a clean surface and it makes that squeaky/thump thump thump noise..LOL. Both ankles snap, crackle pop - I could never sneak up a flight of stairs at night without waking everyone in the house. My right elbow is the only joint that never stops making noise, because that arm's been broken 4 times, it's healed crooked and totally misaligned.
Oh, one other source of snapping/popping noise I haven't mentioned is simply tight muscles causing tendons to flip/snap directly over bone when the muscles are flexed.
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Mike Pipes
Massive fat loss survivor and aspiring trainer in training
I have been taking SaMe, so my joints are quieter and not as loud I have noticed since taking it (one a morning), but its mainly taking for mood. My mom tells me when I dont take it I am a bit moody lol. It working for joints is a plus for me. I just had to mention that.
I am suprised my shoulders don't make any noise even though I play softball and do a lot of overhead movements. I dont use my shoulders when I throw anyway so thats probably why. I use my whole body like I am supposed to and I do inside out mobility work from the dvd. Whenever I use my arm only, I can feel it and know it because my throw does not go accurate or goes as one bounce or two bounces or 2 close to the person and bounces.
by the way - did you hear that mike robertson and eric cressey are making a new dvd for us about strength, weaknesses, flexibility, and which ones to do for certain problems and situations we have for warming up and rehab? I cannot wait for that to come out because I always have trouble putting a good warm up together for myself and I just do whatever I think I need to do out of random to get warmed up and a lot of times my warm up can last 15-20 minutes, but sometimes 5 minutes when I only have an hour in weightroom before plans (I only want to spend an hour, not an hour 30. and I never have time to stretch after I work out! I just shower and then go right to work or school and when I do have time, I forget to stretch and just take the train home and I dont have any stretching motivation after working out because I dont really know how to do it correctly and I dont see any flexibility increasing, so thats why. same thing with my upper trap/scalene tightness. I use a theracane like crazy, but nothing works to keep it loose..not even a chiropractor. the same night or next day it reaggravates again after my chiropractor adjustments.
speaking of mike robertson, the poster that made this thread should get bulletproof knees manual and dvd and do the exercises in that program.
I'm no doctor, in fact I was here looking up info on back pain caused by twisting exercises when I came across this post. I have had two knew reconstructions so I have a bit of experience on what you're talking about.
It sounds like you have cartilage damage. At least that is what I was diagnosed with before tearing my ACL. One way to know is if you're knee randomly locks up on you (where you have to re-extend it or bend it to get it to unlock.)
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