Knee Problems..

B

Big_Idiot

2
Im hoping somebody can be so kind and put my mind at ease.

Basically my knees feel f**ked.
Below the knee cap, the area where you test your reflex's it just feels weird and i get pain there. They seem to click often aswell now and they feel really feeble.

I think iv done it by going heavier when squatting (maybe poor form i dont know). And i kept on squatting and squatting and it kept getting worse and now i cant do any leg work alltogether because it just makes it even worse.

I tried running on saturday and was fine when running but afterwards, including now, they feel extremely weak and f**ked up.

Im just wondering if anybody else has had this problem and did it repair itself through rest, or do you think its best to see a physio.

Cheers ;)
 
Is it sore to the touch? You should really try not to aggrivate it, and wait for it to pass.

It could just be some kind of inflammation in the tendon.. pain in the front of the knee right below the kne cap (the patella tendon) is pretty normal. It could be caused by lots of stuff. do you do more quad than hip dominant work? sometimes pain there can be caused by a hamstring:quad imbalance.
 
Karky said:
Is it sore to the touch? You should really try not to aggrivate it, and wait for it to pass.

It could just be some kind of inflammation in the tendon.. pain in the front of the knee right below the kne cap (the patella tendon) is pretty normal. It could be caused by lots of stuff. do you do more quad than hip dominant work? sometimes pain there can be caused by a hamstring:quad imbalance.
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No its not sore to touch at all, it will only bring pain when applying sufficient pressure on it e.g. Jumping would probably be painful, aswel as i think squatting would. Its more that it feels weird and feeble. Just doesnt feel right when i do things and the joint feels really weak.

Below the knee cap does feel inflammated, but im not 100% sure because i never really noticed what it felt like before this.
 
Can you describe the pain? burning, stinging, shooting, etc.. I know it's hard to describe pain in words, but try :p

I bet you've just overdone it and gotten an inflammation of some kind.. maybe because your squat has progressed a bit faster than your tendons like, or because your squat form is very knee dominant when it comes to torque force
 
Karky said:
Can you describe the pain? burning, stinging, shooting, etc.. I know it's hard to describe pain in words, but try :p

I bet you've just overdone it and gotten an inflammation of some kind.. maybe because your squat has progressed a bit faster than your tendons like, or because your squat form is very knee dominant when it comes to torque force
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Well for a while i was trying to get good form and squatting from like 132lbs to 220lbs. Then suddenly for a few weeks i straight went up to a 220lbs to 308lbs range. Maybe that was too steep?

I really cant describe the pain LOL, it just hurts in that area when a certain amount of pressure is applied.
 
could be that jump. How is your squat, do your knees go over your toes? I'm not saying that is always a bad thing, but some peoples knees can't handle it very well.
 
Get the knee checked out but going forwards :-

- what program are you doing? Even in the 5X5 (squatting 3 times a week) once you get to a certain level you do not go max all the time you have dynamic days.
- it could be a form issue. You could post a form check vid if in doubt.
- a rest/change of routine could do you some good. Perhaps you could have a period where you do cardio+bodyweight+circuits to get rid of any fat and give you a chance to recover?

My 2 cents.
 
Yeah, that patellar tendon is a pain in the ass. A few questions Big T:

Does it hurt going up stairs? When you squat, what depth are you going? Also, what position are your feet in when you squat? And does it only hurt when you squat?

It is true that tight hamstrings could be bringing on this problem. Also another thing to consider if you also have tight hip flexors. Also, another thing to look at would to test your abductor strength of your hips. Weak hip abductors can be brutal to your knees if the problem isn't correct. One more thing to consider ( you see this more with female athletes), would if your medial thigh muscles are weak. If your lateral thigh muscles are constant doing most of the work, they're going to pull the patella bone out of alignment and cause irritation in the area your describing.

Let us know!!
 
FunctionalTrain said:
Yeah, that patellar tendon is a pain in the ass. A few questions Big T:

Does it hurt going up stairs? When you squat, what depth are you going? Also, what position are your feet in when you squat? And does it only hurt when you squat?

It is true that tight hamstrings could be bringing on this problem. Also another thing to consider if you also have tight hip flexors. Also, another thing to look at would to test your abductor strength of your hips. Weak hip abductors can be brutal to your knees if the problem isn't correct. One more thing to consider ( you see this more with female athletes), would if your medial thigh muscles are weak. If your lateral thigh muscles are constant doing most of the work, they're going to pull the patella bone out of alignment and cause irritation in the area your describing.

Let us know!!
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Cheers for your input FT. Iv done a bit of reading of my own today to try and identify the problem.

I feel it when i even just step down now. Like going down the stairs i use my arms aswel to take the weight off my legs. When i squatted it would vary from parallel to atg.

I definately feel all the pressure on the patella. I been looking at knee diagrams lol and its definately that area!
 
James, Do you know of any good online resources that explain some of the most common sports injuries and "imbalance injuries"? Not only going through like "pain here can be caused by weakness there" but WHY (like the VMO being weak and letting the VL pull the patella laterally) weakness there causes pain here, etc.
 
Karky said:
James, Do you know of any good online resources that explain some of the most common sports injuries and "imbalance injuries"? Not only going through like "pain here can be caused by weakness there" but WHY (like the VMO being weak and letting the VL pull the patella laterally) weakness there causes pain here, etc.
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Here are a few that I've used as references in research. They were helpful for me when writing papers at least. I just hope they plan on going a little further in depth with the mechanics.
 
I think i know the pain you are feeling BigT.

I got it from weighing to much and trying to run like 50-100m sprints full out. It felt good while running but the next day was he!l.

Mine was like....i would be sitting down and as i stud up my knee cap and surrounding "area" would just like feel like it was "shaking" when i applied any pressure to it. It went away after about 2 or 3 days of just light walking and rest.
 
i_love_muscle said:
You don't do leg extensions, do you Tom? If you do, you should stop doing them ;)
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thats funny, i had badddd patella tendonitis due to excessive leg pressing motions (rowing) during my first few months on the crew team. the treatment prescribed by the trainer was to do leg extensions and leg curls to help balance out the strength in the lateral and medial quads.

of course icing and advil were prescribed too.
 
Biomechanically speaking, leg extensions put far too much pressure on the patellar tendon (and the knee joint), and are not recommended.

Some physiotherapists/physicians still think that leg extensions are the only remedy for knee problems (they target the VMO, which is often a reason for knee problems), however, extensions are the worst exercise that anybody with a knee injury could do.

There are much better exercises out there that don't put so much stress on the knee joint :)
 
Well cheers all for your say!

My leg workout WAS basically:

Squats
Lunges / Leg Press
Extensions
Curls
Calf Raises

Im a bit skeptical of 'leg extensions are bad for the knees' as ive seen sources both supporting and opposing that statement! Its definately the squatting, my knees used to face in when i did the heavier weights. Maybe that has caused some problem. I think bad form could be the answer and yea kark i think my knees may have gone over my toes when again going heavy.

And tribal, i know man :D I dont squat with SM's.

FireFreak - How does patella tendonitis feel? Just wondering if i have the same problem.

Cheers all of ya, ill spread some rep ;)
 
At first it felt like I bruised the area to the left of my right knee cap with a dull pain. I definitely thought I might have slammed it into the wall on night. As the pain didn't subside I decided to see the athletic trainer. The inside of the knee had started to swell and the pain was particularly bad while trying to walk up stairs (lots of that on my campus) and the pain was becoming sharper...kind of like a stabbing pain. this also occured while running too, which in fact is when the symptoms started after rowing season was over and we were doing land based workouts.

I did light leg extensions to try to get some strength into my medial quads, biked as my aerobic workouts (no erging...ie no leg pressing) and did light leg curls to make sure my hamstrings were still up to par. There was also a lot of stretching and icing and many advils a day. the trainer also gave be a soft knee brace to hold the knee cap in place.
 
and that's where leg extensions can be healthy: LIGHT, and rehab. Most trainers will use those for the VMO, usually doing the last 10-20 degrees of motion to help target that better.

Another way to go, which might feel a little sissy for some people, is doing half or quarter squats. I've even used half or quarter SPLIT squats or bulgarian squats with some success. This, however, is anectodal, and I haven't seen any articles or research on this, just applying how the body works. As soo as you start to feel comfortable enough, start going down a little bit more. One set you can use your feet pointed straight forward, and the other set you can have your feet pointed more to the sides.

Another thing which has been suggested, or doing hamstring exercises. I'm a fan of RDLs and leg curls (only when the legs are propped on a stability ball---> I have no explaination for this, I don't like prone leg curls on a machine)

Warm-ups can also help with stretching out the hamstrings, so you may want to look into some DYNAMIC stretches for the hams.
 
Cheers people, i appreciate it ;)

Iv got an physio appointment tonight at the gym so ill find out more then. Iv been reading a lot about muscle imbalances and tightness of the quad. Anyway well see :D
 
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