Knee problems

[Mitch Rapp]

Having some knee trouble, and hoping yall might have some suggestions. I have never had a specific knee injury, other than twisting one while hunting several years ago. My knees have made noise for as long as I can remember anytime I am going up steps, or squatting, or even just extending them while sitting. I have tried jogging when trying to get into shape before, my knees have caused pain and caused me to give up on jogging. This week I joined a gym, and I thought the elipticals would be great, cause of no impact. However that was not the case. I did not get pain from using it, but my knees felt very fatigued nearly from the start. I tried two different types of elipticals, with no difference. After just a few minutes on them, I gave up, and got on the treadmill. Saturday I played some paintball at a church activity, after spending a decent amount of time crouched, and running around crouched, when I went to get back on the church van and had a decent amount of pain getting on the van. Putting weight on my knees, my left more than my right, while they were bent hurt.

Looking for suggestions. I don't have the money to go get an MRI done, which is what one person suggested before, I am hoping to find excersises that would strengthen my knees. Anyone had similar problems, or know anything about knees?

 

[jtischauser]

Kick that diet in gear. Carrying less weight around on bad knees will help for sure. I know that is easier said than done for sure.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Oh trust me, that is one of the main motivations for my dieting!

 

[Deacon]

Your body is always building itself and tearing itself down in response to stimulus. I'm no expert, but I say keep up the elliptical until your knees get accustomed to the stress. Ibuprophen and ice after if you need to. The feeling you were getting on the treadmill was healthy, the pain after paintball was NOT. Work your way to walking then interval running. You might avoid jogging, it's suprisingly hard on the joints.

Also, some glucosamine / chondroitin can't hurt. People I know swear by it.

 

[CurtisLambert]

Mitch I wish I knew you man, I would guess that you're too physically active for the amount of muscle or tendon strength that your knees have. Although Deacon was right about some things, I would advise against fast paced elliptical training, or treadmill's since they can be high impact. Although the elliptical is no impact it could still be too much of a work out. I would get some exercise bands and start with the one that gives you the least amount of resistance (there will probably be one in the group that gives you no resistance, do not use that one at all). They should come with an exercise book or pamphlet do any of them that are intended for calves, hamstring, and quads. Most of the exercises intended for those muscles require moving your knee. Make sure you move your knee just back and forth, never let it move at an angle. If you just do an exercise or two and your leg is shaking on the lightest resistance, you might want to get that checked out. You could have some damage to one or several ligaments in the knee. If you decide on getting the bands you can PM me and I can help you with an exercise routine. Good luck

 

[samuelshoun]

Mitch your knee trouble history sounds a lot like mine (my pain is focused around the patellar tendon below the knee cap).

There are a few things which seem to make a huge difference for me:

-Body weight: presumably keeping it down reduces knee stress/pain.
-Strength training: squats, deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, lunges, etc. Heavier the better (subject to a good warm up, good form, and I do NOT train to failure...that's for bodybuilders). The old school says don't do this, but I think that is expired science.
-Hydration: if I consistently drink 1/2 gal to 1 gal a day of water all my joints feel drastically better.

If my knees bother me I always try to get a cold pack on it asap. Working through that inflammation is probably doing permanent damage every time. But if I'm consistent with the above I typically have no pain.

So I'm just sharing my experience and what I know to be true for a few dozen competitive powerlifters and other athletes--take from it what you think applies to you. If you're not familiar with any of it feel free to come up to Symmetry Gym where I work out and I'll be glad to show you.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Mitch I wish I knew you man, I would guess that you're too physically active for the amount of muscle or tendon strength that your knees have. Although Deacon was right about some things, I would advise against fast paced elliptical training, or treadmill's since they can be high impact. Although the elliptical is no impact it could still be too much of a work out. I would get some exercise bands and start with the one that gives you the least amount of resistance (there will probably be one in the group that gives you no resistance, do not use that one at all). They should come with an exercise book or pamphlet do any of them that are intended for calves, hamstring, and quads. Most of the exercises intended for those muscles require moving your knee. Make sure you move your knee just back and forth, never let it move at an angle. If you just do an exercise or two and your leg is shaking on the lightest resistance, you might want to get that checked out. You could have some damage to one or several ligaments in the knee. If you decide on getting the bands you can PM me and I can help you with an exercise routine. Good luck

On the treadmill I just kept a fast walking pace, so there really wasn't any impact. What about an excercise bike?

 

[CurtisLambert]

On the treadmill I just kept a fast walking pace, so there really wasn't any impact. What about an excercise bike?

Exercise bike would actually be great. Especially if it had adjustable resistance. You'll have range of motion with no impact. On the bike once again if it has adjustable resistance start with the lowest or none. And on the bike make sure that your knee's are coming and going in proper alignment never at an angle. Start slow, build that muscle memory of doing it correctly, and then go from there. Once you build up your joint strength then you can do whatever you want with no discomfort. Your legs can be sore, your knee joints shouldn't hurt horribly after being on an exercise bike.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

At 36, after 20 years of trouble , I finally found a Doctor who was a bona fide knee specialist . I assumed my trouble was from several years playing catcher and other sports.

After a MRI , he ordered a ACL reconstruction.
He found no remnant of ligament in the joint, the middle was gone. The doc surmised that I may have torn it as a small child, maybe even been born without one.

Keeping weight in check, and keeping the quads and hamstring strength balanced keeps the joint stable. Also, meniscus tears are pretty common and will create symptoms like you describe.

My doctor told me that weight control , activity probably kept me out of surgery for a lot of years.

 

[DoctorJJ]

Nothing I say should be a replacement for an actual doctor's visit, however, it sounds like you have chondromalacia patella. In simple terms, this is softening of the cartilage on the knee cap and on the end of the femur where the knee cap lives. The best fix for this is strengthening of your quads. The Catch 22 is that most of the exercises you do to strengthen the quads put a lot of stress through the knee and make the symptoms worse. Stay away from lunges or squats, stairs and step aerobics. I would first focus on exercises like straight leg raises with or without weight. Really, the best thing you could do, would bs to see your doctor and get a physical therapy prescription.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

Nothing I say should be a replacement for an actual doctor's visit, however, it sounds like you have chondromalacia patella. In simple terms, this is softening of the cartilage on the knee cap and on the end of the femur where the knee cap lives. The best fix for this is strengthening of your quads. The Catch 22 is that most of the exercises you do to strengthen the quads put a lot of stress through the knee and make the symptoms worse. Stay away from lunges or squats, stairs and step aerobics. I would first focus on exercises like straight leg raises with or without weight. Really, the best thing you could do, would bs to see your doctor and get a physical therapy prescription.

Thanks, I'm kinda in a bad situation. I may be getting some insurance through work before too long, so if I go to a doc now it's a pre existing condition. So I need to try to help the problem through other means for now.

 

[ldp4570]

hisa has to do with the knee's, but actually started with the feet. In 2000 I was involved in a foot chase after a stop for speeding. I running thorugh a paved parking lot, and heard and felt something snap. Didn't think anything of it, and still got the perp. About an hour later foot started feeling sore, figured I probably strained the ankle, so at the station I took my boot off(Bad mistake) and stood up, and promptly fell right over, I looked at my left foot, and the whole top was swollen, but didn't hurt, just the bottom of my foot(you could actually press in on the top of my foot and it would leave an impression. So a buddy took me to the ER, and they exrayed it, had a podiatrist come in and look at it, and said I need to go to a specialist. This was on a friday, so I didn't get to see the sports specialist till monday. He took more xrays, and an MRI. Talk about some pretty pictures. The two center flanges in my left foot had broken downward. He gave a couple of valium and proceeded to reset the bones(valuium didn't help much), Then put me in a moon boot. It took six months for it to heal, and he ran other tests on my knee's and other foot. Rule one, I have to have special inserts in all my shoes to support both arches(Yeah we have two in each foot) Second rule, no more running, why? Well it seems that all those fun static line jumps did their damage. You only have one tendon that runs the full length of your foot, and both of mine are shot. He also looked at my knee's, and told me walking was the best with minor weight training to keep the muscles strong around the knee's as there was lots of damage there(Squats) from the same thing. Seems landing at 20+MPH isn't a good thing even with proper LPF's. His direction was no forward lifts put doing light squat's, and using leg weights for knee lifts. So I got put on investigative duties on open warrants, so it limited my need for chasing down anyone to much. For those ever stationed at Ft. Bragg you know what I mean, 4mile run every other day, 2 the next day, and a forced 12 mile ruck every month.

Don't know if this will help, but all the jumps I did(Lost my jump status) and running did their damamge due to when I went in you ran in combat boots. It wasn't till the early '80s till they started letting soldiers wear runnig shoes for PT, but for me the damage was already done.