Training history: Many years of intense kick boxing training (amateur competition weight 174lb), with supplementary shitty cardio/power and shitty weight training. Never did a 1RM on anything; 6 RM for squats was 120kg @ 84kg BW (and at questionable depth).
Took a huge break from exercise since. I spent 2 years in Thailand working as a dive instructor during which I had no opportunities to train (besides bodyweight exercises every now and then). Before leaving Thailand I joined a Muay Thai camp for a month. Going full intensity 6 hours/day, 6 days/week after such a long break = big mistake. Results was a severe pain right below the knees.
Returning to Greece in January 2009 I joined the army for the mandatory 1-year military service. The knee pain got worse while doing military training at the border and the kneecaps started getting maltracking big-time. I got both knees operated in late June. That did nothing for the pain and made the patellar tracking much worse.
Knee issues: Rehabbing ever since the surgery. Got opinions from 8 different orthopedics, worked with 2 different physiotherapists and now working with the third. A lot of swimming and a lot of stretching.
Now I can almost walk with no problems, the kneecap tracking is still worse than the day before the surgery. Diagnoses vary a bit, but combining the different opinions there is a definite conclusion:
There is a
bone edema at the inner tibial plateau of both knees. That also happens to be around the area where the pes anserinus tendon inserts into the bone and many clues point to the fact that a chronic pes anserinus bursitis/tendonitis has developed on both knees and the underlying bone edema prevents it from fully healing. According to some of the doctors, this will solve itself once the bone edema completely heals, but until then it is likely persist because of the change of the natural PH (cause by the edema). This has no direct connection to the kneecap maltracking.
The articular cartilage of the trochlea of both knees is softened, as can be seen from the arthroscopy video (one of the doctors classified it as chondropathy grade 2, some others simply referred to it as softening/degeneration/chondomalacia/chondropathy). That is probably connected to some extent to the kneecap not tracking properly (getting stuck and jumping/grinding instead of a smooth movement).
My opinion is that the maltracking is at least partly due to some muscular imbalances, changes in length and stiffening. I have seen great improvement through intensive stretching, although that improvement seems to have stopped much short of 100%. I recently started doing SMR every day, it is still too early to tell but I feel it will help towards further improvement.
Shoulder Issues: Old injury on both shoulders (dating back to 1999). The left shoulder seems to have healed (at least it hasn't hurt in quite a while) but the right shoulder never fully did. I always had issues when kick boxing but never took the time to really research and address them. Last month, when I started lifting I would be in significant pain while benching and 2 days there-after and a bit less pain while overhead pressing and 1 day after (max bench was 5 Reps at 210lb and max SOHP was 5 Reps at 125lb). After one month of thoughing-out the pain for 3 workout sessions per week, I understand I cannot make gains this way and need to address this issue before going back to pressing at full intensity.
Recent MRI showed supraspinatus tendonitis, synovitis in the rotator cuff area, possible SLAP tear, AC edema with small degenerative points. Doctor said it is not as bad as it sounds and as long as I can train painfree I don't have to resort to surgery.
I have always had noticeably round shoulders and a slight kyphosis. Nothing major enough to bother me aesthetically but enough to cause functional problems. I decided to work on muscular imbalances on the rotator cuff and the scapula muscles.
EDIT: Shoulder update:
post #98. Shoulder update:
post #325. Rehab update:
post #351.
