Doing BJJ with a knee injury? (PCL)

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GPTitle**

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Just wondering if anyone has experienced this? A few months back I injured my knee and have been taking it easy since then. Finally got an MRI and just got my results back that I have a 60% PCL tear. I'm pretty worried about turning that into 100% if I start rolling again. Has anyone else dealt with this before? I was told that for a PCL, they usually won't do surgery because it is pretty invasive and the benefits are not that great.
 
I mangled my LCl pretty bad a couple months back, and the best advice i have is to just leave it alone for a month or so. Stepping away from training sucks, but it is far better than having to limp away.
 
Dake said:
I mangled my LCl pretty bad a couple months back, and the best advice i have is to just leave it alone for a month or so. Stepping away from training sucks, but it is far better than having to limp away.
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I could barely walk up/down stairs for the first 3 weeks and the first 6 weeks I could not come even close to fully flexing my knee.

The injury happened in mid July, so it's been 3.5 months now. I don't have a ton of pain these days (minus some bursitis in the front of my knee) but I'm just worried about making it worse.
 
i dont know what country you're from, but in my country i would do this:

i would ask the doctor, if no surgery, what should i do, what can i do and what not.
physical therapy is something that comes into my mind, if there is no surgery needed or wanted.
 
hansy said:
i dont know what country you're from, but in my country i would do this:

i would ask the doctor, if no surgery, what should i do, what can i do and what not.
physical therapy is something that comes into my mind, if there is no surgery needed or wanted.
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FYI, I've consulted a doctor and he did not have an answer one way or another.

Basically what I was told:

-60% PCL Tear
-Surgeon I was referred to will almost certainly say NO surgery


I've been doing physio since August and feel pretty good, but I'm just worried about blowing it out completely. The doc said he can't tell me for sure if I should or should not do it.....so just curious if anyone else has experienced the same thing.
 
GPTitle said:
FYI, I've consulted a doctor and he did not have an answer one way or another.

Basically what I was told:

-60% PCL Tear
-Surgeon I was referred to will almost certainly say NO surgery


I've been doing physio since August and feel pretty good, but I'm just worried about blowing it out completely. The doc said he can't tell me for sure if I should or should not do it.....so just curious if anyone else has experienced the same thing.
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well, then i wish you a fully and speedy recovery. i have no personal experience with pcl tearing afaik. (after mri, the doc told me i had some injury, but i recovered all by myself from it)
i had / still have a knee injury, that was really troublesome til i was able to run again.
it seems that pcl, as mine, benefits from more muscle power in the legs (quad for pcl?) and some improved flexibility.

another thing that helped me with my injury, internet (im not kidden, but took alot of reading and searching) + another opinion from a specialist. (in my country that isnt a biggie to go to one)
 
hansy said:
well, then i wish you a fully and speedy recovery. i have no personal experience with pcl tearing afaik. (after mri, the doc told me i had some injury, but i recovered all by myself from it)
i had / still have a knee injury, that was really troublesome til i was able to run again.
it seems that pcl, as mine, benefits from more muscle power in the legs (quad for pcl?) and some improved flexibility.

another thing that helped me with my injury, internet (im not kidden, but took alot of reading and searching) + another opinion from a specialist. (in my country that isnt a biggie to go to one)
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Thanks for the comments/advice.

I've done a shit ton of reading online but figured I'd see if anyone else has had this injury and come back strong to BJJ since I'm totally dying to do it. Doc gave me the go ahead to do stuff like non-contact hockey but he didn't want to say yes or no for contact sports.

Not sure what type of 'specialist' I could go see at this point. I've seen 3 different regular doctors, had 2 ultra sounds, an MRI reviewed by another doc, spent 10+ sessions with a physiotherapist, and am lined up to just go over options with a surgeon and already told what to expect from him. Just bummed and dying to roll again but don't want to make it worse.
 
I have 100% torn my pcl, due to this I have lost strength in my leg & my hip tracks a little differently. See a physio (a sports-physio if possible) & seek their advice. U will prob get some rehab exercises to do like lateral leg abductions with a thera-band and lateral monster band walks. The physio will also tell u how long u should stay away from bjj, lifting, etc
 
LionsDen01 said:
I have 100% torn my pcl, due to this I have lost strength in my leg & my hip tracks a little differently. See a physio (a sports-physio if possible) & seek their advice. U will prob get some rehab exercises to do like lateral leg abductions with a thera-band and lateral monster band walks. The physio will also tell u how long u should stay away from bjj, lifting, etc
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Thanks I'll go back to my sports-physio guy now that I have 100% confirmation on what the injury is from the MRI. Maybe he can give me some concrete advice.
 
GPTitle said:
Thanks for the comments/advice.

I've done a shit ton of reading online but figured I'd see if anyone else has had this injury and come back strong to BJJ since I'm totally dying to do it. Doc gave me the go ahead to do stuff like non-contact hockey but he didn't want to say yes or no for contact sports.

Not sure what type of 'specialist' I could go see at this point. I've seen 3 different regular doctors, had 2 ultra sounds, an MRI reviewed by another doc, spent 10+ sessions with a physiotherapist, and am lined up to just go over options with a surgeon and already told what to expect from him. Just bummed and dying to roll again but don't want to make it worse.
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i dont do bjj, so again i lack personal experience here. i think its kinda tricky with bjj, its not like running, but sometimes you attack the legs (knee bar would be really messed up if it makes it worse).

about the specialist, i went to a guy that is known for the thing i went for. like the main thing he does is fix that certain problem. the "funny" thing was, i went to the wrong one. first i was diagnosed with something else (cartillage damage, but the specialist said, that wasnt the issue. lucky for me, he knew alot about knees and told me what it was).

possible specialists you could go:
- orthopedic specialist or orthopedic surgeon
- sports physician

english is not my first language, so i used a translater to get those. i hope they're accurate translated. best would be, ofc, knee specialist.

my unprofessional opinion about grappling with this injury, get green light from a doctor. if a doctor cant give you green light, how can someone on the internet, without being a doctor give you green light? even if someone had the very same problem, he could be lying or different people, different bodies, different healing even with the exact injury!

get your strength (especially in the quad area) and flexibility to a good level, if thats not good enough, surgery seems to be the way to go. but i read, that in this case, IF surgery is suggested by doctor, do it rather quicker than later!
 
I've done rolling and sparring while having the PCL in my ankle injured. ACL injury is quite alright, you can take it easy and manage but with the PCL I simply found both rolling and any kind of striking nearly impossible, even with a static brace for the joint.

All in all, I tried to train 4 times and ended up having to step back to square one at 2 of them, first one after 3 months of injury and second one after 6 months.
I tore the joint again at both those sessions, the second time nearly severed the PCL completely and now I'm counting 12 months away from practice with daily rehab.

I dearly recommend you to mend it up before you set foot on the mats again, but that's from my experience though. I suppose if you have a light frame you won't stress the joint as much but after all that has happened I won't mess with practice after a PCL injury again, too much of a gamble.
 
Verdis said:
I've done rolling and sparring while having the PCL in my ankle injured. ACL injury is quite alright, you can take it easy and manage but with the PCL I simply found both rolling and any kind of striking nearly impossible, even with a static brace for the joint.

All in all, I tried to train 4 times and ended up having to step back to square one at 2 of them, first one after 3 months of injury and second one after 6 months.
I tore the joint again at both those sessions, the second time nearly severed the PCL completely and now I'm counting 12 months away from practice with daily rehab.

I dearly recommend you to mend it up before you set foot on the mats again, but that's from my experience though. I suppose if you have a light frame you won't stress the joint as much but after all that has happened I won't mess with practice after a PCL injury again, too much of a gamble.
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Hmm interesting perspective! Almost everyone says an ACL injury is much much worse.
 
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