knees issue is there any way to solve it?

[Pridefightsufc]

I have an ongoing problem with both of my knees, when I go for run/jog it gets sore, the next day one of my knee can't bend without feeling pain and the other is a little sore. It takes a couple of days for it to heal but like I said this is an ongoing problem. Previously, I use to workout alot and then took a break and when I got back into it this problem happened.

I went to the doctor and took x-rays, nothing bad showed up on it. The doctor told me to just go on a recruitment bike and do this pull thing with my legs. so I did it for a month or so, and when I took a little jog(like 2 block jog) I reaggrevated them again.

went back to the doctor and he said there are 3 options:
1. surgery (but since there seems to be nothing wrong, he said that that is out of the question)
2. try some medicines (I am real skeptical about doing that)
3. keep doing some light work excersises. so this may seem the way to go

does anyone have any suggestions on how I can rehab from this? :icon_sad:

Thanks in advance.

 

[$ick Money!]

Is the pain medial? Lateral? Above the knee? Below?

 

[Standard]

Where are you running? how are your shoes? how long is your stride?

 

[Rocked]

Where are you running? how are your shoes? how long is your stride?

That would be exactly where I would go first if x-rays are negative. I had pain in my knees got new shoes, changed over to grass running and pains were less. The other options would be looking into orthotics for the shoes.

 

[Pridefightsufc]

thanks for the replys

the pain on both knees are under the knee

I was running on a treadmill at the gym before, but that little jog was on pavement.

I just have adidas running shoes.
I'm not that tall so my strides are not too long .

I'll try out the orthotics. what kind of shoes should I be looking for?

this really is frustrating, I was in the best conditioning of my life before this.

 

[Rocked]

thanks for the replys

the pain on both knees are under the knee

I was running on a treadmill at the gym before, but that little jog was on pavement.

I just have adidas running shoes.
I'm not that tall so my strides are not too long .

I'll try out the orthotics. what kind of shoes should I be looking for?

this really is frustrating, I was in the best conditioning of my life before this.

There are tons of different shoes. I would go to a local running store in the area and have them fit you for shoes. They take into account height, weight, stride, and your foot, and then will put you in the best shoe for you. Another thing that could be causing the pain is just having old running shoes. They wear out, like a car tire. If the tread is flat and the insoles have no cushion in them they are done. If the shoes are new I would then look at new insoles or orthodics for the shoe. Even a real cheap option that has worked for myself is Icey-hot on my lower legs before I run. I won't recommend you a shoe, because the quantities are vast, and I don't know your stride, your foot, or what your running in right now. I know its vague, but shoes are like fingerprints, you have to match your foot to the shoe.

 

[Ian Coe]

Tendon strength?

 

[YeahBee]

why hesitant over the medication? could just be inflammations

 

[pliftkl]

What kind of a doctor did you go see? X-rays don't typically pick up things like ligament tears and meniscus tears, and might show nothing if these are old injuries. Go see a sports medicine doctor - he'll be able to diagnose and fix the problem quickly. A general practitioner is usually not qualified to give athletic advice relating to your knees.

 

[$ick Money!]

How is your "gait"? WHen you fatigue do your knees veer inward? This is usually accompanied by your feet moving one in front of the other (almost like walking on a tight rope) instead of your feet being spaced closer to hip width distance.

This is caused by the glute medius and minimus not firing and the IT band becoming too tight. If you do exercises like lateral walking with a resistance band you can strengthen the glute med/min and get the body used to engaging those muscles.

When the knees adduct (cave in) the IT band becomes over-stretched and can cause the patella (knee cap) not to track correctly with the femur and tibia.

 

[bobthebuilder]

Go to a pysiotherapist (or two, or three, until you get some advice that works). Most likely it's a muscle imbalance issue. I really think this is the problem.

I had a knee problem with similar symptoms (didn't have the next-day problem that you have though) and my physio sorted it out in about 5 months, with a huge improvement in the first month or two (I couldn't walk initially). Muscle imbalances, endurance issues etc can be surprisingly debilitating if you haven't had a problem previously. It could just be one muscle that has deteriorated a lot, and when it runs out of steam (quickly) it can't get enough oxygen, and then you get pain and swelling in surrounding tissue because of an over-reaction by your CNS - and when that happens you might even find walking difficult. It doesn't mean anything is really wrong with your knee, it's just your CNS playing up. The cure (in my case) was to do a lot of endurance work.

If you really can't go to see a physio, do some squatting, lunges and deadlifts - up to 30 reps BW for endurance and then move onto heavier weights and lower reps. Work into the running VERY slowly with a 2.5+ minute warm up, and don't run faster than the minimum necessary to keep an adequate stride length, and warm down to a walking pace over 2.5 minutes as well. I was advised to use the cross trainer first, and that's what I did - this way I could also do cardio for longer. Gradually increase the time at the working pace by 30 seconds at a time, and once you get to 2.5 minutes at the working pace you can increase the speed by about 0.5Km/h every 30 seconds.

Knee problems are stressful, but with work they basically go away. I still get a bit of pain if I run for a long time, but I can run for 20+ minutes before this happens, and that's all I need right now so I'm concentrating on other things and not trying to improve it; at some point I'm going to go for a half marathon though.

EDIT: doctors generally know ****-all about this kind of thing, but there is real medical research behind it. Physiotherapists are really under valued by most people...make sure you get a good one though, as I think you are more likely to get a bad physio than a bad doctor.

 

[$ick Money!]

Go to a pysiotherapist (or two, or three, until you get some advice that works). Most likely it's a muscle imbalance issue. I really think this is the problem.

I had a knee problem with similar symptoms (didn't have the next-day problem that you have though) and my physio sorted it out in about 5 months, with a huge improvement in the first month or two (I couldn't walk initially). Muscle imbalances, endurance issues etc can be surprisingly debilitating if you haven't had a problem previously. It could just be one muscle that has deteriorated a lot, and when it runs out of steam (quickly) it can't get enough oxygen, and then you get pain and swelling in surrounding tissue because of an over-reaction by your CNS - and when that happens you might even find walking difficult. It doesn't mean anything is really wrong with your knee, it's just your CNS playing up. The cure (in my case) was to do a lot of endurance work.

If you really can't go to see a physio, do some squatting, lunges and deadlifts - up to 30 reps BW for endurance and then move onto heavier weights and lower reps. Work into the running VERY slowly with a 2.5+ minute warm up, and don't run faster than the minimum necessary to keep an adequate stride length, and warm down to a walking pace over 2.5 minutes as well. I was advised to use the cross trainer first, and that's what I did - this way I could also do cardio for longer. Gradually increase the time at the working pace by 30 seconds at a time, and once you get to 2.5 minutes at the working pace you can increase the speed by about 0.5Km/h every 30 seconds.

Knee problems are stressful, but with work they basically go away. I still get a bit of pain if I run for a long time, but I can run for 20+ minutes before this happens, and that's all I need right now so I'm concentrating on other things and not trying to improve it; at some point I'm going to go for a half marathon though.

EDIT: doctors generally know ****-all about this kind of thing, but there is real medical research behind it. Physiotherapists are really under valued by most people...make sure you get a good one though, as I think you are more likely to get a bad physio than a bad doctor.

If its not an endurance issue high rep work outs can exacerbate the problem. If you have a muscular imbalance and you do not make changes to correct your stride/form it will only get worse.

Have you tried foam rolling your IT band and quads out before you run?

 

[Five by Five]

I agree that you should try to get a referral for PT. If you have insurance it shouldn't be expensive to go to one or two sessions and get a bunch of exercise that might help you with your problems.