Training with injury

[Jase]

After a trip to snowdon at the end of April (think I fell a few times) my knee has been hurting when climbing steps, sat down and I can't bend my leg all the way back when kneeling etc. I saw a physio a week ago and she told me to do a few exercises and put bags of frozen peas on the knee twice a day.

I've been going to the Gym and the only thing I think I can do really is use the cycling machines which is pretty boring. My knees don't hurt so much when walking on the flat etc and I'm tempted to give running a go.

What do you reckon? should I give it a go or what would you suggest to do that will not stress the knee too much.

Any tips on injury recovery would be good as it's driving me mad and there don't seem to be much progress.

 

[Jase]

I tore my patella (tendon in the knee) a few years back and the only real exercise I could do during recovery was swimming.

The problem I have is something to do with the patella, I can't swim though so that's out

how long did it take to get better ?

 

[Jase]

*Sigh* Generic "just ice it" recommendations are unhelpful. Maximum cry exposure should be restricted to twenty minutes at a time.

Secondly, the acute phase of the injury (I.e trauma) typically lasts around two weeks; but minimising the chronic phase can take much longer depending on what has happened.

and you have arms and a back, chest, core so you should really be training those.

I doesn't feel like the "ice it" thing is working to well or at least I haven't really noticed any difference in the past week.

I'm not into the weights so much so I'd get bored doing back, chest etc if that's what you mean. I'd normally do 20-30 mins weights and 60-90 minutes run. The bike is OK but its not my favourite..

 

[Jase]

Here's a scandalous idea... the fact you're doing so much running potentially without correct strengthening exercises is one potential reason for your knee's susceptibility to injury.

Indeed, it is one primary reason why runners suffer with lumbar, hip, knee or achilles problems. But I'm not saying that's necessarily applicable here... )

Chances are ice won't do anything, anyway as you won't have much swelling left given this happened in April. Practically, you may well have a problem with your ITB and/or poor hamstring/glute strength which is why you're suffering. These things generally hit cardio people harder because they don't do strength training properly.

Without turning this into a medical thread (getting close, already), go and find a sports physio and tell them you want to get back to running properly, as otherwise you will get tips on how to manage your injury, rather than how to fix it.

Yeah OK thanks, there is no swelling, there hasn't been for quite a while.. it was a sports and occupational physio that I saw but maybe I hadn't been specific with goals.. I'll go back this week...