Knee Inflammation

[Matthieu Hertilus]

What about TGU's? Are they safe to perform with this condition?

[Dave Van Skike]

if you can do it without pain it's good. any pain, not good.

[Allen Yeh]

Originally Posted by Dave Van Skike

ok.
first, BW squats maybe. lunges no.

Here's what i would do. though my knees are well rehabbed, they do get tweaky about every 2-3 months. at the first sign of inflammation here's my drill.

• Ibuprofen carpet bomb. Greg E suggested this for my shoulder once and it worked a charm. standard dosage, 1600mg min. go after it for 2-3 days MAX. this is a hit it and get out sort of thing.
  
• hip mobility and passive stretching..pay attention ankle and hips. if a joint hurts, i always look to the muscles surrounding the joint above and below it.
  
• zero "squatting" ...I'll do wide stance box squats movements with minimal weight off a medium to high box for higher reps, in place of a squat day. gradually working the box down until it can be done pain free. i ditch the oly shoes for these.
  
• Terminal Knee Extensions (TKE's) throughout the day..very very oftern is key. think 500 reps per day each leg MINIMUM with a small band.
  
• single leg DL, use KB and work up to a bar. but two dumbells or kb's usually work fine.
  
• High rep RDL's at first. if they don't hurt, I'll feel free to go heavy but monitor the pain after.
  
• When the inflammation is totally gone, I'll start back to squatting light but still to a box, gradually working back to normal stance.
  
• Once I feel good here, then I'll front squat light..Once I'm able to front squat to medium weights consistenly w/o irritation, I'm good.

total time from f'ed up knee to being ready to train again is usually about 2-3 weeks. this tends to disrupt progress but i'll take a crummy squat over not being able to walk right.

Depending on your knee health, less or more time.YMMV.

DVS,

Is this still your standing recommendation? I've never had much knee pain and if anything right now I'm super confused as to why I even have it as this past 1.5 months I've felt pretty crummy from an encounter with the norovirus and then bronchitis I haven't been overly active.

My right knee has been feeling tight lately, even after just regular walks. Just sitting here in the airport typing this out my knee just feels tight. Certain positions put it at more discomfort than others. I'm thinking a visit to a sports doc is going to be needed as this has pretty much been an ongoing thing for a few months. Once I get home I'm going to try out:

-the ibuprofen bombing method
-more stretching along with more foam rolling
-More TKE's

[Dave Van Skike]

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

DVS,

Is this still your standing recommendation? I've never had much knee pain and if anything right now I'm super confused as to why I even have it as this past 1.5 months I've felt pretty crummy from an encounter with the norovirus and then bronchitis I haven't been overly active.

My right knee has been feeling tight lately, even after just regular walks. Just sitting here in the airport typing this out my knee just feels tight. Certain positions put it at more discomfort than others. I'm thinking a visit to a sports doc is going to be needed as this has pretty much been an ongoing thing for a few months. Once I get home I'm going to try out:

-the ibuprofen bombing method
-more stretching along with more foam rolling
-More TKE's

yeah that's still my basic drill...BUT, tight is different than hurts. sounds strange to me. could easily be some swelling under the kneecap- kind of a light inflammation. I defer to your sports med...i can tell you what works for me once it's bone grinding on bone... just a shot in the dark here...i'm guessign Uncle Sam still has you rucking and running lots?

also, quad sets...they never worked for me but i've talked with several guys who get big mileage out of quad sets...just lock the knee and flex the quad many many many times. it's good for airlplane trips etc. gets boring... you might as well do kegels for your prostate at the same time. JK.

[Allen Yeh]

Thanks, no bone grinding on bone yet. Just tight for a while now, sometimes it seems to go away but it always comes back. My knee just feels tight not sure how else to describe it.

Ibuprofen
TKE's
stretching
foam rolling
quad sets
sports doc

Not necessarily in that order. Thanks again.

[Duke McCall]

Allen:

I have experienced similar "tightness" in my knees in recent years, although it usually is accompanied by some soreness for me as well. I have attributed both to swelling under the knee cap and have had good results with rest (for a few days), ibuprofen, stretching, foam rolling, etc.

Good luck.

Duke

[Charlie Stone]

Dave Van Skike, why did you need the surgery? I'm going through some tendonitis/tendonopathy of the patella tendons (its been about 4 months now) and have been told by weightlifting coaches it is safe to train through. Both coaches from very different backgrounds (and countries) have described it as something quite common for young lifters getting started, but as long as there is adequate stretching and hamstring work it is safe to train through and the tendons will adapt. Sports therapists seem not to agree with this. Although looking through medical text books and reading journals there doesn't seem to be a decent amount of understanding about the condition or how to treat it.

My current routine involves waking up rolling stretching icing, dynamic work before training and lots of static stretching after training followed by lots of icing. The inflammation is pretty severe after training but a good icing gets it under control. I've stayed away from the NSAIDs.

If I just squat there is not as much swelling.

Here is a pretty standard snatch, although sometimes I catch them slightly on my toes which aggravates the tendon.
http://www.youtube.com/user/charlier.../0/CHXPp4eH1Wo

I think i've posted about this before so sorry to repeat myself.