Dealing with Knee Pain

[superaggie79]

First I've ruptured my left Patella Tendon twice so I've dealt with my knee problems for awhile. Lately though I've been having quite a bit of inflammation in my right Patella Tendon approximately where my left one tore. I'm going to assume this is a combination of some bad knees in general but the fact that I've compensated the past few years and put a lot more pressure on it. 

 

I'm curious as to other's thoughts on if someone should continue exercising and focusing on diet as normal and hope that weight lost will equal less knee pain or if someone should take a break from the rough exercise and focus on a flawless diet and drop 10-20 pounds before getting back going strong? I hate to put off lower body exercises because I know the benefits of working those big muscles but it won't matter if I'm in a leg brace for 8 months again. 

 

Right now I'm at 230 and I'm down ~25 pounds over the past 12 months. Former power lifter trying to ease back into a strength training world. 

 

Thoughts? I'll hangup and listen 

[ProtectorOfKittens]

Maybe try to change your routine a bit?  You know, take out the stuff that really hurts your knees and add in stuff that is easier on them?  I like the elliptical.  It really works the muscles, but the gliding motion doesn't put much pressure on my knees.  Swimming might be good, too.

 

Good luck, and let us know if you find something that works well.

 

POK

[Morrigainz]

Maybe you should go to the doctor.

[Pat G]

Knees, you can't live without them, or squat without them. Try to do some testing on them after a few weeks rest, what hurts the most? bearing a load? A long range of movement? Can you stretch your ITB, Hip Flexors, calf muscles without screaming etc. If general flexibility work and rest doesn't fix it, go visit your doc or physio.

[superaggie79]

Flexibility has seriously been an issue even when I was power lifting. After 3 years of deep squats all of a sudden I could have 500 lbs on my back and I couldn't get down past parallel anymore. My hips and ankles just locked up for some reason. My last two workouts are what caused the most pain in my "good knee". They were the basic bodyweight workout and then I did intervals on a treadmill. I iced it awhile last night and feels "better" this morning. I've been avoiding going to the physio or ortho because it's an hour one way to get to my closest options and those options aren't the best. 

 

A lot of it is mental because of my other knee but I'm constantly worried about if I should or should not "push through it" when it starts bothering me. Not sure what I would do with both legs being operated on. 

[superaggie79]

I think I identified the issue today. When I was doing lunges I realized that when I stepped out with my leg that's had surgery my back leg was taking a lot of the pressure as I squatted and it caused a ton of pressure on that patella tendon. It might not have been the initial cause but it was very noticeable today. So I was compensating and making the good knee hurt. To avoid this I switched up and went with step ups. This way I would have to focus on strengthening my weaker leg and the other leg isn't there for a crutch.

[dajve]

It'd definitely be worth keeping up exercising on it, but changing up what you're doing and lightening the load. Obviously don't do anything that's going to make it worse, but ensuring you keep it moving through the same range of motion you want to use when you're recovered is going to prevent further problems when you get back into things properly.

 

A decent physiotherapist will be able to help out a lot, but there are some good resources online that can point you in the right direction, too. This post on T-Nation by Anthony Mychal may be of interest, and I'd also recommend his Athlete's Guide to Chronic Knee Pain, though it does cost $33 (Full disclosure: non-affiliate link, I have purchased it myself - I've had knee issues all my life. I'm also on his training program, so I may be a little biased!).