2007 was a stella year for me, winning singles, doubles and mixed state titles. As well as a inter state title in Victoria. But I suffered for it, playing through the tassie titles with a hurting knee. After the titles I went to hospital, I had a torn meniscus cartlidge as well as chipped knee bone. Two weeks later surgery, six weeks of crutches, then physio and now the cartlidge and knee is mended My quad atrophied and im slowly building the quad up. Running etc. Now I start pre season training for another year. Im a little concerned about injury again and if I can play at the same grade or higher. Anyone else come back from injury and played at the same level or higher? RC
muscular atrophy is not that serious, with proper weight training and muscle building diet, you should be back to fitness in no time. However, I'm more interested in how serious is the meniscus tear, because usualy that is much harder to heal
I had to have part of the meniscus removed. And the out edge shaped. I was six week son crutches with little or no weight bearing. Since then I have been going to the physio twice a week, exercises and a little stretching. Last four weeks I have included running. A few 10-20 metre sprints. I dont have as much power or fast twitch muscle fibre. The knee still aches occasionally and Im unable to do full squats but in terms of running/training etc I can now go at 70-80%.
Actually, people have more fast-twitch muscle fibres after long periods of inactivity. Training causes muscle fibres to become slower and more fatigue resistant. A key thing to take a look at is your motor programs for basic movements. For example, it is probable that some flaw in your movement causes a stress concentration in your knees. This in turn leads to an injured knee. To make matters worse, after an injury your body devises compensatory motor programs to avoid stressing the parts that hurt. If you jump right into performance training before relearning good movement skills, your performance might increase but your body will be a ticking time bomb in terms of future injuries.
continue weight training for your quads, concentrating on resistance training first before going for power. leg press equipment will be recommended. DO NOT use full squats at the moment as you are recovering from menisectomy, so about 90deg will do.. i had 70% of my meniscus removed, so i know the awkward feeling. u need to regain full flexibility of your knee, then do full squats to regain all the power in your quads. at the same time, strengthen your hamstrings
