Hi folks, I am 23, I used to play for my college. 2 years back, i overtrained a bit which caused my right knee to go too sore - I rested for about 6 weeks, then went to a doctor who examined me and told me to resume playing without any issues and that nuthing was wrong with my knee. I resumed but without good rehab - I started playing directly, and it seemed that the pain would plague me if played regularly for a week - this was not the case before. Now, after 2 years, I still have the dull pain. I went to another ortho recently and he also said that nuthing is wrong with the knees and getting an MRI would be a waste of money. He gave me physio exercises to do and told me to do warm up properly and do stretching I feel a dull pain where my quads attach to the knee cap, plus some pain on the sides and pain behind the knee as well. When the knee has this dull pain/fatigue, its like I always want to tighten it and then loosen, so I can hear a click sound in the knee and when the click happens, it feels like my knee is little relieved. But that feeling is very shortlived. It also feels like when I lunge, the weight is not being distributed properly, like something feels misaligned. Overall, the knee feels solid, no tenderness or pain while pressing anywhere but it seems that this pain affects my ability to play better - is it that my muscles never regained their strength when i restarted playing or should I do more stretching or is it something else ? Anybody with similar symptoms - the doctor ruled out any possible injuries to the knee.
I have the same problem like you about 2 years ago. I went to a sports injury doctor (a registered panel with national sports institute) which diagnosed my injury as "jumper's knee". Its entirely different from the more common patella tendonitis and there is no tear to the ligament or tissue damage whatsoever. This is due to excessive loads channeled to our knee (when we jump-smash and bent to retrieve tight net-shots) and played too frequently over the week (I used to play 5 times weekly) and our body is not strong/fit enough for it. The pain is actually a signal our body trying to relate to us that we overly exert certain area and needs attention. After a few visits to the doctor doing some ultrasound treatments, resilience training and certain stretching pattern designed for the knee, the pain eases gradually. I rest from game for 2 months and regulate the same exercises every day to heal and strenghten the muscles around the knee area to avoid re-occurence. I went to the gym and workout the the leg overall muscles as well. Now, I have a stronger leg and would wear a patella knee guard (with patella gel) whenever I play and I would say I healed 95% overall. After each session I would apply some cool gel to the knee area for relaxation and if possible, invest in a good pair of badminton shoes with good impact absorption properties ie. Asics gel rocket series. Given due time, I believed I can live without the knee support (although encouraged for pre-cautions) and get back to my former self completely provided I carry on with the same regime. All the best.
Hi aspire, Thanks for your detailed explanation - when I first had the pain start two years back - I myself did some research and found out about Jumpers knee. At that time, the pain was worst and I didn't find anything wrong with my patella tendon or the area below the knee where it attaches. I could press down/palpate the patella tendon and it would feel rock solid without any pain. But the pain was around the knee and where the quads attached to the knee cap (above the knee cap). So I feel its probably not jumpers knee. I have started physio now - I do single leg lifts for quad strengthening, cycling every day at high RPM/low resistance, hip adductor strengthening and quad/hamstring/illiotibial band stretching exercises. One question I had was that if I exercise, there will always be some stress on the knee muscles and hence some pain during the exercise otherwise its of no use. I kinda want to know the sweet spot for the pain - like I exercise today and then tomorrow, if the pain does not increase substantially, is it fine. Like, if my knee remains good enough so that I am always in a condition that I can climb stairs skipping one stair at a time (with slight pain) - is it the right amount of exercise ?
Varun sorry for the late reply. I read through your questions a few times trying to understand it better and this is what my experience tells me although I believe your case is slightly different from mine. About the pain threshold, first of all, after your recuperation period where you went through physio, strenghtening and weight exercises and given ample rest, the pain should be very minimal. Meaning to say without too much load channeled to the injured spot repeatedly, you shouldn't feel pain at all. This mean you have more or less recovered. In the case if you feel there is pain (even though its tolerable), it shows that you are still in the process of recovery. During my recovery process, whenever I hit the gym (after 1 month of complete rest) to work out the legs or do any activities that put certain amount of stress to the knee area like walking up and down the stairs and squats, I felt there is pain too. But most importantly, the pain was not severe enough to make me stop whatever I was doing and I wasn't pushing myself too. In another word, the pain was numb and it doesn't felt threatening. It wasn't the same kind of pain when the injury first occurred. Then the pain eases gradually as time passes and I could perform more heavy workouts. One important factor was I always focus on the degree of pain during those workouts and I trusted my natural instinct. Whenever I felt strain I would stop immediately and would not push any further. I would rest for a while and lessen the weight/load. I could push myself harder but that wasn't the right thing to do during your recuperation period. Listen to your body and forget about willpower for the time being. You know when you are ready for more. Its just a matter of time and best of luck to you Varun.
Thanks a lot for your wishes and your detailed replies - I hope it goes away with time - I am itching to start playing . I went to the doctor 2 weeks back - she did some knee movements to diagnose meniscal tears or cartilage damage that can happen with chondromalacia (patellofemoral syndrome) but they all came out to be negative. She also noticed that watever I had, was minor and wasn't bothering too much - well, currently, am just doing physio regularly - I see that my injured leg gets tired with leg lifts easily so maybe its some kinda quadricep atrophy that has happened. Neverthless, I got the injury 3 years back and it is only now that I am beginning physio exercises - pretty late. I have had 4 diagnosis till date and no one ever pointed out that I had this particular problem - neverthless, I do feel good doing physio and cycling and I think I will be able to do it. Thanks !
No mention mate. Like you, my diagnosis result came out negative of all that you mentioned above. From what the doctor told me, its not necessarily that we had injured certain parts of our body/joints that resulted in the pain. More than often, the pain is caused by over-exertion repeatedly for a certain period of time on certain weak points of our body and in the point of discussion here the knee area for the both of us. It could be elbow or shoulder problem for others and that shows different individuals have different weak-points. Given adequate measures and time, those weak points would grow stronger.
Good to work on it if you can. Once you are 35 above, its a case of passing the threshold. Not easy to recover form all the battering over the years. That is why it is important to get the right technique corrected. Early. Some people don't go for coaching and has been playing for years. This is where the damage comes in.
