Various Pains in Right Leg as a Right Handed Player

Discussion in 'Injuries' started by vctrku, Jan 10, 2014.

  1. vctrku

    vctrku Regular Member

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    Hi, recently I have been suffering several injuries in my legs and have no idea what to do about it, or what the cause of the problem is. Before, after play when my body has cooled down, my Achilles tendon on both legs would be very sore and stiff when I try walking around.

    If I was to even touch the bone on the back of the heel, I would feel extreme pain like it is the worst of bruises! Eventually some pain even developed in my right knee that I could not bear any more and I had to stop playing for a while because it would even hurt when I am not playing.

    The pain in the knee occurs in the soft part where the doctor would hit to test for reflexes. I had taken two months off any physical activities on my legs and all pain was gone so I tried playing again and the pain in the Achilles tendons was gone but the knee pain came back immediately. I have even tried various supports for the knee and ankles but it did not really help.

    I am a 24 year old male at 5'10" (~178cm) and about 210lbs (~93kg). Yes I am huge, but I did not run into these injuries before. lol I also played quite a lot but again I did not have these issues before. I mainly play doubles as a very aggressive rear court power player. I play most with a pair of Yonex SHB-57N (I think) with a sport insole, then secondly the Mizuno Wave Rally 4 but I also own and recently bought a pair of Yonex SHB-92M, and Yonex SHB-01.

    The courts I play on at school are quite slippery and that is what I think mainly caused the injuries but is there anything else you guys can think of that caused the injuries or what I can do to remedy and fix these problems? Thanks a lot for your help! All suggestions welcome!
     
  2. sychong95

    sychong95 Regular Member

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    I suspect you having what is called the runners knee. It is where a bone called the patella rubs away the cartilage on the bone. It is common for teenagers and young adults, and especially for badminton players.

    To check if you have the runner's knee, just sit with your legs straight on the floor, and see if the lump on the knee symetrical to your left leg. If the lump is somehow a bit left or right, not symetrical to the left leg, u are likely to have the runners knee.

    You can search more info on the web.

    You might have to see a physiotherapist for that.

    what they do is they might give you some daily exercise to move the patella that wont rub agaist your thigh bone. If quite serious, then maybe medication.

    if you have the runners knee, best to buy the knee supporter with the hole, and rotate the lump on the knee to its position where is symetrical to the left leg, and tighten it.

    you can also use kesiology tape. But u need someone qualified to od that for you, cuz it is a bit tricky.

    All I said above is I just estimate what is might causing you the pain from your words. I am not certain of the cause. I still advise you to see a physiotherapist. Health is more important than some money.

    wish u a sooner recovery =)
     
  3. vctrku

    vctrku Regular Member

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    Ah, thank you so much for your reply! The knowledge you shared with me was invaluable! The first thing I had tried was your test to see if I have runner's knee with your test and my knees seem normal so I did more research on YouTube to see if there were any other ways to determine if I had runner's knee but many of the related videos to the ones I watched mentioned jumper's knee or patellar tendonitis so I clicked on the videos to watch and it was exactly what I was experiencing!

    Thank you so much for your insight though! If it was not for you, I would not have even known where to start searching! Luckily, jumper's knee is also a very common condition athletes suffer so there was so much information on it and the main points are to rest and stretch the muscles around it and after that, it already feels much better! I guess I really have to take it easy in badminton since I play so much and my weight probably doesn't help either.

    I have the knee supports you mentioned and tried it before without much effect, but I guess I was just not patient enough with using them so I will give it another try. Also, I have previously bought several rolls of kinesiology tape but it does look very confusing to use so I think I will skip that.

    Would you know anything about the pain in the back of my heels and Achilles tendons? It is gone now but I am very sure it will make a comeback sometime soon. I will try to take it easy now but if the condition does not improve, I will try seeing a physiotherapist.

    Thank you!
     
  4. sychong95

    sychong95 Regular Member

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    Well there are lots of factors to cause Achilles tendons pain.

    Just imagine how how much weight the
    Achilles tendons load. If you tip toe on 2 legs, your Achilles tendons each takes half of your body weight, which is nearly 47.5 kg in your case. If you are tip toe on just one leg, well your Achilles tendons and your heel is resisting 93 kg of your weight against gravity! Talk about a few cm width with that tensile strength!

    Well you tip toe every time in badminton, skip hop and jump with one leg. Even landing on your toe! So just imagine how much pressure it can withstand until damage kicks in.

    What I advice you to do is really to stretch more first. Increasing the elasticity of your calf muscles could reduce the pull on your
    Achilles tendons, thus exerting less force on your heel bone.

    Next is to do strengthen exercise. Go down to the gym, or do a few tip toe exercise. Skipping rope is also a very good option! Strengthening your calf muscles and increase your pace in badminton. Strengthening the calf muscles can withstand the force when you jump, hop, skip etc. in badminton, thus reducing the burden of the Achilles tendons. BUT!!! Do not train your calf muscle intensively, or you can still injure your Achilles tendons the same way with badminton! Just do daily exercise with it! It will slowly build up. And always stretch!

    Third is to improve your footwork. If you don't waste lots on time on steps, you won't have to jump or hop all the time which will significantly reduce the stress on your
    Achilles tendons!

    Next it, have you ever seen or played on soft rubber courts, the ones that you might feel spongy and bouncy. These courts can greatly damage your
    Achilles tendons as the force of each step is repel back. Compare to wood and hard rubber courts (like the one in tournaments) they can efficiently absorb your force from every step.

    And the last is if you got any bad habits like stopping your feet very hard when smashing or net kill. Just quit it. I got a friend who is born to have big bones, so he is obviously big and heavy, but he likes to stomp so much, the vibration he cause just injured his knee and foot. Now he also strengthen his calf and had great footwork. Which I never heard from him to have the same problem as you had.


     
  5. captaincook

    captaincook Regular Member

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    Thank you. All badminton players should read this. Maybe Kwun should write an article on based on this.

     
  6. Herrmann

    Herrmann Regular Member

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    Just my 2 cents:

    I was out for 9 months last year (patellar tendonitis and some minor hip pain). Nothing really helped (anti-inflamatories, months of rest, cortisone injections). I realized my doctor was only trying to treat the symptoms instead of eliminating the underlying causes for the pain I was experiencing. I ran into some useful information on youtube that helped me resolve my problems completely. Check out "mwod" on youtube.

    Obviously the pain you describe is a result of biomechanically incorrect movement patterns. I am guessing you have some range-of-motion restrictions in your hip/ankle joint which is causing you to move incorrectly. It might also be an issue of motor-control but first things first you should get full ROM in your joints and then work on motor-control.

    Hope that helps
     

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