injury or not?

S

sprinklerman

New Member
As you all know i've started a new HST routine. I've noticed a pain in the backside of my knee on my right leg when i curl it back. It's not behind the kneecap but in the area where the tendons connect back there. (sorry dont know the proper description) It only hurts when i "curl" that leg back,like working the hammies.
Is this an injury per-say or just new muscles being used since I've neglected squats in the past? How should i proceed?
Thanx for any input!
 
Are you warming up properly before? Is it constant? Is it a strong pain or just a discomfort? Are you using a weight too heavy? Are you stretching after the workout?
 
1.Warming up properly? I stretch then do 5 min of cycling for the legs to warmup.
2. Constant? Only when i curl my leg back. It does kinda crackle a lil though.
3. Stong pain? Stong enuff pain to make me stop doing it! haha.
4. Weight too heavy? Nah, i dont think so, still in my 15's i just never did many squats so the weights are fairly low considering my other lifts.
5. Stretch afterward? no.. should i?
 
<div>
(sprinklerman @ Aug. 18 2008,7:00)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">5. Stretch afterward? no.. should i?</div>
Yup, stretch after, not before...!
 
It is possible that you have a minor injury. If you haven't squatted much before your joints, tendons and ligaments all have to get used to the forces you are putting on them. Even thought the loads might be at the lighter end of the cycle, it can still take a while for things to toughen up to cope with your new activity. As long as the pain/discomfort doesn't continue to get worse you should find that it will gradually fade away.

Of course, the pain could point to your squat form not being that great. Do some reading around the subject (a copy of Starting Strength by Ripptoe &amp; Kilgore is a good buy) and, if you can, get a knowledgeable person to watch you and point out any areas for improvement. If you are able to make a vid and post it on YouTube there are plenty of folks who will be happy to check your form.
 
You should warm before and stretch after. I suggest that you warm up with one or more warmup sets of the exercise you'll be doing before each exercise.
Applying a hot/cold treatment should help somewhat. As Lol said check the form and if things start getting worse or are not improving it is best to step back some.
 
The guys are spot on as usual.

Sounds like you have either damaged the tendon in that area, the join to the bone, or possibly injured the muscle where it joins the tendons. Either way you need to rest it as the pain is strong enough to make you stop the exercise (get proper treatment if you can to speed healing).

You should not stretch before being warmed up, so do it after your cycling or (possibly better) after lifting. Also do NOT bounce when stretching as it will increase the chances of injury (not to be confused with AIS which is a gradual stretch lasting 2secs so that the Stretch Reflex is not activated). The Stretch Reflex occurs after 3secs and causes the muscle to contract against the stretch, which may increase the possibility of injuries. What type of stretching you do depends on your objective, I've recently adopted AIS type stretching at the end of my workout, doing about 10 stretches held for 2sec for each muscle.

See
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10593217

A quick search found these (though they don't cover AIS)
http://www.topendsports.com/medicine/stretching-methods.htm
http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/flexibilitytraining.html
Here's a bit on AIS
http://au.home.lifefitness.com/content.cfm/activeisolatedstretching
 
Wow!Thanks for all he input.

When i squat there is no pain, only when i curl my leg back. I also noted that it hurts to put some&quot;side load&quot; on the knee... if i push the knee in,towards the left leg,using my hand. They both crackle and pop.
Also it feels like its deep inside, not a muscle pain.
I'm only 32yr old, hope thet arent wore out already!
rock.gif

I will implement everything that was mentioned.
thanks again.
 
Btw; no swelling.
Also, just to rule things out, i'll do my best to post a vid of me squatting. Someone is borrowing my cam,but i'll get right on that.
 
Sounding more like a cartilage issue now. A friend of mine had a little bit of floating cartilage but it was towards the front which only gave a pain when the leg was in a certain position, he had to have key hole surgery to get it removed.

Have a look at this , follow the links for the muscles etc. it may give you a better idea of what the actual problem is e.g. Popliteus. And for the ligaments it might be one of cruciates (just guessing) see this
 
My knees have always sounded like a knife going thru a head of cabbage. Orthopedic said if it didn't hurt it was just cartilage, not to worry. You have pain tho, and that's a warning sign.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top