knee problem. sleeves?

[maccaz]

hopefully i worded this right, basicaly looking for input on an injury, and if knee sleeves could help possibly?

 

 

My gf has been starting to train for strength, best lifts are 70 squat, 105 deadlift, 45 bench, at 70 bw, she wants to get strong and compete. real annoying because she is real motivated and this is the only thing holding her back atm, 

 

she has a lot more squat in her, strength wise, but chickens out because of knee issue, it gets a little sore (apparently like a 3/10 but enough to be annoying). had a bad hockey injury maybe 8 years ago, since then the soreness has come and gone every few months.

 

 

things that i know aggravate it are:

 

when bodyweight increases

heavy leg extensions

high high rep squat seem to aswell (20+ reps)

 

thing is, its not all the time, it comes and goes, like could be sweet for 6 months, then have a shitty month, with no real obvious cause

 

 

physio and doctor have both said "warm up a lot" and  "avoid things that agravate it" , but found no real cause

 

want to get it sorted

 

in this situation would it be best to ask the physio to refer for some kind of scan? anyone had something similar? pain is described as under the knee cap, no pain at lockout or in deep squat, pain is in the middle of the movement somewhere.

 

all i can think of is wear knee sleeves, i dont know shit about injuries

 

 

 

 

[FellowshipOfTheRon]

bro there are so many useless physios and the doctors really don't know shit about this sort of thing. they just grab your leg and twist it in wierd directions know enough to confirm it is not broken or paralysed but not enough to diagnose joint level issue.

 

try also find recommendations for good osteo in your area.

 

knee sleeves do help me to an extent but i also have hip problems and they don't help there.. i think overall if you don't address the main point but try to hide it or ignore for too long, your body will compensate and you'll cause problems in other places so find out what's wrong before going for sleeves to mask it (even though she'll end up getting a nice pair of those or wraps for powerlifting anyway). she is doing right by stopping while it's a 3/10, my mate dave is a complete idiot liked to keep training through the pain because he's fkin hardcore wants to be strong mofo and screwed himself up for months.

[maccaz]

Thanks bro i guess priority will be trial and error various physios osteos etc until someone is good. Annoying no acc here so its like 80 bucks a pop haha but il refuse to pay if they blatantly shit cunts

[donz]

Sleeves are protective/preventative unsure if they will help an already noticable injury bro - how deep is she squatting? Could she go deeper? You might find more stress on the knee if shes half squatting like some people do - a lot of bbers go to a depth where it puts way more pressure on the knee than when you squat deep and correctly - maybe check her form to see that can be tweaked to take pressure off. Sleeves would be a great start regardless bro - SBD ones are +1 I've had rehbands as well but the SBD's are top notch. No ACC is ruthless, I would be bankrupt without it haha thats so rank! Best of luck either way~

 

Plus side is that if shes training for strength she won't need to do 20+ reps haha that's some cardio sheit right thur~  

[Pseudonym]

No ACC is ruthless, I would be bankrupt without it

So true!

 

Maccaz, I'm no expert, but here's my bro-science checklist...

- Make sure she keeps the weight on her heels, and sits back into the squat - not too far forward.

- Make sure her knees don't track inwards as she squats - ie, shins should remain parallel.

- Tight quads/fascia gives me achey knees, so maybe stretch and foam-roll the hell out of her quads. (Especially rolling down the side of the quads by the knee - that's a killer!)

[OnlyHuman]

No one should diagnose over the internet ... with that being said.

 

You pointed out some valuable aggravating factors.

 

With not knowing anything (or having a chance to look at it in real life, take a case history, examination ... etc)

 

I suspect she has some issues with the articulating part of the patella. It gets inflamed/irritated. Docs and scans don't find anything because there is "nothing majorly wrong" with the joint apart of the articulating surfaces getting irritated for one reason or an other. GPs are not musculo - skellatal specialist, so you can't expect them to be aware of it either.  

 

It can happen for more than one reason and different people will be predisposed to it for different reasons. Eg: sudden increase of activity level (Eg going from  being relatively sedentary/being away from lifting for a few week for a holiday or something and on return jumping onto Smolov good be a good example), females are more prone to it due to their larger Q angle. Oly lifters due to the "more pronounced" forward knee travel required for keeping more upright in squats and catch position of their lifts etc. People with weak glutes, overly tight tensor-fascia late (tracking of the patela becomes less than optimal). Etc... 

 

 

Actually, it is not that hard to fix (if it is indeed the problem, pretty suspicious from what I read so far ... some simple orthopaedic test could confirm or eliminate this... but I am pretty convinced) 

 

Anyways, she can do a lot for her self and sort this out. On a daily basis:

 

(1) She needs to foam rollm(better yet get a plastic roll)  regularly eg daily on her quads, glutes, adductors, tfl ... but pay extra attention to her quads!  Even if it is an off day. On training day before as well as after training!

 

(2) Following this she needs to stretch her quads. (She needs to look into something called Couch stretch, this may initially agravate her problems slightly for a few minutes but over time will provide a lot of relief). Even if it is an off day. On training day before as well as after training!

 

(3) High dose of fish oil for a few weeks than switching to maintanence known to help with this kinds of joint issues!

 

She could look into:

 

(A) Go to a treatment provider that has knowledge / worked with lifters. (Ask around who the powerlifters/oly lifters get to see in the area you live at. Get it checked and get it sorted. They may see / feel something that was not mentioned in your post (nothing replaces case history/proper physical examination... I am always hesitant to give advise over the net because of this.) 

 

(B) Knee sleave - to keep joint warm that will help to keep the sliding/articulating surfaces happier/functioning more at an optimal rate.

 

© Occasional deep tissue on quads etc to maintain tissue quality etc

 

 

I hope it helps. If her proplem is indeed what i think, it is very annoying but relatively easy to fix if she gets pro-active about it. Good luck to her. 

[Pseudonym]

I was hoping you'd post, OnlyHuman... and ^ that's why!

[maccaz]

Thanks heaps donz and only human. Potm contender onlyhuman!

Will take all on board, to be honest she (and i) are real shit with foam rolling etc so will make a conscious effort to do every day focussing on areas you mention

Thanks heaps bro

[donz]

+1 for being slack with rehab and rolling and also stretching

+1 for awesome post by mr human

[Wongmania]

I had sore knees, I got it from trying out the smolov squat routine.

Knee sleeves helped me for sure! But in a way it masked the problem.

In order to fix it I had to revisit my squat technique. I found I over tracked my knees over toes and used too much quads than flutes and so knees buckled in a bit.

So basically what I'm saying is check out her squat form, the answer might be an easy fix!