Thursday, September 11, 2014

Ouch Again

If I get this right—what Matt has just patiently explained—a new, and my latest, knee problem comes from tears in a tendon that passes up from the calf muscles to the back of one of my knee bones. He can see the swelling.

This is something different, and more painful, than the knee problem I was experiencing previously. With that one, the pain seemed to be coming down to the knee from the hamstring muscles above.

My theory is that this first problem contributed to an imbalance between the muscle groups operating the knee from above and from below. 

The latest issue arose just last weekend as I was crouching and bending my knee deeply to take a picture. As I was rising out of the crouch—straightening my leg—I relied with unaccustomed force on the lower tendons connecting knee to calf. 

I reason that the tendons coming down from the hamstrings, when healthy, can help provide a complementary force, but they were weakened and could not give adequate support. The sudden strain on the lower tendons resulted in micro-tears, inflammation, soreness and swelling--sort of a compensatory injury.

So now Matt recommends I treat this latest issue with the standard RICE, an acronym whose signifiers I can never quite remember—rest, elevation, cold, something. I’m also taking ibuprofen and applying some arnica ointments.

Matt gave me his old knee brace and prescribed, in addition to RICE, wearing it on my daily now non-strenuous walk. He also recommended:
  • maintaining hamstring flexibility with stiff-legged dead lifts
  • rowing/cycling as pain allows
  • hot/cold compresses 2X a day
  • topical ointment
It seems that being in training involves both pushing your body, and managing the often resulting pain.

Onward. But dang.

No comments:

Post a Comment