Pulled my knee!

bikerjoe83

Hi everyone,

I've started a sort of a hybrid intensive/circuit training workout - it's basically a slow circuit training combining cardio and strength but it's intensive for me being mega unfit. Part of it is simple lunges - during a lunge today my knee suddenly became too sore to carry on lunging - I didn't feel anything click or 'go', one lunge it was fine, the next it was very sore. I can walk, move, run etc without a problem, but I just can't do lunges on that leg now.

To help avoid this happening a lot in the future, which will no doubt slow up my workouts, can anyone suggest something I can incorporate into the warm up or even the workout to help the knee joints?

Thanks in advance.

canadianlbs

it's pretty hard to know what can damage a joint, especially something as complex as knees. just too many variables. but imo sudden onset of anything is a good prescription to take the next-day pain to someone who can diagnose and suggest by sorting through all the variables. especially if it lingers around for a while.

bikerjoe83

The funny thing is, it doesn't hurt now except when I lunge. There's no swelling or anything so I'd be hard pressed to show anyone an injury.

This hasn't happened to me for a long time, only when I used to cycle 8/9 years ago. After several days of no cycling, it'd be fine. I just don't want it to start up again just because I'm lunging - I like lunges...

marm1962

does it hurt when you push on it anywhere?

Azdak

Hopefully it's just a strained quad and will resolve itself with some rest and alternate exercise.

i know you are young, but if you are overweight and, in your words, "mega unfit", I would ease into a workout program a little more gradually. "Intensive circuit training" might be better a little down the road. Exercises like body weight/goblet squats, step ups, and split squats can condition your legs so that they are ready for heavier eccentric loading like lunges. Just something to consider.

bikerjoe83

marm1962 wrote: »

does it hurt when you push on it anywhere?

Not if I poke and prod at it, but only when I do a lunge. It feels like there's pressure behind the knee cap.

bikerjoe83

Azdak wrote: »

Hopefully it's just a strained quad and will resolve itself with some rest and alternate exercise.

i know you are young, but if you are overweight and, in your words, "mega unfit", I would ease into a workout program a little more gradually. "Intensive circuit training" might be better a little down the road. Exercises like body weight/goblet squats, step ups, and split squats can condition your legs so that they are ready for heavier eccentric loading like lunges. Just something to consider.

I hear you, but as I said it's only intensive to me because of how lazy I've become. It's a slow workout with good breaks between each circuit. Looking in, you'd wonder why I was going so slow! I probably popped an air bubble against a nerve or something...

SonyaCele

lunges are knee killers, i don't do them.

bikerjoe83

SonyaCele wrote: »

lunges are knee killers, i don't do them.

I reckon I shouldn't do them either. What do you do to workout your thighs?

SonyaCele

bikerjoe83 wrote: »

SonyaCele wrote: »

lunges are knee killers, i don't do them.

I reckon I shouldn't do them either. What do you do to workout your thighs?

i powerlift so i get a pretty good leg workout . But specifically when my program calls for lunges, i swap them out for weighted step-ups.

lorrpb

It could have just tightened up on you. That happened to me a couple weeks ago during a squat & I couldn't even do bw squats for several days. It loosened up after swimming one day, and s few days later is now fine.

canadianlbs

bikerjoe83 wrote: »

I hear you, but as I said it's only intensive to me because of how lazy I've become.

it's still relevant though. i mean, you're still doing it with knees that have been being lazy right along with the rest of you.

i can't even guess at what could be wrong, so i don't want to try. i'll mention though that things like lunges and squats should be just as much about the hamstrings and glutes as the quads. when i was new and letting my quads do most of whatever i did, my knees did suffer.

bikerjoe83

canadianlbs wrote: »

bikerjoe83 wrote: »

I hear you, but as I said it's only intensive to me because of how lazy I've become.

it's still relevant though. i mean, you're still doing it with knees that have been being lazy right along with the rest of you.

i can't even guess at what could be wrong, so i don't want to try. i'll mention though that things like lunges and squats should be just as much about the hamstrings and glutes as the quads. when i was new and letting my quads do most of whatever i did, my knees did suffer.

What exercise did you do for your upper legs when you started out?

canadianlbs

bikerjoe83 wrote: »

What exercise did you do for your upper legs when you started out?

we're different people so i really don't know how much of my own thing would be useful to you. i'd been a bike commuter for at least 10 years already, and then i suddenly took up stronglifts 5x5 when i was forty . . . nine?

it was actually the lifting that gave me my own knee issues, but that was because i had fundamentally misunderstood how squats work. i've still got a zillion problems with squats, and i still have insanely tight quads, but knees aren't usually the place that i have trouble now. now the thing that borks my knees up every. time. is running.

but understand this is me. i'm not trying to be unhelpful. i just don't want to be responsible for you running into worse trouble.

bikerjoe83

canadianlbs wrote: »

bikerjoe83 wrote: »

What exercise did you do for your upper legs when you started out?

we're different people so i really don't know how much of my own thing would be useful to you. i'd been a bike commuter for at least 10 years already, and then i suddenly took up stronglifts 5x5 when i was forty . . . nine?

it was actually the lifting that gave me my own knee issues, but that was because i had fundamentally misunderstood how squats work. i've still got a zillion problems with squats, and i still have insanely tight quads, but knees aren't usually the place that i have trouble now. now the thing that borks my knees up every. time. is running.

but understand this is me. i'm not trying to be unhelpful. i just don't want to be responsible for you running into worse trouble.

It's OK, I'm not looking to copy anything specific, just interested in case it gives me ideas.

I use to be a strong cyclist and to be honest I think I've retained a lot of structure/stength in my quads. I don't feel any burn when I stress them, unlike my calfs which have shrunk. I had trouble with my knee when I cycled, usually when I pushed myself in a sprint, like a slight misalignment as I push down hard on the pedals and something gives. I think that's why a lunge did something because it's hard on my knees, where as squats feel 'easy' on my quads, if you know what I mean.

I'll keep going with lunges but will slow right down, I think, unless something equally as effective comes up. I've been a fan of lifting weights, but then I've never properly gotten into it. In my younger days, but methods have changed since then I suppose.