Should i see a physio or a personal trainer?

cheekygem240
cheekygem240 Posts: 25 Member
edited November 14 in Fitness and Exercise
I have been having on and off knee pain for the last year or so. It comes and goes depending on the current physical activity i am partaking in. I did body weight and lighter weighted exercise last year which is where it started. I then went unactive for quite a while and started doing alot of walking, weirdly my knee pain didnt come back during that. I then decided i wanted to get into doing resistance exercises again so i began to stretch gently every day for aslong as i could to prepare my body for it. I am generally very unactive so i thought it was the best thing to do. But strangely just from doing basic stretches my knee pain became really bad. I gave it a break again until it cleared within 4 or so days. Then gave it another week and started stretching again and it came back again!

In the mean time now im scared to stretch and have only been doing light exercise routines i find on youtube but even those are hurting my knee. I definitely know i have problems in stretching my hamstrings and glutes. When doing hamstring stretch i get numbness/tingles and pain going down to my toes on both legs and ive always had that and can never feel any stretch in the hamstring! Also when stretching glutes i can often feel a slight pain and tug in my knee which seems to aggravate it.

I am not sure who i need to see about these issues to be honest, my ultimate goal is to have help in getting me to the exercises i want to do properly with good form (squats, lunges etc ) which at the moment i struggle to do because of my knee and i feel extremely tight in the way my legs bend.
I am wondering if its also my posture and lack of general flexibility making the problem worse. But i feel as if a physio wouldnt cover all that? But would a personal trainer have the knowledge of all these things and should i be looking for one with certain other training qualifications aswell?

If you have read this thanks for reading. And hope i can find some help about this here.

Thankyou :smile:

Replies

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,029 Member
    The pain can be from sciatica if it's tingling down to your toes. That means there's an issue with nerve impingement in your lower back.
    Get an assessment by an orthopedist.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • cheekygem240
    cheekygem240 Posts: 25 Member
    I have had sciatica sometimes at different points often after exercising but i dont seem to have had it for a while but i still get the tingling down my leg if i stretch my hamstring. Thankyou for that advice i will look into an orthopedist :)
  • luluinca
    luluinca Posts: 2,899 Member
    edited January 2017
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    The pain can be from sciatica if it's tingling down to your toes. That means there's an issue with nerve impingement in your lower back.
    Get an assessment by an orthopedist.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    I agree with niner, you need a proper diagnosis from an orthopedist. I thought I had runner's knee a few months ago and come to find out I have a meniscus tear, arthritis and minimal cartilage left. Back issues and sciatica can also be the issue so you really need an evaluation in order to figure out where to go from here.

    Good luck, if walking doesn't hurt then I would keep doing that for now. Stop doing anything that hurts though until you see the doc.

    BTW, a personal trainer is a good idea, I've had some great ones, but you need to know what is going on first and generally that means an MRI.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    in your position i'd go to a physio. trainers (to me) are more for helping you to work and improve from a position of health. physio's are for pain and dysfunction. so if merely stretching brings on a problem, to me that would mean physio.

    you can do both, probably. just thinking that it makes more sense to start with the person who can diagnose and clarify quickly. then once you have the info about any vulnerabilities or issues, you provide that to the trainer as part of the information they'll want to work from.

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