anyone dealing with flavorful knees?
chanstriste13
Posts: 3,277 Member
i recently pulled my calf muscle (about a month ago) during a workout. since then, i have modified my workout routines to allow it time to heal. just about when it got back to normal (was able to add jump rope back in), my right knee started...talking to me.
i'm not accustomed to this. it can be painful after i have been sitting at the computer (goes away after i stretch it out), but it is generally not painful working through movements (jumping, walking, squats/lunges, etc.). no sharp pains, no swelling, nothing major that i can tell. i am very careful to 'listen' to my body while i'm working out, so i always stop and modify if i feel a twinge, i take time to warm up well before doing a lot of bending with my knees and all that.
do you think my calf injury could have played into the current state of my knee? do you have any tips and tricks for getting your knees to stop making themselves known? i recently got a knee brace that i am hoping will help, but i am hoping for advice that will help reduce the issue, or at least keep it at a minor annoyance level.
i am trying to keep my circuit workouts to every other day right now, with walking and stretching in between. i haven't given it a whole two or three days off (easy for me to fall out of habit) but maybe i should? what do ya'll think?
i don't know if these matters or not, but my right leg is my stronger leg, and the muscles tend to be tighter than those of my left leg (weaker leg). i try to accommodate this with extra stretching on the right side. could that be a factor?
i'm not accustomed to this. it can be painful after i have been sitting at the computer (goes away after i stretch it out), but it is generally not painful working through movements (jumping, walking, squats/lunges, etc.). no sharp pains, no swelling, nothing major that i can tell. i am very careful to 'listen' to my body while i'm working out, so i always stop and modify if i feel a twinge, i take time to warm up well before doing a lot of bending with my knees and all that.
do you think my calf injury could have played into the current state of my knee? do you have any tips and tricks for getting your knees to stop making themselves known? i recently got a knee brace that i am hoping will help, but i am hoping for advice that will help reduce the issue, or at least keep it at a minor annoyance level.
i am trying to keep my circuit workouts to every other day right now, with walking and stretching in between. i haven't given it a whole two or three days off (easy for me to fall out of habit) but maybe i should? what do ya'll think?
i don't know if these matters or not, but my right leg is my stronger leg, and the muscles tend to be tighter than those of my left leg (weaker leg). i try to accommodate this with extra stretching on the right side. could that be a factor?
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Replies
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Your gait and balance are probably both off due to the calf injury and compensation your body made over a month, your knee is telling you. If you can't (or aren't inclined) to get a physical therapy consult, I would head over to youtube and see if you can screen through the junk and find some rehab workouts from qualified people. I'd be looking not only at knee stuff but hip stuff. I managed to solve a similar issue with band work with knees and some particular stretches for hip after a hard fall winter before last that mashed up an ankle.3
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Best thread title ever.
I always get related aches and pains when I have an injury, so yes it probably is related.
What do you mean by "pulled" a calf muscle? Is it bad enough that you went to a doctor?
If not, have you been using a foam roller? I get pulled calf muscles once a year or so, and stretches along with targeted rolling is the best thing I've found. Even a tennis ball on the floor targeted to the painful part of the muscle helps tremendously.3 -
Once my knee was hurting and I couldn't figure out why...and then after doing some stretching and ROM exercises, I realized it was the very top part of my calf muscle, where it attaches at the back of the knee, that was causing the pain. So, more calf stretching, rolling, and ice helped.1
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My knees used to taste of gravel and antiseptic- but then I gave up motorcycle racing.10
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You say the main time it seems to painful is when you’ve been sitting for awhile and it resolves when you stretch. That could be quads or hammies even more so than calf. If you feel it dies need a break from working out you could focus on upper body and all the movements you said don’t bother it for a few days.1
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I cannot recommend more strongly you work with a professional on this. You may need considerably longer than 2-3 days off. I injured my knees in 2009 and still have to baby them. I generally don't have problems during, so listening to my body is not effective, as I don't get the signals until too late.
Here are the exercises my PT gave me:
I do these knee strengthening exercises in between sets when weight lifting. (First time I did them straight through and that caused pain.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLoMA7I7HOQ&list=PLUXvX9BaxgqG9yO5XWB3gA_QshvrrcjVr 1 -
cmriverside wrote: »Best thread title ever.
I always get related aches and pains when I have an injury, so yes it probably is related.
What do you mean by "pulled" a calf muscle? Is it bad enough that you went to a doctor?
If not, have you been using a foam roller? I get pulled calf muscles once a year or so, and stretches along with targeted rolling is the best thing I've found. Even a tennis ball on the floor targeted to the painful part of the muscle helps tremendously.
ha! thanks. i did not go to a doctor for my calf - it hurt pretty bad for about two days. i was ready to get it checked out by the third, but it started to fade a little, so i did not do so. over the course of the month it would come and go in pockets. i recognized that what set it off was the motion of rolling my foot, or when i put pressure on the ball of my foot. so, squats were fine with my weight back loaded on my heels, but lunges with my right leg back was KILLER.
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DancingMoosie wrote: »Once my knee was hurting and I couldn't figure out why...and then after doing some stretching and ROM exercises, I realized it was the very top part of my calf muscle, where it attaches at the back of the knee, that was causing the pain. So, more calf stretching, rolling, and ice helped.
what are ROM exercises?0 -
You say the main time it seems to painful is when you’ve been sitting for awhile and it resolves when you stretch. That could be quads or hammies even more so than calf. If you feel it dies need a break from working out you could focus on upper body and all the movements you said don’t bother it for a few days.
my right quad is super tight, and it was my right calf that was giving me so much trouble. we've just started setting a 30 second timer during our stretch sessions because it seemed like we were holding for that long, but we *totally* weren't. i'm hoping that will help out.
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kshama2001 wrote: »I cannot recommend more strongly you work with a professional on this. You may need considerably longer than 2-3 days off. I injured my knees in 2009 and still have to baby them. I generally don't have problems during, so listening to my body is not effective, as I don't get the signals until too late.
Here are the exercises my PT gave me:
thank you so much for all of this. when you injured your knee, did you actually do something, like fall, or twist something, or did it just kind of start up? i know the second i pulled my calf muscle, and just what i did to cause it, but i don't have a pinpointed moment like that for my knee. it just kind of fell in line with my calf, it seems.
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Your gait and balance are probably both off due to the calf injury and compensation your body made over a month, your knee is telling you. If you can't (or aren't inclined) to get a physical therapy consult, I would head over to youtube and see if you can screen through the junk and find some rehab workouts from qualified people. I'd be looking not only at knee stuff but hip stuff. I managed to solve a similar issue with band work with knees and some particular stretches for hip after a hard fall winter before last that mashed up an ankle.
thanks for this advice. do you think my gait would still be affected in such a way if the calf and knee issue are both on the same leg?0 -
chanstriste13 wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »Best thread title ever.
I always get related aches and pains when I have an injury, so yes it probably is related.
What do you mean by "pulled" a calf muscle? Is it bad enough that you went to a doctor?
If not, have you been using a foam roller? I get pulled calf muscles once a year or so, and stretches along with targeted rolling is the best thing I've found. Even a tennis ball on the floor targeted to the painful part of the muscle helps tremendously.
ha! thanks. i did not go to a doctor for my calf - it hurt pretty bad for about two days. i was ready to get it checked out by the third, but it started to fade a little, so i did not do so. over the course of the month it would come and go in pockets. i recognized that what set it off was the motion of rolling my foot, or when i put pressure on the ball of my foot. so, squats were fine with my weight back loaded on my heels, but lunges with my right leg back was KILLER.
Usually calf muscles will cramp with toe-pointed type movements, so that makes sense. Once you have a contraction spasm, it just gets triggered again really easily.
I cannot stress enough, Foam Roller and stretching!!! That really goes for any muscles I have problems with. I would never let it be painful for more than an hour or so without the foam roller or a ball or intense massage of the muscle, otherwise it will start to pull everything else out of alignment as you are seeing with your quad and knee. When my calf is tight I'll do the roller four or five times a day. You can do calf rolling with a rolling pin, a can, a tennis ball, or softball. Just wrap a hard surface like a rolling pin with a towel or something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjQEjGvHjKQ
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chanstriste13 wrote: »do you think my calf injury could have played into the current state of my knee?
Possibly.. or they could both be related to doing too much too soon.. especially if you were previously not very active.
For now, i'd skip the jumping and the lunges.. although you can try light stationary lunges, which are a bit easier on the knees.chanstriste13 wrote: »the muscles tend to be tighter than those of my left leg (weaker leg). i try to accommodate this with extra stretching on the right side. could that be a factor?
Only if you stretch before you exercise, since it relaxes muscles that shouldn't be relaxed.
How are you warming up?1 -
We never realize the full impact of an injury until it hurts somewhere else. I used to have a pain in my right knee and left hip, and I'm sure they were connected somehow.
Last year I had a fall and injured my right hip. It's okay while moving, but painful sitting at the computer or rolling over in bed. Just when I decided to see a doctor around February or March, COVID19 happened, so that's off now. So I just grin and bear it, which of course is not a good idea.1 -
ROM=range of motion1
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@Cherimoose
as much as my weight has fluctuated over the years, my activity level has remained pretty stable - i'm pretty accustomed to things like jump roping, ski jumps, plyo-jumps, step jumping, etc., and i work those things in with upper body strength training (free weights and body weight) so i don't burn out, so i don't think it's from overload.
for warming up, i typically start out with some combination of knee-ups, hamstring curls, light air jump rope (more of a small bounce at the start), arm circles, punches, a few jumping jacks and some light stretching in my legs. i always prep my knees with standing knee circles:
after that, usually between 4 and 6 minutes, i will start my circuit.0
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