Knee Stuff - Part 1

Hey! As some of you may know, over the last few months I have been dealing with some knee problems. Now that my legs are feeling strong and healthy, I thought I'd give a little guide over what the problems were and what I did for recovery. Hopefully this will be useful to people who may have had similar experiences.


I started to develop problems after I suddenly started biking large amounts on top of my regular Parkour training. This was purely for travel and trying to save a bit of cash! I was cycling around 8 or 9 hours a week and having two heavy leg workouts a week. (including pistols - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWjaAZ-yzU0) The weekends usualy consisted of 1 hours ride up to Leicester Uni, 6 or so hours technical training and 1 hours bike home. Over two months I developed a few aches and pains from over-training but it wasn't until after our pilgrimage to Lisses and a week of solid training that I really sat up and noticed that something wasn't right. ( To quote Blane, "I've worked out that we trained for just under 60 hours of a possible 154!"," it truly was a case of doing nothing but eating, sleeping and training our asses off.")

I never reached the point where it would seriously effect each individual training session. After I had warmed up and got going it was fine, but there was always a feeling that I was working through the pain and as such, just causing more problems with each session.



Symptoms

My main concern was a dull deep down pain in my knee. Later I learned that this was caused by cycling and repetitive motions. Every now and again I would get a slightly more distinct pain at the top or bottom of my knee cap as well as on the inside of my legs where the Femur (thigh Bone) meets the Tibia (shin bone - See image below). These problems were caused by the stresses and strains of Parkour and many Pistols! The pain was mainly in my left knee as this is my weaker side and could take less strain.



Diagnosis

My issue was one of simply over-training the whole knee. As such, I think I had most knee problems going! If only in small amounts! Anyway, lets start with some basic science.



The structure of the knee joint

Knee muscles and tendons

(The patella tendon is cut away to show the inside of the knee, but it does continue down and joins to the Tibia)











After some research I discovered this site.
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/

There is a wealth of information on there and if you have knee trouble, the chances are that you can find out what it is from this site. Below I've linked the information that helped me as it might help others in a similar situation.

I narrowed down the deep pain from cycling to this - Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome. In this case, caused by rubbing under the knee cap.

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/indexcmp.php

I also has some mild pains at the top and bottom of my knee cap and on the inside of my knee where the two bones meet. These were caused by inflammation of the tendons that join muscle to bone and hold the whole joint together. They take a lot of strain, especially in sports with lots of jumping and running (such as Parkour) and with deep knee bends (such as Pistols)

Jumpers Knee
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/indexjumpersknee.html

"Inflammation of the quadriceps insertion"
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/indexquadinsertion.html

Medial Cartilage Meniscus Injury - (This was never really a problem, but I did have the occasional pain here so I thought I'd put it in)
http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/medialmeniscus.htm

Recovery

Rest! :p I completely stopped cycling, stopped training pistols and cut back 90 percent on practicing precisions and taking any impact or deep leg bends that put pressure on the knee for 3 or 4 weeks. My focus was on developing strength in other areas whilst doing plenty of balance and low impact movements as well as climb-ups etc. I spent more time stretching to improve flexibility and to remove any tension in the joint and every now and again would ice the sore areas of my knee.

Even after the deep pain from cycling faded there was still a sense of discomfort deep in the knee. I discovered this was down to slightly poor alignment of the knee cap. I think this was also from cycling, but I can't be 100% sure. Anyway here is some MORE information on that problem...

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/front/knee/patellofemoral_instability.php

Here are a few very effective corrective exercises that I've discovered from both friends and research.

1 - Sit down on a chair, straighten your legs out in front of you and tense your quads. Watch your knees and you will see your quads pull your knee cap into the correct position. Tense them for blocks of 10 seconds and repeat 10 or 12 times. You can do this through out the day.

2 - Sit on a chair with your knees bent at 90 degrees. With either a tennis ball or your fist between your knees, squeeze them together for 30 seconds and repeat 3 or 4 times.

I did these for just 2 or 3 days before the discomfort disappeared completely!

Another thing that I found useful in recovery was simple mobility exercises with my knees. I found that this helped to keep my knees warm and active without strain. It just made my knees feel healthier and it stopped them from clicking for a while too!

1 - Lay on your front and bend your knees. This isolates the joint allowing it to move free without stress. (And makes you look like a plonker!) Bend your legs up to your ass, or make circle motions with your foot or whatever! Make it up as you go! If your knees do crack when you do this, don't keep cracking them! Move your leg up to the point where it will crack and then move it back again, repeating this gradually to increase the range of motion.

2 - Same as before, but sitting on your butt with your feet and back off of the floor. The only difference is that this doesn't isolate your knee and you use your whole leg.

I'll cut off here as this is getting pretty long! I'll leave it until my next post to explain what I did to toughen up my legs ready for full-on training.

BYE!

My Training & Mentality

"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." - Bruce Lee.

In the past I've followed a fixed routine. Repeating the same various exercises week in week out. For example, working my upper body on Monday, Legs on Tuesday, Back & Abs on Wednesday and so on. With my focus on Strength in the week and technical training at the weekend.

For me personally, I found two problems with in this style of training. The first is to do with having a fixed routine. Simple I find it more beneficial to have creativity and variety in a workout. Sometimes I'll do a variety of different press ups, doing 10 of one kind before launching straight into 10 of another. Or I'll do slow press ups, or work with a weighted vest. With more variety I enjoy the work out more and work a wider range of motions. Also, I seem to work harder trying to push for that extra 10 press ups rather than simply stopping at 4 sets of 25. I alternate between different body parts each day, giving the other parts a chance to rest based on I feel like on any given day. Being flexible makes it easier to work around any small injuries that I might have whilst working towards other short term goals.

Secondly, is the lack of what I feel to be "complete" training. That is to say, I don't feel that training for strength only in the week and training for technique only at the weekend is very balanced approach for me. Simply because there is to much that I want to work on a daily basis. Of course your limited by your area and how much time you can spare to travel etc and all training is good training! It's just that I would love to be in a position where I can go out every day, warm up, do some heavy conditioning followed by some technical drills of some sort and cool down with a long stretch. This was basically the format for Forrest & Dans seminar in London a while back and it was a very good one!

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtJckTGvCcI

If you haven't seen the video watch it at least six times!! :p It was an amazing day and another insight in to the French Traceurs discipline and passion that I try to apply every time I train. It was only three hours long, and yet, it was three hours of constant movement and work. Far more productive than any 6 or 7 hours "Jam".

My mind set is normally one that is focused on today's training with a few goals set out in the future. I ask myself, do I want to train my legs or my arms more? do I want to do more conditioning or more technique work? Do I want to do some new movements today or repeat some old ones? Sometimes my legs are tired and I'll set up a little circuit around one or two rails that involve simple movements and maybe a little balance that put very little stress on my joints. Other times I'll head to a few trees near my house with a friend and max out my upper body on pull ups, press ups, swinging, climbing, and Laches. Whilst this is great, setting out a few goals in the future does help me to stay focused and "On Track".


Here is a quick video I made to show yesterdays training session. Working my abs, back and upper body whilst resting my legs from any heavy impacts. Oh the joys of Windows Movie Maker!




Later!

Hello all!

Hey! For those who don't know me; My name is Tim, My home is in Leicester but I'm studying in Nottingham. I've been practicing the French disapline of Parkour for around three years, and along the way I've meet many new people and learnt many new things!

I've created this blog as a way to share my present thoughts and ideas with my friends who practice parkour. It is a way for me to keep a track of what my goals are and to look back on what I've achieved whilst keeping in touch with my friends and hopefully making a few new ones!

I won't go into details, but at the moment I'm experimenting a lot with my training to see what works for me. My only goals are to train in a complete way - covering all the aspects of Parkour. To train outdoors when ever possible. And finally, to train hard.

I plan to update this with plenty of photos and videos of what I'm doing/aiming for etc, so keep an eye out for some interesting posts in the not to distant future.

Happy Training!

Tim.