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PurpleFrog
01-31-2001, 05:58 PM
Is tendinitis to the inside of the knee common in martial arts training? Twisting type movements seem to be the real kicker.

I've searched numerous sources and am unable to find mention of this type of sports related injury.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Waidan
01-31-2001, 07:04 PM
Often times, if I engage in a lot of low stance work my knees suffer. A doctor explained to me the pain was a result of rough cartilage on the back of the kneecap grinding against the joint. This causes the tendons to become inflamed, and me to cuss a lot.

Sound familiar?

shinji
01-31-2001, 07:39 PM
I just went to a physical therapist this week and she mentioned that I have the rough cartelidge problem. One of the contributing factors that she mentioned was that my quads and hamstrings were not flexible enough and I needed to strengthen the muscles on the sides of the knees.

She proscribed lots of stretching of the quads and hamstrings(holding for at least one minute) and doing squats/squat press machine in the gym while holding a ball between the knees to force me to use those muscles.

Kairo
01-31-2001, 08:01 PM
I had a similar problem when I first started Kung fu.
Its just a matter of strengthening the muscles around ur knees.
Trying standing with your feet about 1.5 metres apart, then touching the floor forwards, holding each ankle for about thirty seconds, then bringing your body up and trying to touch ur right ankle with ur right hand, and ur left with ur left.
They helped me a lot. Also lots of snappy front kicks and knee bends.
Hope this helps,
K.

PurpleFrog
02-01-2001, 05:16 AM
Thanks for the great input and suggestions!

(My knees thank you too!!)

Looks like I'll be adding knee strengthening to my workouts along with stretching those quads and hamstrings.

WCFish
02-02-2001, 08:08 AM
Hi PurpleFrog,
The knee pain you are talking about could be due to many things ranging from the tightness of your Quads to the structure of your stances, or both combined. I don't know what type of forms you do or which martial art you practice, but this is a common occurance with beginners in wing chun. Generally speaking, if you 'stand up' too much in the training stance it causes excess stress on the medial colateral ligaments of the knees.
It may be worth doing your forms very slowly and seeing if you can find any movements which aggrevate the problem. If you do, change the movement so that it doesn't hurt and you'll probably find that you are doing it correctly.
Best wishes WCFis

Martial Joe
02-02-2001, 10:45 PM
The Wing Chun stance makes the tendins in your knees stronger.

BeiKongHui
02-03-2001, 07:17 PM
I've had tendonitus in my right knee and have virtually eliminated it with a good morning stretching program. The most useful stretches for me have been the drop stance stretch, psoas stretch, standing quad stretch. Doing range of motion exercises help too.

"Gong Sao Mo Gong Ching Sao"
- When you talk with the hands,
best not to speak of polite hands.

The CBC
02-15-2001, 11:23 AM
a friend of mine with whom I train with broke his knee a while back and now it is constantly being dislocated their is a surgery that he can have but that would mean giving up martial arts does any one know of some other way to correct this problom

Martial Joe
02-16-2001, 12:55 AM
Very good knee brase..i dont know..just a sugjestion

The CBC
02-16-2001, 01:09 AM
he tried it didn't work I will just add that the surgery would place metel rods in his knee if this helps to explain the damage

8 Sweaty Palms
02-18-2001, 08:35 PM
I had a dissruptive knee injury where I sprained my ACL. Took 3/4 of a year to totally heal (I worked around it). Hot / Cold applications, dit da jow, weightlifting, LIGHT stretching, not overexerting it, and just plain time fixed it.

Brian_CA
02-18-2001, 10:31 PM
While Tendonitis is fairly common amoung martial artist, this type of injury is only componded by extreame martial training. Most people already have bad knees going to martial arts and make it worse by sparring or doing forms with a lot of power before their bodies are ready to handle it.

For this type of injury, the only things that while heal it is:

1. Time.
2. Proper nutrition.
3. Intention.

The key to begin healing this issue is find a good basic streching and strengthening routine. Avoid high kicking, Low stances and most of all sparring for at least 1 year.

When you practice take 1 hour to stretch your entire body. Do so slowly and only hold each posture for 4-6 breathes.

Practice your martial arts in a gentle healing manner. Look for areas of physical restriction, notice any misalignment of your practice. Once you have done this you will be able to find out what motions are hurting the knees.

Make sure that you also speak to a qualifed person to help you heal your knees. I would advise a Yoga instructor. However, word of caution, do not do Bikram Yoga unless Bikram himself is the teacher. Also make sure everyone who helps you have some kind of certifaction that is longer than 2 months.

Personal trainer are also generally pretty good also.

Hope this helps

Sincerely,

Brian Monnier
San Francisco,CA

Vankuen
02-19-2001, 07:40 PM
Speaking of knees, I dont have any pain as of yet, and have studied different forms of shaolin arts as well as wing chun. My knees however, do crack alot when I simply bend them normally. For example if I place the palm over the kneecap as I extend the leg, I can feel and hear the cracks in the knee.

Like I said, theres no pain, but I get a little worried about that. Anyone know what the heck that is?!

Brian_CA
02-22-2001, 08:57 AM
It may be a couple of things. It could just be gas releasing from the tendons. If there is any pain after the crack for more then 6-7 seconds, see a good doctor. However the tendons and ligament of your Hips, Lower Back, kness and quads may be tight and need strengthening. When in doubt, check with your teacher.

Hope this helps.

Brian Monnier
San Francisco, CA

RFM
02-23-2001, 12:11 AM
That is an ancient kung fu style :)

Really, Vankuen, the knee crackling is from all the running you've been doing these last few years. Granted it hasn't been as much as me, but do you recall the number of times, while performing "Five Wheeled Horse" that my knees and related joints would crackle?

This type of injury is common in the military and the only real way to deal with it is to strengthen the muscles around the knee as already mentioned.

Peace,
Bob

From One Thing, Know Ten Thousand.