knee injuries/meniscus tears

[username8517]

knee injuries. . . . all to familar for me. I've blown both my ACLs and had one of them rescoped. In fact, of the five of us instructors at my dojo, three of us have had knee problems. Between the three of us there have been 9 surguries--4 ACLs and 5 scopings. Even our two senior kyu students have knee issues.

Knee injuries, while not common in MA are certainly not rare either. Providing you practice things such as moves and breakfalls correctly you should come out relatively unscathed. But once your knees go one time and cause a serious injury the chance to re-aggrivate them increases. For example, my first ACL injuries was caused my a freak accident while running--basically my foot refused to move one time while the rest of my body said "too bad." And my second ACL injury was due to one of my training partners horseplaying around while I was executiving a move I was trying a bunkai I pulled from a kata. This is the primary reason why I absolutely do not tollerate horse playing in the dojo. I know first hand what can happen.

But to this day, if I turn my body wrong in or jam my foot into the floor on accident, I'll get shooting pains in my knee. If it happens a couple times a class, as long as I slow down and take it easy I'm usually fine. But if I'm in a stubborn mood and try and barrell my way through the remaining class at the same intensity, I'll usually be limping out of the dojo and lucky if I can train at the level I like to two days.

But from talking with the surgeon that performed all my operations, apparently some people--including me--have a genetic condition where the bones in their knee joints are not perfectly round, but rather come closer to something resembling the letter "V". Then when your knee is torqued quickly enough under the right angle, the outline of your bone structure, rather than allowing for some give (basically causing a strain or extension of the ligament) acts like a blade and slices right through the ligament--creating an instant ACL or PCL tear.

[pegasi]

Biofreeze is a topical "counter irritant" product along the lines of mineral ice, etc. It provides a sensation of cooling, without being actually cold to the touch. It provides some relief from soreness etc, just like a lot of products like absorbine, aspercreme, etc. Different products may have different modes of acting, like cooling or heating sensation, or just topical painkiller, etc.

[bushido_man96]

A damaged knee support group!

use Biofreeze at every workout

What's this?

[baronbvp]

Since I am 45 with relatively good knees, I purposely don't do those things that cause knee stress - huge pivots for high side kicks, horse stance, and the like. I am also cautious not to take side hits to my knees. I would rather use limited lower body involvement and preserve my joints, or even submit in training, than go full out and pay for life with pain. My hips work okay but I can't lift my thighs high to the sides for good side kicks, so I just don't. My neck gets stiff and creaky from 20 years of pulling G's in jets, so I am careful with that as well. Last, I have sprained/torn ligaments in my left ankle four times: skateboarding, ultimate Frisbee, jumping off a cliff into the ocean, and last year tripping over my damn cat on the stairs. So, I am very careful with my ankles and plan to wear dual ankle supports when I start sparring in KB.

Good luck with that knee stuff. Like has been said, it's never the same once you hurt yourself that severely.