Questions about my broken down body!

[Tortuga12]

I have some questions before I resume training after a 2 year hiatus, I hope someone can help!

I have always had bad knees, in the sense that they make a lot of noise when I'm in deep stances. However, I don't really feel any pain, and I haven't lost any mobility. Should I be concerned?

Two years ago, I injured the ball of my right foot (big toe got caught on opponents gi.) Since then, life has happened, and I haven't been able to train. I figured this is good, it will give my injury plenty of time to heal. It still causes discomfort! I haven't lost any flexibility, but standing in zenkutsu-dachi for extended periods of time is fairly uncomfortable. Does anyone have experience with an injury of this type?

Thanks in advance!

[Tortuga12]

also, when I'm doing push ups, my left elbow pops. Again, no pain, but it is annoying? How do I get that to stop??

[bushido_man96]

I have some questions before I resume training after a 2 year hiatus, I hope someone can help!

I have always had bad knees, in the sense that they make a lot of noise when I'm in deep stances. However, I don't really feel any pain, and I haven't lost any mobility. Should I be concerned?

My knees are terrible. They are hurting right now, and I am sitting down!! I just keep training, because I don't want to stop. I take some joint medicine to try to keep them greased, but it doesn't seem to help much.

Two years ago, I injured the ball of my right foot (big toe got caught on opponents gi.) Since then, life has happened, and I haven't been able to train. I figured this is good, it will give my injury plenty of time to heal. It still causes discomfort! I haven't lost any flexibility, but standing in zenkutsu-dachi for extended periods of time is fairly uncomfortable. Does anyone have experience with an injury of this type?

Thanks in advance!

Not so sure what to say about this one. Sorry!

Good luck in your comeback! Welcome to the forums!

[bushido_man96]

also, when I'm doing push ups, my left elbow pops. Again, no pain, but it is annoying? How do I get that to stop??

Try not to lock out your elbows when doing push-ups.

[lordtariel]

I have a similar problem with my ankles. They pop incessantly sometimes when I'm walking, but they don't hurt. I believe the doctor said that the popping noise is similar to when I crack my knuckles. Sohan might know more about this, he's got quite a bit of knowledge about physiology.

[Sohan]

Popping and cracking in a joint is usually no cause for concern unless there is pain associated with the cracking. There are three major causes of joint "cracking": gases escaping the joint, articulation of the soft tissue, and arthritic damage and bone spurs in the joint.

In the knee you can experience cracking when the patella is slightly out of alignment and it rubs on the adjacent tissues. However, if there is noise that is associated with pain this might indicate that there has been damage to the articulating surfaces of the joint. Noises can be caused by tears in the meniscus, but they are often caused by an excessively large or even loose meniscus which may snap over the other structures in the knee as the knee bends and straightens.

I was participating in competitive masters swimming in the summer of '05 and noticed an increasing popping and cracking in my shoulders (I was a backstroke specialist, which can be very hard on the shoulders). What was occurring was I was getting calcium deposits in my shoulder from overuse. When I cut back on my swimming the cracking ceased.

So, as you can see, there are many reasons for noises in the joint, and the best advice I can give is to warm up the affected joints thoroughly before training, stretch regularly, perform strength training to maintain the integrity of your joints, and never overtrain.

Best of luck.

With respect,

Sohan

[MizuRyu]

I'm tellin' ya, we need to get this "ask Sohan" section up and running!!!

I have the pushup problem myself. Both of my elbows pop about midway through the action a few times, then when my muscles are warmed up it stops. I think it's just that I'm insanely flexible by nature, and my muscles/tendons slide over tough surfaces and snap/pop. No pain, just noise. I think I have some kind of genetic thing, because I can pull almost ANY joint (except my knees and hips) out of socket, and do splits between chairs, the thing is I don't stretch that much and never really have. I don't know if it's bad, but it isn't hurting much.

Sometimes I when wrestle things get hairy, but strength training has helped with that a great deal. Heck, I think training safely decreases these things, because the more I do pushups the less my elbows pop, and the more I jump rope the less easy it is to pull my foot out of socket...

[bushido_man96]

I'm tellin' ya, we need to get this "ask Sohan" section up and running!!!

I have the pushup problem myself. Both of my elbows pop about midway through the action a few times, then when my muscles are warmed up it stops. I think it's just that I'm insanely flexible by nature, and my muscles/tendons slide over tough surfaces and snap/pop. No pain, just noise. I think I have some kind of genetic thing, because I can pull almost ANY joint (except my knees and hips) out of socket, and do splits between chairs, the thing is I don't stretch that much and never really have. I don't know if it's bad, but it isn't hurting much.

Sometimes I when wrestle things get hairy, but strength training has helped with that a great deal. Heck, I think training safely decreases these things, because the more I do pushups the less my elbows pop, and the more I jump rope the less easy it is to pull my foot out of socket...

It sounds like you got a good deal on the genetic side of things.

By the way...what is that thing in your avatar?

[MizuRyu]

It sounds like you got a good deal on the genetic side of things.

By the way...what is that thing in your avatar?

Actually runs in my family, my mom is double jointed along with my sisters and my brother. Not sure what would cause it...

A dancing flashing color changing monkey of course!

[Mike Flanagan]

MizuRyu has what are called hypermobile joints. Hypermobility can affect a single (or a few) joint(s) or it can be systemic, ie. affecting all your joints. This is often due to ligaments being more elastic than they should be. The role of ligaments is chiefly to protect the integrity of joints, holding them in place. A small degree of elasticity is necessary, a lot renders them ineffective. Similarly, when you sprain a joint it usually involves overstretching a ligament so that it becomes permanently overstretched (you've taken it beyond its elastic limit).

The solution: strengthening, so that the muscles develop the strength (and control) to do the job the ligaments are supposed to do. But how you do strengthen the muscle around damaged or vulnerable joints? Slowly and incrementally - measure progress in years rather than months.

Torguta12, you may find this approach is helpful for you. Its certainly worked wonders for me.

Mike