So you train hard. And somehow during your ride you heard that awful clicking sound in your knee and felt the pain. Usually you stop, screaming or just terrified and you wait to see how the pain will evolve. You try to walk a little bit, stretch, twist etc and see how bad the injury is. If it's bad the pain persists. Some swallowing occurs in minutes, you feel the joint tighter and tighter and general discomfort.
First aid, ice it. Ice bags, pure ice from the fridge (not directly on the skin but in some incasing preferably some piece of cloth)or just cold water. Make sure you freeze the dam thing as much as you can no more than 15 minutes on, leave it rest for 15 minutes and then 15 minutes on again. Icing is a saviour in minor injuries and a pain relief procedure in the more severe cases. It will help reduce swelling, it will block the gathering of liquid in the joint, it will lower the temperature and lower the inflammation level.
All the above is a nightmare that when you perform sports you get to know in a certain point, soon more or later. In my experience, I have ripped my left and the right acl twice, broke my left upper tibia plateau once, torn my meniscus in both legs, also ripped both collateral ligaments in both legs. So far I have performed three major surgery and stayed away from sports over three years in total, with the most time being six months, walking on crutches. In general terms, I know about knee injuries judging from my own.
Let's talk about surgery first
If the doctor insists then you will have to do it.
The procedure is not quite simple. Depending on how severe your injury is it can take from 30 minutes to hours. Your meniscus, acl and all that sensitive stuff can be reached by endoscopy surgical tools easily for the doctors who usually stitch, connect, glue or just clean, the mess in your joint.
After the surgery, the recovery speed factor is 50% your knee physical status before the injury, 40% your recovery behaviour and 10% luck. Some meniscus cleaning can take up to two weeks of recovery and it usually involves knee exercises, icing, resting, and gradual strengthen of the knee. Acl surgery on the other hand will keep your leg straight (not quite straight but slightly bended in some degrees) using an orthopedics device such as knee bracing, so after a month, you leg is going to be stiff and weak. You can imagine that in order to get it back to normal will take more effort and the help of some specialist. Physical therapy is necessary and very important. The previous physical status of the muscles surrounding the injury will either help healing faster if the muscles were strong or the opposite.
Total surgery process will not make you a very happy guy and it will take long until your knee gets back to normal, talking from my own experience.
Prevention
Many sports injuries occur because people don't know how to prevent them. Here are some tips to help prevent injuries:
- Always wear the correct gear. Riders should always wear appropriate and properly fitted protective sports gear such as knee braces (neck, shoulder, elbow, chest, shin), helmets, and eye wear.
TIP: spend a big amount of time to study the specs on what size to order and to set up the braces to your knees exactly as instructed. I have seen many injuries been cause by a bad setup either because the brace was loose and misplaced while riding, or because the size was wrong.
- Increase muscle strength.
Most of the times, the muscles save your knee by instantly reacting just before the injury or during the pressure point that will cause the injury. Strong legs get lees injuries and heal faster. It's a great investment plus it makes your riding techniques improve.
- Increase flexibility. Stretch!
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| Lunges always help |
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| Strech |
- Use the proper technique.
- Take rests.
- Follow the rules and ride safe.
- Stop the activity if there is pain.
- Keep hydrated.
- Install Omega 3 fatty acids to your body
Diets rich in EPA and DHA, the types of omega 3 fats found in fatty fish and fish oil supplements, have also been associated with a reduction in the production of cytokines and eicosanoids. Since these compounds contribute to the joint inflammation present, researchers believe that incorporating EPA & DHA into the diet could promote arthritis improvement.
Recover without a surgery
Big talk here. In my last meniscus injury (mri diagnosed) I had a huge discussion with my physician on how to avoid another big surgery in my life. While he hesitated at the beginning looking at my Mri pictures on his light panel, he said to me '' let's give it a chance for a month'' which made me smile full of hope.
He instructed me to work on my injured knee separately at the gym under the supervision of my personal trainer. The exercise program was:
1. LEG EXTENSIONS USING BABY KGS ON THE MACHINE BUT MANY REPS
2. ISOMETRIC LEG EXTENSIONS USING BABY KGS FOR 45 SEC 3 REPS
3. BAND ISOMETRIC LEG EXTENSIONS FOR 45 SEC 3 REPS
4. HAMSTRING CURLS ON THE MACHINE USING BABY KGS BUT MANY REPS
5. ISOMETRIC HAMSTRING CURLS ON THE MACHINE FOR 45 SEC 3 REPS
6. BAND ISOMETRIC HAMSTRING CURLS FOR 45 SEC 3 REPS
To be honest, it took me 3 months to feel my leg stronger again.
At the beginning my knee felt loose. I had to be extra cautious during work out and try to keep it stable to avoid further injury. I could see the improvement every in every work out. Then I started my own research on this issue which led me to find reports like the following on the web:
~ Frobell's team randomly assigned 121 young, active adults -- many of them highly competitive, non-professional athletes -- to two different treatments.
Both groups underwent a highly structured rehabilitation program in which they worked up from improving balance and coordination to knee strengthening exercises.
One group underwent ACL reconstruction within 10 weeks of injury. But the other group delayed ACL reconstruction until it became obvious they needed it -- or until they healed.
Two years later, both groups had good results. Neither treatment strategy was better than the other. But there was one big difference: 60% of those who delayed surgery found they never needed the operation.
"A lot of people say you need ACL surgery if you want to return to sports. But our results show we might be better off if we start with rehabilitation," Frobell tells WebMD. "Then we can reduce the number of people needing surgery." ~
In my case I can not claim that I have my knee back. Most of the times, I feel that it is weaker than my non recently injured knee and there is light pain and discomfort in many activities and moves. I can't fully kneel down without pain and can't stand from kneeling as easily as before the injury. Balancing the cons and pros from my surgery experience though, what I feel now has nothing to do with the post acl surgery I had to go through the previous years and I am planning to do anything to avoid it.
Given the facts, the choise is yours.
Let's start a conversation with your own testimonies at the comments below, we will publish what we will think may help others face their problems.
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