Knee injury while you ride off road

When you perform sports an injury may occur. The possibilities are plenty and the responsibility is split in half, 50/50 between your faulty behaviour and bad luck. This article is also split in half too. How to avoid an injury (and considering what we often witness in our rides there are a lot of bad sport habits that may cause an injury) and if such a thing happens how to treat your injury and get out of it as soon as possible.
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.

You reduce (but not eliminate) the possibility of knee injury if you wear an advanced designed knee brace such as asterisk especially if you purchase the ones that use the anti rotation tethers.

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.

You are further reducing the chances of knee injury if you have a strong muscle system surrounding and protecting your knee joint.

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!

Stretching means you expand the point that your tendons, muscles, tissue, skin etc. will get injured. Expanding this point means you reduce the chances to reach it. When you rotate a stiff knee joint, these clicks you feel inside are breakings of soft tissue or, muscle, or tendons or even worse, bone (which you will not avoid if you stretch any way) When you rotate a flexible and well trained knee, the point of injury may be never reached. Well it's always a possibility.

Lunges always help

Strech

Use the proper technique.

There are millions of advices on the techniques to avoid a knee injury. Bad luck and physics are always an elimination factor on each and everyone of them. Despite this fact, always ride with the priority not to injure your body. Do not take risks. Keep calm. Be precise. Be fast not quick.

Take rests.

Make sure you know your limits. Most of the injuries occur when exhaustion shows up. You can't handle your motorcycle, your body hangs, you get injured. Get proper rest between training or while riding.

Follow the rules and ride safe.

No comment.

Stop the activity if there is pain.

Pain is a message. The team is sending a message to the brain that something is going on and you have to read and evaluate this message properly by looking at it. If you ignore pain, most of the times you do something stupid.

Keep hydrated.

Why? A hydrated muscle functions better, get less galactic acid, reaches high temperatures slower and performs better. A hydrated body can perform better in general terms. Whether you’re a serious athlete or recreational exerciser, it’s important to make sure you get the right amount of water before, during and after exercising. Water regulates your body temperature, lubricates joints and helps transport nutrients for energy and health. If you’re not properly hydrated, your body will be unable to perform at its highest level, and you may experience fatigue, muscle cramps, dizziness or more serious symptoms.

Install Omega 3 fatty acids to your body

Among other benefits, Omega 3 fats are known for their ability to decrease inflammation in the body. It is this action that makes omega 3 fats and fish oils helpful for suppressing the joint inflammation and destruction that is common during injuries. When joints are creaky and painful, omega 3 fats can be likened to a lubricant that helps them move more freely. In addition, omega 3 fats may aid in weight loss which helps to relieve added pressure from joints.

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.