Experience with knee injuries?

[TZ22]

Hello everyone,

Lately I've been on a seemingly never ending cycle of injuries and my most recent one is a messed up knee - was clinching with a bigger guy about a week ago, he tried throwing me over the knee, but because of our considerable size difference it felt like my leg was still stuck on the inside of his stance so when he threw me, my leg was still firmly planted and it felt like I twisted around my knee cap as I fell...pretty nasty. Anyways, I never had such a bad knee injury before and just wanted to hear from anyone else about your experience with knee injuries and how long does it typically take to get back to normal training, assuming if the surgery is not required and also if it was needed. I'm still waiting the results of the ultrasound to find out what exactly inside my knee is messed up (my physio suspects MCL and meniscus damage), but it's now day 6 and I have no pain in the knee when I walk (with a serious knee brace though), however the knee feels rather stiff and it's hard to bend it past 90 degree angle (there's too much tightness at the front of the knee to be able to bend it further) and today I tried picking up a heavy grocery bag and I definitely felt some discomfort in that knee...I'm pretty dissapointed right now as I really wanted to get more ring experience before going back to Thailand in December for 1 month (already had my ticket booked before this injury happened) and also get a fight there, but now I am not sure if it will be possible. Does 4 months seem like a reasonable enough time to recover from a knee injury (assuming surgery is not needed) and get back to fighting shape? Did you continue to train/workout around your knee injury (and if so, what kind of training were you doing) or did you take a complete rest?

Thank you

[Jilly Mcculloch]

Hiya

 

Sorry to hear about your knee injury - sound like it had been a nasty one!

 

Knee injuries can be tricky - recovery time and rehab strategy depends on what has actually happened. When do you find out the results of the scan and what did the physio suggest in the mean time?

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

I had the same thing happen once, in the same way. This guy was showing me some kind of turn throw and didn't warn me, so I ended up having all my weight on my leg when he buckled it. It felt fine at the time, then later that night I got up to go to the bathroom and there was this audible popping sound and my whole knee went numb/floaty feeling. It was awful. Happily, it didn't last. But periodically I'll get knee pain from clinching or running. It stresses me out because knees are so instrumental in everything.

From what I've read the key to prevention is making sure your quads and other supporting muscles are strong. In terms of recovery from an existing injury, I recommend you take glucosamine and condroitin, maybe some fish oil, and just be very careful in not stressing it when trying to work around it. Surely it all depends on what kind of injury it is, but soft tissue is a pain in the ass to heal. My trainer had surgery on his knee and he was told by his physio that if he wore a brace during recovery, he'd always have to wear one. So he went without it to try to fully recover all the peripheral muscles as well. So, I guess that's my "don't just throw a brace on it" argument.

[Karen Burfoot]

I popped my knee cap out clinching, it immediately swelled up and I feared the worse but I was back to thai after 2 weeks following lots of physio and some taping.  I worse a brace to train for 3 weeks and after that I was fully back to normal.  I do lift heavy weights twice a week though and the physio said my strong quads had prevented a more serious injury.

[threeoaks]

I had surgery but that's only cause i was falling down (knee was unstable).  I agree with what Sylvie's trainer's experience was - no braces - wobble boards, quads, hamstrings, ankles.  All the joints gotta support the knee.  Best of luck to you.

[TZ22]

Awesome, thanks everyone for the response :) It appears I got "lucky" in a way and there is no ligament damage, the only thing is that I sprained some muscles and tore some fascia that runs through the front of the knee (that's why I can't bend the knee fully", but the physio said I should be ok in about a month, just continue to try to bend the knee and do some stretching to help with the cramps in that leg from not being able to step properly. I've also been doing weight training few times a week, particularly training for endurance/more reps & lighter weight and was teaching a yoga class before going to training that night so I think that helped from it being a much worse injury, but definitely a lesson learned, avoid training with someone who is considerably bigger than me, it's too much of a risk.

[Maya Flores]

I wore high heels at a nightclub and tripped, landed on the sofa at an awkward angle, then fell off the sofa and somewhere on the way down my knee popped. I fell down onto the ground, and I couldn't stand up until I shoved my weight down on the side of my knee. That injury kept me out of muay thai, mostly out of my own fear that it would break during class. I went to the doctor's office and showed him my knee, but I'd let about two weeks pass and by that time my knee looked fine. I had taken a lot of time off from kicking, running, and clinching so I think that really helped me recover faster. 

 

One nurse said that if it had been, in fact, a (dislocated?) "popped out" knee that it might happen again or reoccur more often. The doctor said it didn't look like it had been popped out, but he couldn't explain why I couldn't stand up until I'd thrown all my weight into the knee to get it feeling more in place that night at the club. He said if it still hurt, he'd get an x-ray done. It didn't hurt, but every now and then my knee feels more wiggly (does that make sense?). 

 

There might be exercises that can be done to strengthen the ligaments and stuff, no? I found this video on youtube called Best Knee Rehab exercises and Bends for Injury Recovery and Strengthening - Wellki

:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVTORtOzu-g

I'd embed the video but I don't know how.