I am looking for some help/advice on something that happened to me when I was deadlifting two days ago. I had just begun my second “work” set and as i pulled the first rep i got a sharp pain in my right knee and my knee “shut down” completely. I immediately stopped the rep (I had no choice!) and took my weight off my knee. There was no serious pain after that so I wasnt too worried and figured some food and a good night’s sleep and it would be fine in the morning (I have no history of knee pain).
The two days after this (yesterday and today) its a bit tender and if I put more than a little bit of weight on it it hurts. The pain is specifically on the inside of my right quad where the muscle meets the kneecap. I read Ian King’s article again today (“end needless knee pain”) and he refers to this as the “teardrop-shaped” muscle - called the VMO. The pain is right between the VMO and the knee cap.
I was wondering if any of you could help me figure out what is wrong, what caused this and how to fix it.
As a bit of background I have been doing alot (alot for me anyway) of running recently (40 mins 3 time per week) and a couple of days before this pain came on i had some increased tightness in (I think) my right hip flexor. I of course made sure to stretch this well and especially stretch it before deadlifting so I had assumed that this would be ok - it seems I may have been wrong.
Ian King seems to recommend stretching the tissue arounf the knee including the quads, hip flexors, glutes, ITB etc.
I know I should go to a physio/osteopath etc but they’re so expensive and as the pain is relatively slight (although I definitely cant exercise the knee much) I’m hoping to rehab this myself.
I would start by reading a book about running injuries. This will help you become proactive in your own injury treatment, as well as help you know when and what treatments to pursue.
I was reading some books about running injuries at my local bookstore. One in particular offered advice as to what treatments to pursue and how to look for structural issues that will eventually translate into pain. The common advice for EVERY problem was not to do too much too soon. Your cardiovascular system handle a lot more running than your knees can. It’s kind of like a car that is badly out of alignment. If that car belongs to my grandparents who hardly ever drive more than 5 miles at a time around town, and hardly ever go over 30 mph, the tires aren’t going to wear that much anyway. As soon as my grandparents give me that car and I start putting lots of mileage on, tearing down the California freeways at the typical speed of 80 mph, those tires are going to wear unevenly and fast.
Most of the running injury prescriptions involved correcting leg length differences with lifts, correcting arch and foot alignment problems with orthotics, icing, and LOTS of stretching. The alignment corrections have to be done exactly correctly for your problem.
I recommend icing and stretching without delay. Also, go to amazon.com and type “running injuries” into the search box for books. The first book by Joe Ellis seemed good to me. There’s a used one available for $2.95. A quote from page 2: