Went to The Rapist today

[halfhazzard]

I mean therapist.

I've been having some knee pain for about six weeks now. Never constant, just some pain on the lower inner knee and some soreness where the quad joins the patella tendon. This resulted in a referral to a therapist.

Diagnosis: Ligaments are fine, joint is fine, x-rays are normal. Even my squat motion she claimed was one of the best she's seen lately. My hamstrings and quads are EXTREMELY tight. I'm not a fan of stretching at all. But considering how tight she showed me that I am, I'm on a stretching/strengthening regime.

End result: I'm incorporating some stretching and then hopefully in a few weeks I'll get back to running and move on.

 

[NickW]

I've found stretching and rolling of the muscles to be very helpful for me. I had been bad about stretching after reading soc-docs posts about it and I tightened right up, which had promptly led to a year and a half of injury that never should have been had I kept stretching in the first place.

 

[halfhazzard]

My therapist convinced me that stretching when you're tight is worth it, while she won't recommend stretching just for the sake of stretching. I guess some people just need it here or there. Like everything else, listen to the body?

 

[migangelo]

not sure of all the mechanics but your tight because the contrasting muscles are weak. strengthen those instead of stretching. you could have weak feet, ankles also. the knees are in between the hips and feet so problems tend to show there. figuring it out is the fun part.

good luck with it.

 

[migangelo]

i found this page yesterday. i haven't read all of it yet as it's very long but there is some good advice so far.

http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2013/05/mobility-for-endurance-athletes/

 

[Bare Lee]

My therapist convinced me that stretching when you're tight is worth it, while she won't recommend stretching just for the sake of stretching. I guess some people just need it here or there. Like everything else, listen to the body?

I stretch just for the sake of stretching (static & dynamic),
massage just for the sake of massaging,
and strengthen just for the sake of strengthening.

Life is better limber, loose, & strong.

Like Nick, the only time I've had trouble is when I've ignored these simple principles.
I'm not a performance oriented endurance athlete so I don't care if I run one second per mile slower due to my liberal limberness.

 

[halfhazzard]

I stretch just for the sake of stretching (static & dynamic),
massage just for the sake of massaging,
and strengthen just for the sake of strengthening.

Life is better limber, loose, & strong.

I went with this approach and think I've had success. I evened weened myself off of the anti-inflammatories.

Now I'm building up the feet (again) and working up on the length of runs. I'm at about 2 miles again on not the easiest length of road.