Apparently I got signed up for "player vs. environment"

[ultranos]

So, because apparently the trees trying to kill me (it's their annual assassination attempt) wasn't enough, I woke up this morning with my left kneecap apparently misaligned. You know, that wonderful grinding, crunchy noise of bone against bone when I attempted to move it. And tiny shots of stabbing pain every time I tried to walk on it. I seriously feared it'd give out on me after I made it down the stairs and to the down the street for a new brace (because apparently gremlins hid my old ones in my room somewhere).

I dislocated my knee twice, once at 18 and the other at 21, and it's never quite recovered. I can't run on it, and I visibly limp even when I try to jog. I can't do a lot of lower-body weight training exercises because of the injury. I really fucking hate it because I used to play soccer, fence, and practice jiu-jitsu and then that got taken away from me. And to add insult to injury, I get people telling me I need to be more active [so I can lose weight, I guess, or just "be healthy"], but they neglect to remember that vast majority of things they do, I physically can't.

It's not that I want this old injury, but I'm running low on ways to fix it when I have ~no money for PT or a gym membership (thanks, student loans) for specialized equipment. Anyone have any ideas on something that can strengthen quads (apparently, my hamstrings are the only thing keeping me upright) that's low-impact and does not require much extra equipment?

Between this, the near-migranes I had to push through this week, and the allergies starting up again? I want my own secret lair and sweet robot legs.

Comments

[abyssinia]

Remind me to send you the PT exercises they gave me last year to strengthen my quads and glutes to support my knee.

Walking can be great exercise, and is relatively low impact and you only need shoes. I wish you could get a pool membership somewhere because swimming would be great.

Does biking hurt it? Could you find a cheaper no-frills exercise bike on Craigslist? I know a lot of PT places have people bike to rehab knees.

[ultranos]

That'd be great, actually.

Swimming would be fantastic. My knee never felt better than after taking a quick swimming course last year (I had to pass a swim test to graduate. I know how to swim, my technique when I tried for it was still very good, according to the lifeguard. My stamina just sucked. Since I still needed PE credits, I cheated and just took a class.). But the pools on campus require gym membership, and while I get an employee discount, $400/year is still a significant chunk of change for me.

Biking is...iffy. I have a bike! I love it! Just hills sometimes kill me (higher gear = more torque on the joint to apply the force), and unfortunately, there are a lot of hills around here.

[holdouttrout]

Dude. I bet the terrible headaches I've been getting are allergies. Why is it that my allergies seem worse every year???

That sucks about your knee. And also about people adding insult to injury (literally!).

Gremlins love to hide braces until just after you stop needing it. *nods sagely*

[skieswideopen]

That sucks.

You might try looking up the recommended exercises for patello-femoral syndrome (my personal knee issue, though it's not nearly as bad as what you're facing). Many of those exercises focus on the quads, require little or no equipment, and don't put strain on the knee. The first exercise here, for example.

[ultranos]

Allergies are nature's way of trying to kill you. They're like little assassins. And when they fail to kill you, nature just sends stronger ones after you. It's like the worst video game ever.

Yeah, I've been dealing with the knee for years at this point. It flares up from time to time. I've been sort of pushing it lately, so I'm not terribly surprised it rebelled. I just expected it sooner, not after the day where my most strenuous activity was hauling 2'x3' sheets of acrylic around.

[ultranos]

Ooh, thanks!

[skieswideopen]

You're welcome! Good luck!

[rydra_wong]

Seconded, and I'd also recommend picking up a handful of resistance bands in different strengths -- they're generally very cheap, and you can use them to add resistance to all sorts of leg exercises.

There's some yoga stuff that I've found quite helpful for my (comparatively mild) knee issues, but what exercises you want to do depends on what the damage is and where you want to strengthen things; you don't want to end up pushing things in the wrong direction. If you want, I can dump links on you and then you can sort through them and see what might be useful for you.

It might also be worth looking at hamstring stretches; if your hamstrings are doing all the work right now, they may be overworking and tightening up, which can (in my experience) contribute to pulling the knee out of alignment.

If and when the knee gets well enough to allow bodyweight stuff, you could check out the right-hand column here:

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/ThighWt.html#anchor172012

You could also ask for tips in lifting_heavy_things (which covers all types of strength training); the comm's got various people who may have relevant learnings.

[ultranos]

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm guessing a sporting goods store would have the resistance bands?

The yoga links might be incredibly helpful. And thanks for the pointer to the comm.

I would not be entirely surprised if my hamstrings are overworking themselves. When I took a weight training PE, I was surprised at the difference in weight my quads could take vs. what my hamstrings could do on the relevant machines.

[rydra_wong]

I'm guessing a sporting goods store would have the resistance bands?

Yep, absolutely, and you can also get them via mail-order/online.

As an example, something like this would probably be good to start with:

http://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Bands-Medium-Heavy-Anchor/dp/B0026PMD70

Yoga/knees linkspam:

http://www.yogajournal.com/health/1161
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/526 (has some useful info on using the quads to stabilize the kneecap)
http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/1386 (general leg-strengthening stuff)
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1160 (quads anatomy)
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1982

The pose index will give you a guide to any pose mentioned; here's the section on hamstring stretches:

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/finder/anatomical_focus/hamstrings

For me, the key thing turned out to be realizing what was happening when my knees hurt (basically, my thighs were rolling in and my shins were rolling out, and my kneecaps got caught in the middle -- a.k.a. "miserable malalignment", I kid you not), and working to actively fight that when I walked and every time I bent my knees.

Non-yoga stuff, pulling things out of my enormous "knees" bookmark category:

http://gymrats.livejournal.com/1884436.html
http://www.stumptuous.com/patellofemoral-syndrome -- some of this may be useful
http://www.physioadvisor.com.au/8119350/knee-strengthening-exercises-knee-rehabilitation.htm -- this explains what you do with the resistance bands ...
http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/exercises/exercise_programs.asp --- ten billionty more example exercises, if you search on "knee"

Final piece of random advice: comfrey oil massaged into the offending body part is my not-very-secret weapon against pain, strains, etc. It seems to speed up healing quite significantly.

[ultranos]

Holy crap, thank you so much!

[rydra_wong]

I live to spam!

Anyway, I don't know which bits of it will be relevant to you, but hopefully it'll give you some places to start digging.