Knee Pain Culprit Case – Tight quadriceps

 

Knee pain is a very common discomfort experienced by many people, regardless of active or inactive people. I myself am also one of such victim (although I have my ways of managing it, which some of it I am sharing here). Today’s blog article, I will mention some points regarding knee pain and ways of managing and preventing it. However, most importantly you should consult a professional medical specialist if you are already experiencing knee pain. All these info written here is only provided for basic reference, and may not apply to every individual.

One of the most common cause of knee pain is due to the surrounding muscles being overly tight, and tight quadriceps is one of the common cause.  The quadriceps are a group of four muscles located at the front of the thigh that works to bring the hip forward and extends the knee. They can get overly stressed and tight from sports activities like jumping, squatting/lunging, running. Even sitting and standing can also produce tightness when the knees are hyper-extended. Tight quadriceps will cause misalignment of the knee cap, and this causes pain in activities that utilize the knee extensor.

Therefore, it is important to relieve tight quadriceps muscles. Stretching and massage will help to relieve the tightness. See below for stretching quadriceps, DIY foam rolling of the quadriceps, Deep massage application for tight quadriceps:

Stretches

1 - Standing Quadriceps stretch (take note knee cap points ‘vertically’ to floor; you can also put the other hand on a wall/door/any stable objects, if you have difficulty balancing on one leg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_pr9-LDUSQ

2 – Kneeling Quadriceps Stretch (this is the one that I do religiously every day; do make yourself comfortable by placing a thick cushion/pillow under your knee)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7Mg-Owb14Y

DIY Massage

1 – Self massage (though I wonder where to get that equipment)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSYOQEzIugo

2 – Foam rolling (be careful of back alignment; also not suitable for de-conditioned people, especially if you have shoulder and back issues)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1xI25pBlKw

Massage therapy for Quads

·         This vid is more for massage therapist reference; note that there is additional showing of massaging the IT band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_DwyZyozhA

*** Important: If you are already suffering from bad knee pain, please seek professional medical attention… The mentioned stretches and relief techniques, though are good injury prevention tips, but may not provide a guarantee of cure if you are seriously injured, and might even complicate the injury for some cases.

Stay tune here as I will blog more on other ‘culprits’ contributing to knee pain!

Persistency and Consistency for Successful Injury Rehabilitation!

Anyone who have successfully achieved their fitness goals (be it losing weight or gaining healthy muscle mass) have to attribute their success to two most important principle; Persistency and Consistency. Similarly, these principles also applies to successful injury rehabilitation; Persistency, Consistency. With that, I will like to share about my personal experience of suffering from one of the most gruesome back pain nightmare 2 years ago: Sciatica.

In case if you wonder what Sciatica is, it is a painful condition caused by the compression of the nerve in the back lumbar spine disc. The result is sharp pain on the left side of my lower back (hurts most when I sneeze and cough), especially during the morning waking up time; difficulty bending down to wash my face at the basin and wearing my shoes or picking up something on the floor, numbing ache on my calf and hamstrings.  And it is also an unfortunate fact that this condition is permanent; no surgery or any forms of magic can alter the damage that’s inside my lumbar spine, I have to live with the fact that there is a non-reversible degenerative condition on my left side of the lower back.

The good news is that with physical and physiotherapy, my condition can improve and the pain will go away. It is just like for the case of HIV; HIV infected people can still live on normal lives till old age and die, provided they take their medications properly and regularly. And so I have no choice but to seek professional medical help from both physio and physical therapy. Not trying to sell anything, but this company known as ‘Ziklag Fitness’ (http://www.ziklagfitness.com/) have been treating my back with real good improvement results. I followed all the given prescriptive exercise instructions to do daily; and yes, the results slowly comes out; after about 2 weeks plus, I do notice the pain on my lower back lessening; the daily morning torture of stiff back and dragging pain from trying to bend my back at the basin to wash my face also slowly disappear.  And then the pain completely disappear… I thought life could get back to normal again… And this is the dangerous part; I started to get slack… Those prescriptive exercises that I am supposed to do every day, I started getting lazy and completely did not do anything. And guess what; the sharp pain on my lower back returns again.. and somehow this time it seems to hurt even longer.

And so the nightmare returns back, and I have to combat it by diligently working on those prescribed rehab exercises again, as well as a visit again to Ziklag. About 3 weeks plus later, the results appeared again; the pain on my back lessening, and my back slowly becomes healthy again. On another hand this time, I have to do my prescribed rehab exercises religiously and daily with no fail; otherwise my back nightmare episodes will return back again.

So there I am now… with a better healthy back condition, though there are still times that I feel some tingling slight discomfort on my left lower back, but it is still a manageable condition. The prescribed stretching and core exercises have already become my ‘religious’ affair which I performed daily without fail.

Therefore, it takes strong persistence and consistency to see the real results in injury management. Recovery/rehabilitation does not happen overnight; the body needs time to improve and adapt to changes. And once the body started adapting to changes, consistent effort have to be done to maintain the body’s new adaptation. Those prescribed stretching and core strengthening exercises have to continue; otherwise the lack of it will lead my back muscles to fall back into its usual weak condition, and pain comes in again.

In final conclusion, kudos to ‘Persistency’, ‘Consistency’ for a good injury rehabilitation outcome, and also in everything we do!