Did I hyper extend and injure my knee?

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Hey all,

Wondering if anyone has any advise for me regarding my recent unexplained knee pain. I have been practising for about two years now and have started to experience pain in my right knee. I have always been told to watch my knees as I hyper extend but have always tried to be as careful as possible with this. Is it possible that I might have injured this by hyperextending without knowing? I’m sure I would have heard something but am not too sure. The pain appears to have come on all of a sudden as I had no incident with my knee. The pain is just a throbbing sensation in the centre deep within my knee. It once moved up right above my knee. It isn’t affected by any kind of movement and can throb when I am doing absolutely nothing. Anti-imflammatories seem to help and the throbbing has eased off but it still feels ‘loose’ if I could describe it that way.

I have had a clicky right knee for as long as I can remember and now and then would have to kind of ‘pop’ it back in when it pops but I have done this for years without any pain etc. I have eased off doing yoga besides restorative yoga. Obviously I am going to see my Doctor but was wondering if anyone had any experience with this?

#2

hummmmm…difficult to say…
It is VERY easy to hyper-extend and not realize if you have a tendency to hpyer-extend…

What type of yoga were you doing?
Do you know which asana you were doing when you hurt it?
Have you been to a doctor/sports physio?

Gordon is good at this stuff… I am sure he will chime in and ask you lots of questions and help you…

A sports physio would be a good place to go as they can do some simple tests to establish what you have done…then give advice on how to fix…G.Ps tend to tell you to just stop doing the activity that caused the problem…

Good luck…

#3

When asking a therapeutic question, it is almost always helpful, if not required, to provide as much intake as possible. This includes background on the practice and background on the person. While it should be specific background it does not need to be minutia.

That having been said…

It is our responsibility as teachers of yoga to provide students such as yourself with something far greater than “watch it”, “watch out”, or “be careful”. Our task is to provide teachings in the form of actions (in this case) so that the student doesn’t have to interpret the three aforementioned generalities. And this is one reason why my initial feedback in these cases is so often “ask your teacher”. Of course one cannot ask a book or a DVD and I completely understand that.

Hyper-extending doesn’t necessarily lead to an uh oh injury. It typically leads to an oops later on in life as a result of wear. Hyper-extending when weight-bearing obviously packs more risk.

The knee should be cared for in whatever manner the student fancies for their living. When students come to me I request information in their living, their diet, the injury and their practice. Those will need alteration, especially if the person doesn’t fancy pharmaceuticals and surgery. And there is a lengthy protocol of things to do and things to avoid which is not appropriate to convey through this medium.

gordon