Please help me! knee/leg pain

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

hello all, I noticed that there were a few post on here about knee and leg pain. I have read through a few threads and I did not find exactly what I was looking for.

I want to explain my experiences as well as I can because I really really need some help with this problem. I do not have health insurance and I am in the process of solving this dilema as well.

I have been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for the last six years and I recently made a decision to try and make my Jiu Jitsu game better by exploring the benefits of Yoga. I was given a great dvd of a well known Jiu Jitsu and yoga instructor from philadelphia named Phil migliarese. The dvd is called Yoga for fighters. I started practicing the dvd twice a day everyday. Not long after I started, I noticed a very strange sensation in my right leg. If I were sitting on the floor in a, for lack of a better term, “Indian style” sitting position, I would feel a very tight feeling when I tried to straighten my leg. It started as more of a tight feeling than a “pain”. It did this for a while and I basically just overlooked it and kept on training the BJJ and the Yoga as well. After about two months or so, the tight feeling turned more to a pain and spread from the right back side of my knee to the entire back and both sides of my knee and also down into my calf. It also started hurting from just bending my knee while standing when in the begining it only happend when I would sit cross legged and try to get up. In the begining it was only a tight feeling as well, kind of like the feeling of a rubber band that has been twisted up and stretching out at the same time.

I have been trying to do some research and I have been thinking about so many possibilities. The most recent of which has been the posibility of a IT band strain or tear? I have also thought about a miniscus, acl, mcl, or even a hamstring injury?

The pain is only in my knee and it is only irritated when I make the motion I described above. If someone could please help me out here!! please, please,please???

Thank you so much,
Jay

#2

Ill ask my wife when she gets home. She is a PT and although i’m a therapist as well, i only deal with the upper extremeties.

#3

Hi BJ,

there are tests for knee stability and integrity in just about every health protocol. However they all require a hands-on approach.

That having been said, what you initially describe sounds like the knee joint locking and this could be due to a meniscal tear or a ligament tear. Meniscal tears can be less noticeable (when they occur) while ligament issues can make a loud popping noise and create swelling on the knee joint.

To me, it would be foolhardy to continue with any sort of aggressive training except for the person that has complete disregard for their own wellbeing. The knee likely can heal but it will not do so (very well) while its owner is jumping around.

#4

I do BJJ too. If I were you I would rest for few weeks and then take it easy. If is still would hurt I would do an x-ray to find out what is that. “Indian sitting pose” can hurt the knees. I do not suggest leg crossed poses for new students.

#5

I have been out for two weeks now and this is my third. It doesnt seem to be getting any better at all, just feels the same as it always did. The thing with Jiu Jitsu is you are in the position that hurts so much of the time. I wish I could just find someone who knew what to tell me. I guess I am going to have to get to the hospital somehow. I cant risk it, I own my own BJJ academy and I need to teach.

#6

I think what is clear (as opposed to what you don’t already know) is that you’ve sustained an injury to the knee joint. That is blatantly obvious from your post. Whether it is a torn meniscus or a torn ACL may not matter all that much unless you are planning to have it repaired.

So the person owning a knee injury, how does that person behave? And since you are a teacher, how would you advise a student coming to you with the same issue(s)? IN the yoga construct rest is critical for the immune system to repair. However two weeks without any sort of healing energy applied to the area would not be very effective.

So I’ll simply inquire as to what you’ve been doing the last 14 days to heal other than being “out” which I presume means no jujitsu.

gordon

#7

@ innerathlete,

I have been off the mat away from Jiu Jitsu

not partaking in any overly physical activities at all

Icing the area about twice a day

and staying on Ibrueprofin

#8

As per your original subject heading “please help me!!!” I have sent you a PM with specifics which are not appropriate for the board. I hope you are able to find your way to discover what your spirit is trying to communicate to your body about your living.

Gordon

#9

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;37461]Hi BJ,

The knee likely can heal but it will not do so (very well) while its owner is jumping around.[/QUOTE]

So true. Ask Nadal, who won yesterday the US Open in tennis. He was trobled by his knees and took a long break from tennis. Now he came back in force…and you know the result.

#10

Nadal likely had health care coverage and isn’t likely to have Feliciano Lopez grab his Gi and throw him over the net onto his back :slight_smile:

#11

[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;37697]Nadal likely had health care coverage and isn’t likely to have Feliciano Lopez grab his Gi and throw him over the net onto his back :-)[/QUOTE]

very very true!!

#12

I am coming to the end of recovering from a meniscus tear and what I had does sound like what you described. However I went to an MD and he did an MRI to find it. Luckily I did not need any surgery.

But it is a long and slow process and if at any point during that recovery time you decide you are better when you are not? it will get worse fast. I learned this the hard way… twice

#13

I am coming to the end of recovering from a meniscus tear and what I had does sound like what you described. However I went to an MD and he did an MRI to find it. Luckily I did not need any surgery.

But it is a long and slow process and if at any point during that recovery time you decide you are better when you are not? it will get worse fast. [QUOTE=Yulaw;37912]I learned this the hard way… twice[/QUOTE]

Yeah I hear ya and It is soooo hard to not learn the hard way!!

#14

[QUOTE=bjjmoore;37920]I am coming to the end of recovering from a meniscus tear and what I had does sound like what you described. However I went to an MD and he did an MRI to find it. Luckily I did not need any surgery.

But it is a long and slow process and if at any point during that recovery time you decide you are better when you are not? it will get worse fast.

Yeah I hear ya and It is soooo hard to not learn the hard way!![/QUOTE]

I took the hard way right to a pair of crutches for several weeks followed by a few months of cane

Yup, I do Martial Arts too and I did not listen to my body and I paid the price.

#15

I saw a thread “yoga for torn meniscus” , on this forum. It has lots of info.

#16

The very best thing to do is stop all training immediately. Get some energy healing. Don’t risk your knees. Any kind of energy healing can speed the healing. Prana, chi, is the best for healing such wounds, but they heal slowly. Injuries related to locomotion always begs the question about why you may want to prevent yourself from moving forward. Do some inner questioning research.

#17

Knee pain in yoga is, unfortunately, a rather common occurrence. And even though yoga can be a great tool for knee injury recovery, people with sensitive knees often have a hard time in a yoga class. In this detailed blog, I am sharing with you 11 tips and modifications on how to prevent knee pain in yoga and how to make sure that your students avoid knee injury.

At the very beginning of this discussion lies the fact that yoga asana practice has been plucked out of its cultural context and placed in the West. Most practitioners forget that in India, sitting on the floor has been a way of life for a long time.

Think about women squatting to cook, workers squatting to build things, and the traditional toilet which requires you to squat down. Therefore, (traditionally) Indian hips and knees are much more flexible than the ones from people from the West. Lotus variations are the norm for many traditional yoga postures, as it was assumed that lotus can be done easily.

In the West, we are used to sitting on chairs, and we hardly ever squat down for anything. So, when yoga was brought to the West it, unfortunately, led to suffering knees. It doesn’t mean that we all can never do lotus. It just means that not everyone should try and if you have the possibility to safely try, it may take a long time until you get to a Full Lotus Pose. Read more here