I figured I'd do an open comment forum today, hopefully to stir up some discussion.
As usual, feel free to bring up whatever you want in the comment section below: new studies, vexing knee problems, lingering frustrations, what's working, what's not working.
If you don't feel the need to say anything in particular, then if you've been a knee pain sufferer for a while (and a visitor here), it would be nice to hear an update of how you've been doing. Often, I've been happily surprised to hear from people who started leaving comments seven or eight years ago, then disappeared for a while, and later resurfaced to share their stories.
Mine is, unfortunately, a rather boring story at this point. I feel like a bit of an impostor sometimes. See, I have this blog about chronic knee pain, but I don't have chronic knee pain anymore. Now, knock on wood, I'd like to keep it that way and don't want to tempt fate. I'm aware that circumstances can change swiftly.
But it's a relief not to have to plan my life around a pair of complaining knees. Yesterday I rode hard on Zwift (virtual reality cycling!), banging out close to 3 watts per kilogram for two and a half hours. Today I meant to go easy on Zwift, then got suckered into trying to catch a large group of riders climbing a long, steep mountain road, and so I had another intense session.
And my knees are fine. No ice. No stabbing pains. Nothing. I know I'm lucky that my knee pain story has become boring.
But what about you? Anything to share? Please leave a comment below!
My knees are not recovered at all, but they are getting better.
ReplyDeleteLooking in retrospect I think that my condition was built for 3 or more yeard kind of silently. From time to time I had some problems with my knees that always used to go away so I thought that would repeat, but it didn't.
I was getting better when the pandemic and quarantine started. I could sleep more, I could lye on the couch and put my feet up, but suddenly my knees started to seem weaker. Some day to day things started to hurt. Then I saw that I wasn't walking near the same amount I was used to. And I also had that magical elbow pain (hahahaha). All these made me think it got to be something way more metabolic (maybe an enrgetic balance of the body) than trauma oriented.
Knowing all this I started walking more, trying to run a block or two, do bodyweight squats and now my knees feel way better. Not 100% but if something hurts then the next day they feel fine again, not that stabing pain that seemed to last more than a week.
I think that I'm walking the right path.
One thing I would like to know is how did you decided "that's it, today I'll ride my bike like I used to because now I can".
Well, when I first got on the bike again, after missing months of cycling, I didn't ride it as I used to (not right away). I rode fairly cautiously for a while.
ReplyDeleteAs for why I felt I was ready: I'm not quite sure, except I had gotten a lot better. Also, and I think this is important, I had almost forgotten about riding the bike at that point. I had really given up that activity. So when I began to feel good, I thought, "Maybe I should try cycling again."
Me? I have a success story too to share. 95% recovery to full knee cartilage thickness and 0 pain now. It's been awhile since I follow this blog.
ReplyDeleteIt all started in late 2017 where I had no idea what I was dealing with this intense pain behind my right knee, it was the sound of potato chips being crushed whenever I squat. It was caused by running with bad form (underpronation and heel strike), though it was only my right leg is giving me hell. I'd been a runner since 2012. Specialist doctor then suspected I had patella chondromalacia, but I didn't had MRI scan. And I got the same "bad advice" from the specialist and I refused surgery as I was only 28 years old in 2017. Nor I know how severe/grade of my injury since I didn't perform MRI, but I reckon it must have been at least grade 3.
Fast forward, I was avoiding any sort of movement at all and eat glucosamine as if my life depended on it. About 6 months later, my knee became very stiff but the pain reduced. That's where I started to perform some flexibility exercise, but nothing like what Richard recommended. And for some reasons, I started trying to run again with the right form. The recovery journey was ups and downs.
Fast forward to 2019, my recovery was going nowhere, though I was running from time to time. I was just adapting to my new imperfect right knee lifestyle in a way. It was then in second half of 2019 I come cross this Richard's book saving my knees, I didn't believe anything at all at first. But a few months later, I found your blog and went through all your posts (which took me about a month to go through while doing my own research). That was when my new recovery programme started official in November 2019.
My programme is simple stationary bike cycling and walking, doing that everyday. Most importantly, I quit running altogether.
Here's a bit of the summary of my progress:
week 1 to week 2 - right knee started to hurt after 20 mins of cycling and the burning sensation last for the rest of the day.
week 3 to week 4 - slowly I can cycle 30 mins and 20 mins on alternate days.
About 2 months - I can do 40 mins cycling.
6 months and beyond - doing 40 mins cycling doesn't hurt anymore. Sometimes I do more if I have the time.
7 months - now - I started to cut down on my cycling where I only cycle 3 times a week and walk 6k steps on my rest day.