Hamilkar’s BodyBlog

I was reading some blog entries and came across someone who has a knee problem. I apologize for not getting the member’s name, but here is what he said:
"Type of injury - Tendonitis around knees

Duration of injury - About 2 weeks

How the injury occurred - As far as I can tell, it was a combination of a mistake in squat form and at least two days of high-intensity cardio a week. When I decided to make absitively posolutely sure that my squat form was correct, I realized that I wasn’t putting all my weight back on my heels, which is Bad, Umkay?

Rehab - I backed off on the cardio. For the most part, I skipped it, but I did one moderate-intensity session as active rest. I iced my knees at least twice a day. I continued to work out my legs, but I decreased the weight and fixed my squat form. I took glucosamine and chondroitin as well.

Prevention - Sit back on those heels when you squat. If the intensity of cardio that you’re doing makes your knees start to bug you at some point in the exercise, get off the machine or take it easy, and put some ice on when you’re done.

I have another one to share. This has been a rather painful month for me.

Injury - Some sort of lower back owie

Duration of injury - About 2 weeks

How the injury occurred - I was trying to do conventional deadlifts, which my lower back doesn’t like at all. I confused the back strain with DOMS and kept working through it. I figured that something was wrong because my back was bugging me all the time.

Rehab - Until my back felt better, I quit doing conventional deads and good mornings (which also bothered my then-owey back). I replaced them with Nautilus machine hyperextensions, which felt fine to me. When my back stopped bugging me all the time, I decided to try sumo deads with the empty bar (I’d attempted them before, but they had felt weirder than the normal ones for some reason). This time, they felt right to me, and my back was happy because I didn’t have to stick my butt way out in order to keep the bar from banging into my knees on the way down (which, I suspect, was a cause of the back strain in the first place).

Prevention - Learn to distinguish between back strain and DOMS. If an exercise bothers your back, find a similar one that doesn’t. If your back is weak, do some hyperextensions to strengthen it."

I did a descent leg workout the other day, and my knee seems to be much better. In the mean time I’m still looking for some points from others on what they do for minor knee and joint pain. I’m not in pain at this time, but for future reference, this would be good info for me. Thx!