I'm after some advice from the more manly amongst you I seem to have caused some aching in both my MCLs (I know it's them because I've had surgery on the MCL/meniscus). Mostly the right side aches, but the left is causing an ache too. I didn't notice the aches until the following day. I'd done a MT class, followed by the gym and then BJJ in the evening. The gym session was deadlift (5x5) and pull ups. So due to the timing/billateral-ness I'm guessing it was the DLs that caused it. So the question is, what's the most likely thing I'm doing wrong? Cheers.
Sorry, I thought that was pretty explicit in my OP, I just described what I'd done that day 'just in case'. What's most likely is that I've allowed my knees to cave in (internal rotation). I've never experienced this ache before and was hoping that one of the more experienced lifters (Kuma, Mikey, Fish, etc) would have some words of wisdom (or more likely chastisment!).
bwahahahahaaahahahaaahahahaaahahaaaaahahaha.... sorry, nope . many thanks for the compliment though, at least this shows i know how to look like i know what i talk about i've been lifting for ten months and i don't even lift regularly. sorry, but i can't really speak from experience that said, some quick googling leads me to suspect you might be collapsing your knees in a little? does it only hurt lifting heavy weight or does even light effort cause pain? also, have you tested it with squats?
Heh. Which Fishy did you mean? Sadly, like the Doomy Fish, I don't know that much about the small muscles of intricate joints either. In fact, I just had to google it to find out where it was! However, now I have, I know roughly what you're on about. To be honest I'd be hesitant to even try to pin it down to deadlifts. From purely personal experience, I mildly injured both the insides of both my knees, exactly where the MCLS are, when I took up running a while back. I tend to be a bit flat-footed and my knees really didn't like it. The link below was the most helpful I found after some quick googling, and it fingers football as a common source of these problems: "When the leg is hit from the outside of the knee joint, the knee tends to twist and buckle thus causing the ligament to over-stretch or tear". Given which, it could just as easily have been either of the MA classes. You might have done it throwing kicks during MT, for example. http://www.mendmyknee.com/knee-and-patella-injuries/medial-collateral-ligament.php Some advice I can offer would be: * Try to eliminate deadlifts from the equation by waiting until you're better and training them during a period where you're not doing anything else strenuous and see if the pain comes back. * Previous surgery permitting, do some foam-rolling and/or tennis ball work on the sore areas. * Fish of Doom has a good point when he mentions squats. If it is caused by your knees bowing in then there's a good chance this will be more pronounced in squats than it is in deadlifting, so squats could hurt the area more. * Knees bowing is a common problem. I'm struggling with it myself. Is it practical to get videos of yourself whilst squatting and deadlifting?
d'oh! need to stop forgetting i'm not the only one with a fishy username (happens on other forums too ) *flogs self 50 times for excessive ego, then 50 more just for the hell of it*
See, you assumed something there as you are taking me as inexperienced but considering I own a company that produces specialist personal trainers I'd be happy to stick by my statement that deadlifts are causing you a problem, see if I have a problem with an exercise that's causing me aches and pains j stop doing that exercise and change, Sunday I noticed I was getting sore shoulders from bench so I changed. Sometimes you may be doing an exercise that your body isn't happy with, change is good.
Sorry if it seemed that way, not my intention. I believe it was the DL because I never experienced the ache until in the BJJ session, which is why I mentioned it. If it was the MT session that caused it I'd have expected to feel some ache when in the gym. I deadlift quite often, but was trying to hit a 5x5 PR that day. It was meant to be the last day of deadlifts anyway, having just completed a 6 week plan. For squats I have been doing front squat tabatas twice a week, no big problem but I do have an issue with my left hip flexor (but I put this down to Kali training, lots of right lead front to back motion). I've been rolling it out on a mini-football and stretching it loads. Cheers for the help and the link guys.
Cool no worries Injuries though can occur at any time, i've been racking up the weights lately and getting some good PB's, i moved onto Romanian deadlifts and injured my back, you may just need to change your exercise to something else for a bit and take a rest, as said before i just cracked off 110kg for 7 reps on the bench which is good for me but its time to ease off now as my shoulders are shot!
If you're getting an achy sensation on the medial side of your knee joint while deadlifting, doing lots of round kicks, and performing tabata front squats 2x a week, it seems very likely that you're developing soft tissue restrictions in your adductors. I know you said you're pretty sure it's your MCL, but unless you're twisting around in the knees and ankles while lifting (couldn't really say unless I saw a video) it's hard to pin it down to being a ligament issue. Even if it were, there is some reason that your ligaments are carrying a greater load than they should be, and I would suspect that reason comes down to soft tissue restrictions in the adductors that are inhibiting your ability to properly stabalize your knee while extending the hips at the same time under load. Someone mentioned some foam rolling and ball love, and that's what I would recommend. I suspect if I was to press my finger tips into the inside of your thigh, especially close to the knee where many upper thigh muscle share a common attachment point, that you would be very tender indeed. Here's a link to a blog Tony Gentilcore wrote recently about a cool way to mobilize the adductors and hip in general, as well as a video on how to effectively work those soft tissues yourself with a roller. I wish you the best of luck in your recovery so you can get back to heavy pulls without any issues!
