Knee injury and wraps (possibly?)

[Goatamon]

I posted a while back about my fucked up knee, and it has semi healed itself. I still occasionally get pretty bad pain after squatting, but it remains at least semi-functional.

The pain is a bit hard to pinpoint. I'd say it's mostly on the side of the patella tendon, if that makes sense, but it can show up sort of all over the whole knee area.

I had a doc take a look at it (the GP variety) and she told me that there is no swelling, the range of motion is just fine, and I can walk and at least sort of squat without problem, so there is not really anything that they are willing to do. I don't have the option of going to a private practice, because I'm not made of money. The docs recommendation was taking it easy and if the pain persists, getting some piece of equipment to take the stress off of the knee.

So what I was thinking was: should I get a light wrap (like the kind Rip talks about in the video about knee wraps)? I suppose a knee sleeve might also do the trick, but I'm a bit worried about buying something that ends up not being enough support.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[Mac Ward]

Not much I can do with this information. A wrap likely won't stop the pain, though it *may* prevent you from moving poorly.

Why don't you post a video of your movement.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the only real choice is to train through the pain and allow it to heal, while executing flawless movement. I hesitate to tell you to do so without more information.

If you're not going/can't afford MRI/diagnostics, then you are left with training.

Why don't you post a video and let us take a look, and provide a little more information.

[Goatamon]

I think my previous post got lost due to getting auto signed out, so I'll try to post an abridged version: The knee pain developed as a result of a deadlift stance that was inappropriate for the structural oddity in my hips. As a result of trying to point my toes straight forward, I got a twisting sensation in my left knee, and later that night, the pain started. Ironically I can deadlift and do the olympic lifts just fine, but squatting is very painful.

After a year and a half of fighting with the low bar squat, I gave it up about 3 weeks ago (the knee injury happened more than 2 months ago). The reason for changing my squat style is that no matter how many form checks (both on this forum and from several non-SSC coaches in person) nobody has been able to fix my hip pains. If I had an SSC coach me in person, I suppose we might find a solution, but with online form checks it just hasn't worked out. No one has been able to catch the thing that makes my hips/groin hurt. I have come to the conclusion (from training and trying some rotation tests) that there is some kind of structural fuckery in my hips that makes me incapable of internally rotating, and it makes soft tissue get caught down there even when I point my toes way out and shove my knees out like crazy. No matter what stance I take, I can't go for more than a couple weeks of low bar squatting before serious hip pain develops.

The knee pain was almost exactly as bad in the low bar squat as in the high bar squat, but since starting high bar squatting, the hip/groin pain disappeared immediately, so I figure that at least until I someday get live coaching from an SSC, I'm sticking with the high bar placement.

I can post a video of me squatting this saturday. I just bought some ace bandages from the local pharmacy, and they seem to help quite a bit with the pain. I'm also going to try the trick of putting a wrist wrap across the bottom of the knee.

[Goatamon]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_eSOpGq1qc

These were still pretty uncomfortable, but the wrap was very loose and it definitely helped. These squats look to be parallel though...

[Mac Ward]

High bar squat.

Read the squat chapter, google knee injury and high bar on this site, research ALL the reasons cited thousands of time on this site and other regarding the inferiority of the HBS vs LBS.

[Goatamon]

High bar squat.

Read the squat chapter, google knee injury and high bar on this site, research ALL the reasons cited thousands of time on this site and other regarding the inferiority of the HBS vs LBS.

Yes, it is a high bar squat. As I explained in the previous post, after about a year and a half of online and in person form checks, my hip problems with the low bar squat remain unresolved. I've been high bar squatting for about 3 weeks now because they don't kill my groin/hips.