Kneehab rehab

The TL;DR version of this whole post is: "I'm injured, but I'm slowly recovering. And I have a LOT of rehab exercises to do every day, to help the recovery along, thanks to seeing specialists." - now the longer version, if you're a sucker for punishment, lol. (It includes the word 'buttocks' - I hope that doesn't make anyone blush.... hehe.) It's text heavy and photo light, for which I apologise, but pictures of me doing my rehab exercises would not be pretty, lol.


So, to recap, in October 2015 I got plantar fasciitis. When I finally started running again in November 2016, it was only a couple of weeks until I fell and sprained my knee badly at the beginning of December, ending up in A&E. I've not ran since then, and the knee got more painful over time, which was later eventually diagnosed as patella inflammation. I personally think the issues that caused my PF are related to the reason I sprained my knee, and especially the reason the knee sprain isn't healing well, but that's a long story, I'm not an expert, and it's all just really conjecture. Based on spending money to see an osteopath, a physiotherapist, and a biomechanics specialist. The three of them had various opinions and diagnoses, but I think I've generally understood, from an amalgamation of them all. It is what it is.

Fixing the knee is taking a lot of time and grumpiness, and a fair bit of discipline and effort. Since October 2015 I have lost count of the times I've been upset, angry, or frustrated to feel pain, more so when it appears at a time I'm allowing myself to think things are healing, but now I'm at the stage where I have NO goals other than recovery, and that's been a little bit freeing. I don't mean to say I don't still get frustrated, that would a blatant lie, but now I don't have a particular event pressuring the speed of my recovery, and my mind is also getting to the point of 'acceptance'. I only just started squats this week (on the approval of my physio, and under close attention of my personal trainer) - I don't know when I'll be able to run again, or to do burpees in the gym (the latter is NOT missed, let me tell you...). I don't know when I'll be able to sit on the floor without a burst of apprehension about how to get back up again. I don't know when I'll be able to go hillwalking again. For now, I'm focussing on my rehab exercises.

I'll caveat this with the usual type of disclaimer. I'm not an expert, I'm not diagnosing anyone, and I'm not saying that these exercises are things you should be doing if you have knee injuries. SEE A SPECIALIST. Don't 'ask yer pals on facebook'. Every injury is unique, to a degree - it's not just about the injury itself, but how the rest of your body is moving, the biomechanics, the specific symptoms, and the cause of the injury, etc... For me, my alignment is out, and the muscle imbalance and weaknesses also mean the knees want to 'collapse' inwards when I squat or stand up from a chair, etc. which impacts the recovery of the inflamed knee. So I'm doing a lot of work with bands around my knees, trying to sort out my alignment. My current set of rehab exercises include banded crab walks, glute bridges with a band around my knee, kick-backs with the bands, clams with a band, and so on. (This picture randomly found on Google image search shows one of the exercises I do.) I'm doing single-leg balance work, focussing specifically on not dropping my hip, and I'm doing stretches and foam rolling.... Lots of them. Hamstrings, calves, quads, and so on. Especially the soleus, because that's the one that most affected my plantar fasciitis 20+ months ago. It's a LOT of work, and I'm not as diligent with it as I should be, but I do 'something' most days. I'm slowly seeing stability return, and my injured knee is almost extending fully without pain now, so I'm sticking with it. :)

I am doing a lot of ongoing reading and research - this week my physio suggested I work on isolating the VMO and working it; I'd never even heard of it before (it's one of the quad muscles). I hadn't heard the world 'soleus' til last year. I had no idea what effect it would have if my abductors were weak and my adductors tight (that's the knock knee issue that impacts my stability and stresses the injured knee) - and I learnt how to foam roll my adductors (gosh, that was a sore one!)... I guess I feel daft that it took injury to get me to actually research what running without due care and attention on my form, my alignment, and self-care, was doing to my body. But now I know. I highly encourage everyone who doesn't much bother about these things to give it a bit of thought. Look after yourself, look after your muscles, watch out for imbalances and weaknesses, and stay strong.

Here's a little exercise to try out, to see how evenly your glutes are firing: Lie on the floor, straight out, face down. Rest your left palm on your left buttock. :) Engage your left glute (bum) muscle and very slowly lift your left leg about 2 inches off the floor. Return it to the floor, and release the glute. Now repeat this exercise on the right side. Does it feel different? Does one side feel tighter, feel stronger, engage 'more'? Or is it pretty even? Mine isn't even - though it's noticeably getting more balanced as I work them. My right glute was a LOT weaker than my left. Means the left side was working harder, and with the glutes not firing well, my left calf and hamstring took most of the pressure. This is where my plantar fasciitis, and my knee injury, comes from. If your glutes aren't firing properly, this can often lead to knee injuries, achilles injuries, and PF. Look after yourself, run well, and cross-train your muscles with mobility work to give you a better chance at avoiding injury, and not being the mardy cow I've spent most of the last 20 months being. x