FAR FROM BEING a simple hinge, your knee is the meeting point for three bones, numerous major tendons, and four ligaments, including the infamous ACL. All day long, your knees endure forces between two and three times your body weight, even during a simple walk. A lot can happen to these complicated, critically important joints.
These basics help you avoid trouble or solve it if it’s happening, anyway. Shuttle runs, lurches for the ball—your meniscus takes the hit when your body moves sideways and your foot doesn’t. That’s a telltale sign of a torn ACL, the ligament deep in the middle of your knee.
Going from the couch to running 10K in five days, or trying to crush nightly pickup basketball games when you haven’t touched a ball in years—basically, suddenly overdoing volume—can cause swelling and pain in the patellar tendon at the front of your knee. Tendons don’t have a lot of blood flowing through them, so microtears from training take a while to heal—and they don’t if you constantly overload them. With age, the cartilage that lines the ends of your bones starts to wear down, causing osteoarthritis.
Genetics, obesity, alignment issues, old injuries, and sometimes bad luck cause it to degrade faster in some people. Even with all the NIH money and everything we have now, we still haven’t figured out a way to make it heal back to normal,” says Dr. LaPrade. …is painful and so swollen you can’t see the dimples around the kneecap on either side.
That’s usually a sign of internal damage, like a meniscus or ligament tear. …is collapsing or giving out when you’re trying to walk down a flight of stairs or do other daily activities. That could signal a ligament tear. …locks up or catches and you feel like you can’t straighten it, or it feels as if there’sa pebble in your knee. The meniscus may be in trouble.
Mainly, don’t progress your volume too aggressively. So if your squats and other moves aren’t stable and controlled, back off on the weight to avoid injury. Less body weight means less stress on the joints.
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