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I've got a problem with my knees - and I don't dare do any stretching or dance because of it. I'm hoping someone can suggest something I could do about it. Here goes:
This had happened before about a year ago - I think I'd probably pushed myself too far when stretching. My knees felt alright most of the time, but seemed to be unusually weak - they'd hurt if I landed on them too hard (when they hadn't before) and simply sitting cross-legged for too long caused me to feel like I'd pulled something.
I did get advised by a chiropractic to do exercises to strengthen my quadricepts. I did try these, but although the problem did go away I don't know if these actually helped - I was under quite a lot of pressure from work with no real support and simply didn't have the time to do any dancing, so it could just have been that I didn't put them under enough strain. (Though, thinking about it now, I did sit cross legged a lot without any problems...)
Anyway, I'm currently in the process of moving house - my parents helped me out, but this did include sitting in the back of a car for a LONG time with a lot of my things resting on my knees about a week ago, and ever since then the problem's returned.
I'm trying to find the chiropractic's exercises again, but not being sure if these were what had helped before I looked things up and I'm not entirely sure if "normal" doctors actually believe in chiropractice, so maybe I'd be taking too much of a dangerous risk trying again.
If my symptoms sound familiar to anyone, can they please offer some advice?
Thanks!
Amy.
(PS. I did ask the Ministry of Burlesque forum about this - but the only reply I got was "see a physio", and I'm not sure if this is going to be something I can afford.)
This had happened before about a year ago - I think I'd probably pushed myself too far when stretching. My knees felt alright most of the time, but seemed to be unusually weak - they'd hurt if I landed on them too hard (when they hadn't before) and simply sitting cross-legged for too long caused me to feel like I'd pulled something.
I did get advised by a chiropractic to do exercises to strengthen my quadricepts. I did try these, but although the problem did go away I don't know if these actually helped - I was under quite a lot of pressure from work with no real support and simply didn't have the time to do any dancing, so it could just have been that I didn't put them under enough strain. (Though, thinking about it now, I did sit cross legged a lot without any problems...)
Anyway, I'm currently in the process of moving house - my parents helped me out, but this did include sitting in the back of a car for a LONG time with a lot of my things resting on my knees about a week ago, and ever since then the problem's returned.
I'm trying to find the chiropractic's exercises again, but not being sure if these were what had helped before I looked things up and I'm not entirely sure if "normal" doctors actually believe in chiropractice, so maybe I'd be taking too much of a dangerous risk trying again.
If my symptoms sound familiar to anyone, can they please offer some advice?
Thanks!
Amy.
(PS. I did ask the Ministry of Burlesque forum about this - but the only reply I got was "see a physio", and I'm not sure if this is going to be something I can afford.)
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Re: Unidentified knee injury - can anyone help?
Wed, September 3, 2008 - 10:59 AMGentle stretching and strengthening both quadriceps and hamstrings are very important. Daily stretching and exercise will help build support for the ligaments and tendons in your knees. Also, make sure that your heels aren't too tall - anything more than a 2.5inch heel can put serious strain on your knees, exacerbating your condition.
The traditional medical community's verdict is still out on the usefulness/helpfulness/clinical judgment of chiropractors. Much like any other professional service, it depends on the practitioner. There are always good and bad. A good chiropractor knows when s/he is out of their league and needs to refer to a higher level of care.
For a specific injury, you might get checked out at your local community clinic or university clinic - they usually have a sliding scale fee system that makes it cheaper to get care than you might think. It's worth the peace of mind.
If you have full range-of-motion of both knees and are able to walk without pain, you are probably ok. I think that everyone on this board could identify something that they can't do (that they used to do before...) as a result of dancing or just plain getting older. It's sort of like the old joke... "Doctor, it hurts when I do this..." "Well, then don't do it!" If you can avoid sitting cross-legged or landing too hard... This gets to be a problem when it becomes "If you can avoid walking or running..."
So, in short, exercise and stretching are best. Avoiding your normal level of stretching and dancing will be much more damaging in the long run. Continue carefully, do not stretch into pain or exercise through it, but keep moving and you'll probably be just fine.
