For much of the past few years, I’ve been struggling with some form of injury that has come and gone and come again and become incredibly frustrating in the process. And I’ve had very conflicting advice over what it might be and how to solve it. Signs point to something like patellofemoral pain syndrome (PPS), but I’m not exactly sure.
A few years back, I rode out to my usual social soccer game. During the match, I copped a fairly bad tackle into my ankle, and while my ankle was fine (apart from bruising), I found I couldn’t walk properly. My knees and lower back particularly ached and I had to walk my bike home because I couldn’t bend my knee without severe pain.
I went to the physio, and I got some releif out of stretching and massage, but from then on my knees have been incredibly weak. Bending the knees, particularly the right one, cannot be done without pain. Doing squats is impossible as my knees will usually just give way under load.
This year I took up a lot of running and generally have been able to cope. I noted that after playing a game of indoor football, that suddenely I was getting sharp pains around the groin area on the same side as my more troublesome right knee. I thought I had perhaps pulled my groin muscle, and I rested. It seemed to get a bit better, but not totally correct. Even now I still get occasional sharpish pains in the groin when I do exercise.
The symptoms are:
- Weak knees – cannot squat, need to use arms to lift my body weight off chairs.
- Crepitus in knees (like gravel running through the joint).
- Extremely tight quadriceps – particularly the right quadricep.
- Sharp pain occasionally in the right side of my groin/hip area.
- Sitting in a chair with poor lower back support causes nearly unbearable pain in my knees
Does the above sound like classic PPS?
I’ve noted yoga has given me some relief, but not total relief.
Please comment if you have any advice.
