Anyone have knee problems?

[strazzere]

Kinda funny - at the start of this thread I had no knee trouble.

I've recently switched positions and done a lot of hitting (and a lot of indoor play since all summer was outdoors) - my knee had been bothering me more than normal. I figured it was just jumpers knee and got a McDavid knee strap for compression. It feels a lot better but wasn't going away.

I went to a cyropractor for and alignment - and mentioned it to him. He noticed I had scared tissue in my ankle from last april that never fully healed. This lead to me compensating w/ my leg (mostly knee) when jumping. Going from grass and sand didn't make it notice as much until I went indoors.

Basicly physical therapy is what I'm doing now to try to break up some scared tissue....

That along w/ ibuprofen, biofreeze and lots of ice is my new regiment.

So if it keeps hurting, see a doc!

[JPMac]

Try a cho-pat brace or a double cho-pat... if you suffer from patellar tendonitis or jumpers/runners knee it may help the pain. Another important thing is stretching the quadricep muscle both before playing (after warming up) and then after. Losing a couple pounds of weight will help, as will learning how to land to absorb the impact throughout your legs, rather than strictly with your knee.

The last suggestion that I can make is to maintain a weights routine with your legs. Squats, lunges, leg extensions, and lying compressions will help reduce leg pain... I am not sure why - but I have quite a few Physical Therapist friends that have suggested it when I whine about knee soreness and it helped tremendously.

[tacman21]

One big thing to think about is how you are landing when you jump. Are you landing equally on both legs or more on one leg than the other? Another thing I'm surprised no one has mentioned is shoes and/or insoles. Volleyball shoes don't last that long if you are jumping a lot, especially if you jump well. Many people don't replace their shoes nearly often enough and the constant pounding of volleyball in shoes that are worn out could definitely cause problems. Adding insoles might add more cushioning which could help the knees too. Spenco insoles work well, but I'm currently using Springbak which I think have helped cut down on my knee pain (ACL reconstruction and lots of cartilage damage) and are much thinner than most insoles-plus, they supposedly help you jump higher! Not sure I'm sold on that, but I'm happy with them.