Knee trouble / Physical therapy

imported
#1

my story is: approaching hiawasee, georgia – 70 miles into my hike – i blew out my knees. taking refuge at the blueberry patch (was that the name?) for two nights and procuring a neoprene knee brace, my hike continued on with relatively few problems.

i got to maine and returned home to wisconsin, at which point i was dismayed to find that i could not jog, because when i would begin running, my knees would buckle out from under me. frustration set in. i gave them some rest and found that three or four months later, i could run again with minor pain.

well, and here’s my question, i am planning a PCT hike for 2005 and the minor pains are still there. my concern is that the minor pains will inflate into major pains once my PCT hike begins. this would not be fun, i’d like to stem the problem before it rears its ugly head in my direction.

wondering if anyone out there has had success in the area of rehabilitating their joints. also wondering if anyone knows what exactly happens to the joints during an AT hike? is it the cartilage breaking down or what?

any advice or discussion on what a hiker can do to strengthen their joints prior to a thru-hike would be very awesome.

best regards, nightfever

Night fever

#2

It could be any number of problems and you should go to a doctor to find out exactly what your specific problems are so you can address them. It could be a strained or torn ligament, cartilage damage etc…

I blew my right knee out the first time I did a 30 mile test hike on the AT and it took a couple months for it to heal up. I did some knee exercises a couple months before I did my longer 100 mile section hike and wore a good knee brace for the first 40 miles or so until I felt confident my knee wouldn’t give me any more problems. I still put it on if there was a long, steep decent though… Since lightening up my pack weight from 40lbs to 30lbs, I haven’t had any more problems with my knees…

Nooga

#3

Hi Night fever! My heart & knees understand what you’re going thru. This topic has been covered lots in the recent; say 2-3 wks ago past. You may want to scan the past posts to ck out all the wonderful details that folks shared. In date; what has/is wking for me (ea. person is very individual tho) is as follows:

1.Meet w/ a certified Orth. dr.& get xrays to determine what’s wrong exactly. Try to see one that specializes on dealing w/knees.

2 Physical Therapy w/ a reputable skilled PT who specializes in knees. You have to do specific exercises to strenghten specific muscles around the knee area. They will wk w/you, prod you along; do massage (love it!) use ultrasound, etc

(note about the professionals…may have been just my idiosycratic experiences; but seems like many of the Orth. drs have been pretty brusk in their style of interacting. Again this may just have been my bad luck. My PT’s & the other drs have all been wonderful to work with! But be prepared just in case you get a “no social skills” orth. dr!)

  1. Anti-inflamatories (I use Vioxx, but many kinds out there; many folks have benefitted from others; like Bextra.) Get good info on them tho; they have side effects. I used to be on prescription strength Aleve, (napoxen or Naprosen) but over time it ate into my gut.

  2. Rest; & ice…My dr said 4xday for 20 min ea.time icing when inflammed. Sometimes heat helped too. The PT had some kind of ultra sound HEAT machine & external steroid patch that helped.

5.Those external rubs (like Icy Hot) felt good, but didn’t do anything for me…because it’s so much deeper than surface pain. But some folks like them.

  1. A temporary use of a cane did indeed help. Hurt my pride; but what the hell.

Good luck with it all…:cheers

leah

#4

In 1970 I had radical surgery to remove damaged cartelidge from a sports injury. After that I took up running - mostly 10 K’s. I wrecked what was left and had 2 athroscopic operations and finally had the whole knee replaced 5 years ago at age 55. I still hike and do some light backpacking. A good neopreme knee brace helps a lot if the terrain is rugged or there are lots of roots and trail rocks. Make sre you don’t get one too tight or your leg will ache and you may have no alternative other than hiking without it. If you’re going to go real long distances you might consider buying one of those metal-hinged braces ‘just in case’ something happens miles from a trailhead. Another great asset would using two hiking poles, not one. Instability and twisting force on the knee are bigger killers than the actual hiking. Strengthen your quads by doing ‘leg lifts’ and leg curls with weights. Good luck! If you’re in or near Massachusetts and need a good ortho doctor that specializes in knees (and hips) try Dr. Kirk Johnson in Worcester.

Silver Fox

#5

I’ll second the “see a good orthopedic doctor and try physical therapy” motion. My problem wasn’t severe, but enough to make sleeping tough, and I was afraid that something serious was going to happen because it just kept getting worse. Went to the doc, got some x-rays, got put into physical therapy, learned some specific exercises for my particular problem. Far less pain, and since then my knee just feels stronger, which has made for happier hiking.

Two Speed

#6

Maybe only a doctor can answer this, but what do you know about what a long distance hike does exactly to the knees? Does it ruin the cartilage? The ligaments? What? All I really know that it is caused by compression of everyday downhill hiking.

The reason I ask is because I wonder if Glucousamine Chondroitin is a possible solution? My understanding is that it repairs and rehabs the cartilage tissue in the joints.

Night Fever

#7

I don’t know if glucosamine/condroiten repairs anything, but I know that I took it before the beginning of the hiking season last year and had NO knee troubles. That’s remarkable since I used to have knee problems regularly while hiking.

This past month I’ve been taking it again, in preparation for the fall/winter hiking season. I may have been lucky last year, but I doubt it was just luck. Look at it this way, it can’t hurt. Take 1500mg glucosamine, 1200mg condroiten daily for at least 3 weeks before beginning hiking. Squats help too, just go slow at first.

steve hiker

#8

I would suspect that most hiker problems regarding knees are over-use syndromes,such as tendinitis.(knees that were otherwise healthy)This can be avoided by proper fitness prior to hitting the trail.If you do a search using my trail name,there are several posts regarding glucosamine and other knee issues.Hope they help.Oo

Onlyone