Kettlebelephant
Level 6 Valued Member
Good evening ladies and gents!
First of all I just want to ask for some experiences and not concrete medical advise, because that's what medical professionals are for. We are all different and what works for one person, might end up hurting another. Still, I see this as a kind of "support group setting" where I can get a bit of help by exchanging experiences.
I'd like to know if anyone here has experience with knee cartilage damage and/or patellar dysplasia, either him-/herself or as a medical practitioner (PT, physician).
After a couple of weeks with knee pain I had an MRI last week and finally got my results today:
Patellar dysplasia with grade 3 cartilage damage and baker's cyst in both knees...
I have to wear a bandage for the next 6-8 weeks and do some easy exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee (things like banded leg extensions) and after that we decide what to do further.
According to my physician I should avoid heavy loads/stress to the knees in the future. Now my question is "what are heavy loads?"
I know I should probably avoid heavy barbell squats going forward, but what about deadlifts or swings or calisthenics like pistols?
His answer was "if it hurts you should avoid it".
Not a bad answer, but squats didn't hurt for years until they finally did.
Right now deadlifts don't hurt, but that doesn't mean that they won't hurt in the future and do a lot of irreversible damage until they start hurting.
Maybe they do further damage, maybe they don't. Maybe they will hurt in the future, maybe they don't. I don't know that, but at only 32 years old and already having grade 3 cartilage damage I can't afford doing something that may end up doing further damage even if it feels ok right now.
Deadlifting is just an example, you could insert swings, pistols, hip thrusts, running or any other lower body dominant movement here.
That's why I'm asking about experiences with this.
What could/can you still do?
What can't you do anymore?
Any exercises/movements that particularly worsened the situation or made it better?
First of all I just want to ask for some experiences and not concrete medical advise, because that's what medical professionals are for. We are all different and what works for one person, might end up hurting another. Still, I see this as a kind of "support group setting" where I can get a bit of help by exchanging experiences.
I'd like to know if anyone here has experience with knee cartilage damage and/or patellar dysplasia, either him-/herself or as a medical practitioner (PT, physician).
After a couple of weeks with knee pain I had an MRI last week and finally got my results today:
Patellar dysplasia with grade 3 cartilage damage and baker's cyst in both knees...
I have to wear a bandage for the next 6-8 weeks and do some easy exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee (things like banded leg extensions) and after that we decide what to do further.
According to my physician I should avoid heavy loads/stress to the knees in the future. Now my question is "what are heavy loads?"
I know I should probably avoid heavy barbell squats going forward, but what about deadlifts or swings or calisthenics like pistols?
His answer was "if it hurts you should avoid it".
Not a bad answer, but squats didn't hurt for years until they finally did.
Right now deadlifts don't hurt, but that doesn't mean that they won't hurt in the future and do a lot of irreversible damage until they start hurting.
Maybe they do further damage, maybe they don't. Maybe they will hurt in the future, maybe they don't. I don't know that, but at only 32 years old and already having grade 3 cartilage damage I can't afford doing something that may end up doing further damage even if it feels ok right now.
Deadlifting is just an example, you could insert swings, pistols, hip thrusts, running or any other lower body dominant movement here.
That's why I'm asking about experiences with this.
What could/can you still do?
What can't you do anymore?
Any exercises/movements that particularly worsened the situation or made it better?