Kettlebell Healthy knees and TGU's

[rickyw]

I have a prior history of knee injury and have had two knee surgeries. Overall my knee is doing quite well and I can do a lot with it. But when the weight gets heavy with TGUs (let's say 32kg plus) I tend to get patellofemoral pain from the pressure of the kneecap on the floor. I have tried different style TGUs and I have used knee pads as well. How many of you with no history of knee injury are able to do heavy turkish get ups without any patellofemoral pain? It seems I only hear complaints about TGUs and knee pain among those of us with histories of knee complications, but I wondering if it extends beyond us to those without past knee injury. I love and miss my TGUs. Thoughts and experiences are appreciated. Thanks

 

[coachnathanwhite]

@rickyw Based on working with students who have had knee replacements I have always been able to have them perform at least some portion of the TGU.
Most often, the lying supine ....roll up to elbow...high bridge to post has been successful.
We have been able to work the hip hinge with standing windmills and the overhead work with presses or holds. IMO 75% of the TGU is better than none.

All the best to you and your practice.

 

[taedoju]

I think that using knee pads usually help, also make sure you work on your quads with SMR techniques as it can help also

 

[Stuart Elliott]

I suffer knee pains mostly from wear and tear from years of playing football and rugby. I can get knee pain for TGU's but mine seems from overuse rather than the weight. A couple of ways I resolve this are:
1) From the windmill to kneeling position bring the front leg around to be inline with the kneeling leg, rather than rotate on the knee to align, there's a thread on this somewhere.
2) Take a break from TGU's and do partials and windmills (standing).
3) After resting the knee from full TGU's for a period bring them back in slowly i.e. 2 days a week around another programme. I'm doing this on variety days of ROP and so far no pain, I'll try 3 days in the near future.

If you can't do full TGU's point 2 cover most gaps, I used this for about 6 months along with the Strong prog and felt no decline in my TGU's when I restarted them 4 weeks ago with the 32kg.

 

[masa]

@rickyw ; Great thread. I can feel your pain. I'm in the same situation at the moment (take a look at my avatar ). Do you feel pain and pressure in your both knees, or just in an operated one?

 

[Steve W.]

I have grade 3 and 4 arthritis in my knees and have had arthroscopic surgery (torn meniscus) on one.

I generally don't do full get ups in my training, but I do overhead reverse lunges (like the first step in the lowering phase of the get up) and spend some time prying in the half kneeling lockout position.

I don't find this painful, even on a hard linoleum tile floor. A lot of my weight is on the foot of the front leg and the toes/ball of the back foot, so the support knee is not taking a very large load.

In contrast, when I do OS rocking or a lunge style hip flexor stretch with my knee on the ground, it is uncomfortable unless I use padding or do it on a more forgiving surface.

 

[masa]

@Steve W. ; Oh, I don't have arthritis, just torn patellar tendon. I hope somebody can give thoughts to how to manage TGUs with arthritis. My trauma is so fresh, that I can't tell much. Only that with a non operated knee I can do TGU normally.

 

[rickyw]

I appreciate everyone's input...I have experimented with all that has been suggested in the past...I am really wondering whether healthy knees hurt when doing heavy tgus. Maybe I'm splitting hairs a little, but I see some guys putting up 100 plus pounds with their kneecaps on pretty firm flooring and I wonder if that is aggravating or not, because they seem perfectly fine.

. @masa ,both knees, but I have had a history of patellofemoral pain in the other knee so it tends to be more sensitive to pressure.

 

[Snowman]

Just a thought, there are other types of getups that could give you many of the same benefits without kneeling, like the gladiator getup, squatting getup, and the tactical getup (and I'm sure there are more). The Turkish getup is a Strongfirst favorite since it allows you to move the most weight, and assuming someone can do it safely I don't think there's any reason to do another version. In your case, though, the TGU might be taking more than it's giving.

 

[ShawnM]

@masa- I split the tgu in half. I do the floor to tripod for 10 reps total and the I start from standing, do a windmill, return to standing and then a rear lunge. I have arthritis in both knees and this really seems to help.

 

[masa]

I have to use knee pads and in a summertime I did TGUs outside on the grass. There's a ground frost at the moment, but there's snow on the ground also. You might try to do getups outside. Grass and snow softens the pressure from the knee.

 

[masa]

@masa- I split the tgu in half. I do the floor to tripod for 10 reps total and the I start from standing, do a windmill, return to standing and then a rear lunge. I have arthritis in both knees and this really seems to help.

Good to know. Thanks for the tip. I'm going to try it. I like windmills so that fits like a glove. I don't want to start pressing or anything. I just want my TGU ability back. And with windmills it sounds most natural way to do it.