The other week I pushed it too hard on the bike. By the next day I was unable to negotiate stairs easily, struggled to get in and out of chairs and definitely couldn’t get into a squat position. The pain was excruciating.
Causes of injury
In the case of an injury like this I’ve found that there are two most likely causes.
- Inflammation of a tendon or joint – for me this tends to happen less frequently. Inflammation is best dealt with using an ice-pack and plenty of rest.
- Knots in a muscle, either causing a joint to be pulled out of position or just causing pain due to its location. Knots are best resolved through visiting a sports massage therapist, finding a friend who doesn’t mind causing you pain, digging in yourself with knuckles and thumbs, or by rolling the muscle on a ball or foam roller.
Rolling muscles
Self-massage using a ball or foam roller is the easiest way to get rid of knots yourself. My preference is to use a hockey ball or baseball. It’s firm enough that if you put pressure through the knot into the ball, the ball won’t squash round the knot but should instead drive straight through the knot.
Our self-massage toolkit
Unfortunately in the case of my knees, the problem was in a place where I couldn’t get at the knot and still apply any pressure into the ball. However, I thoroughly recommend using balls to rid yourself of knots in glutes, calves, soles of the feet and the back.
Self massage with your fingers
Self massage with your fingers can be used to get at those muscles that are difficult to reach with a ball, such as the inner thighs and quads.
But there is a disadvantage. You have to be very strong-willed to cause yourself that much pain without letting up the pressure just at that crucial moment.
Sometimes I can do it, other times I have to ask my partner to do it for me. Fortunately, I was so cross about having got this injury that I was more than happy to inflict pain on myself in punishment.
Learn basic anatomy – the key to effective self-massage
Crucial to self-massage is a basic understanding of anatomy.
We have a shelf that is full of anatomy books. These range from a basic graphical summary of how muscles interact with strength training exercises in Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier
I would still be unable to walk if I hadn’t referred to the basic anatomy textbooks. My knee was hurting just below the kneecap so the obvious place to start working was also just below the kneecap. However, all I got for my efforts there on day one was a very sore, inflamed and bruised tendon-end.
Still unable to walk on day two I referred to the books. I discovered that the sartorius muscle connects with the leg just below the kneecap and runs up the inner-front of the thigh, joining the pelvis just above the hip flexors. It’s the longest muscle in the body.
As you can imagine, if you have a knot anywhere along this muscle it will shorten. The impact of that can be to tip the top of your pelvis forwards or (as I was finding) to pull the knee in and up, out of alignment with the rest of the leg.
Resolving the problem
On investigation I found that I had a string of knots halfway up my thigh, despite the pain all being located in my knee. Two days of digging into that point with my thumbs and fingers, flushing toxins out with water, and alternating hot and cold packs after massaging left me almost as good as new.
It’s going to take me another few days before I’ll trust any seriously heavy squats, and I’ll need to keep an eye on that muscle for a while to make sure it stays knot-free, but without a basic knowledge of anatomy I would never have thought to try looking halfway up my thigh for a problem that appeared to be below my kneecap. So my advice for this week is to invest in a couple of good anatomy textbooks!
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