Knee problem during swim workouts

Hi InnerFish, When I've had knee pain in the past (remnants of a high school high jumping incident - serves me right for attempting a land sport), I've done the following things to help: 1. Start religiously stretching my quads and hamstrings. The muscle inbalance seems to be the source of most pain for me. 2. Avoid breaststroke kick, especially with a board. 3. Ice after practice. 4. When the pain was worst, avoid pushing off the wall altogether. Just flip at the wall a couple extra feet out and restart. This really sucks, but it did help. Sounds like your knee and speed are both getting better. Keep at it and good luck. :)

Thanks AquaFeisty... sounds like motivation to get the flip turn back online again. Had so much trouble w/ it for some reason (after thinking I had it down) that I decided to give it a rest for a while. Those suggestions all sound helpful! I've been doing more stretching now--I'll go into the sauna afterward to stretch, which really seems to help. Also sometimes do some stretching in the water after finishing the swim. Quads probably need extra attention...was focusing on hamstrings for a while b/c a track coach friend noticed they were pretty tight. Thankfully at least I can still swim to enough of an extent to get a decent workout. Running has been a real problem, but that too will come around! Gotta think positive... and work for it. p.s. hmmm.... my problem did seem to have been aggravated by a "land sport." But what can I say... I'm addicted to both!

This sounds like a problem that I had/still have. I've had knee problems since I was about 13 (thanks to my massive growth spurt). I first noticed it when I was running heavily with jr. high track and x-country and it eventually ended my swimming career in college. It was to the point where I could not go up and down stairs without severe pain. I was told by the team dr's in college that the only way to help my knees would be to "replace them now". I was 20 when they told me that. I am holding out as long as I can. They also told me to avoid bending my knees to 90 degrees or less, period. That was tough to follow. I laid off swimming for about 4 years after that and I just started swimming again this past year. I am paying very close attention to my knees. I just started doing LIGHT weights with my legs (light for me is fairly heavy for most girls) but this is an improvement from college where I could not lift ANY weight with my legs. In practice, the minute my knee(s) hurts I will stop to stretch...stop doing breaststroke kick (that's what ususally triggers it)...or push LIGHTLY off of walls. I rely a lot on my legs, but the minute they begin to twinge I stop right away. I found usually ice does not help me because it feels like it stiffens my legs. Icy Hot tends to help - I feel the heat helps the blood flow through my knee and sometimes this helps my range of motion. But for now, heat, tylonol, stretching and lots of water tends to help. And yes, I plan on having my knees replaced at an insanely early age.

Thanks for your input Stacy... I don't even want to think about knee replacement, but like you, I hope that if I need it, it will be when I'm much older than I am now. Ironically, I saw swimming as (among other things) a way to keep my knee from blowing out from the running. Question for you: what kind of leg weights are you doing and how many sets/ reps? Again, thanks!

Hey Stacy, My sucky knees sound a bit like yours (although I am nowhere near as fast!!) I was told (at age 23) by the doctor that I had degenerative arthritis, so likely a knee replacement is in my future at some time. My little sister is getting her PhD at Northwestern working in Biomedical engineering at the Chicago Rehab Institute. Guess what her research is on? Knees, female knees in particular!! I told her I'm counting on her! :D Carrie

Well, if your sister needs someone to do a study on, I am not too far away - maybe 30 mins. I was told that, essentially, my femur had rubbed away the cartiledge behind both my patellas, so I was having bone-bone contact and it's going to be hard for them to repair themselves. They told me the fancy medical term for that...but now I honestly don't remember what it is. They were thinking for awhile I had torn the miniscus in each knee, but luckily that wasn't the case. Sorry if I butchured any of that spelling. :confused: side note: Have I swum against you? I'm not THAT fast.

Well, I use the nautilus machines at the YMCA, so take these weighs as you will. The machines there have computers that track your sets, so it makes it easier that tracking my own weights. Plus their squat machine allows me to do them in a different position that doesn't bother my knees. I lift 1-2 times a week and I usually do 2 sets of 8-12 reps. Right now, my hamstrings are about..I honestly have no idea. 95 sounds about right. I squat at 295 and the minute my knees are in pain, I stop. My quads I can now do about 70 but that's the machine that bothers them the most so I rarely use it. My knees usually pop and grind the whole time on that one. But like always, I spend a lot of time stretching out after I am finished and drink plenty of water.

Walk up 3 flights of stairs 6x a day at the Blue Bay hotel in Manzanillo Mexico. Very small rise no strain. great exercise no strain on my two new knees.

Hi Innerfish, Stacy's weights ideas are all good ones. If you're not able to hit a gym, you can also do squats and lunges at home. Just start with using only your own body weight and maybe have someone take a look at you to make sure your form is good. And it's usually good to concentrate more on hamstrings than quads. Day-to-day life seems to work the quads more so the hamstring focus balances out the muscles. Balanced quads and hamstrings (both in strength and flexibility) go a long way towards alleviating knee pain. To Stacy, "THAT fast" is totally a relative thing. :) No, I haven't swam against you, but I think you went to Nationals this year and were on a relay with my husband (Chris Colburn). I swam there too - if you remember the person with the baby, that was me. My 50 and 100 free are 27-high and 1:02-low, so you are quite speedy to me!! :D

Stacy, thanks for the info. The weight machines at my Y aren't quite that advanced but they're pretty decent. My pool's closed for maintenance thr/ 9/10, so I should be using the time to do some strengthening/stretching. George, I like your suggested exercise, although the airfare could be a bit of a hitch! ;) (I suppose I could find a comparable flight of stairs closer to home... not as pretty surroundings, though...)