Hi Louise, I am not sure about the complete history of your knee but if it is still ongoing it is important that you start strengthening it. Start with shallow squats - 3 x 10 repetitions twice a day. The knee should not move forward of the ankle during these. As you progress with this you can go to aided (with a hand resting on seomthing for support) one legged squats and eventually unaided squats. Once you can do 10 unaided squats without pain you should be able to gradaully (over two weeks) return to full training. You can train if it is relatively pain free. Do not overstretch the tendon. A massage on your quads and hamstrings may well help. Also doing the stregthening I decribed for Kingski in the general forum will also help. Do not completely rest or your tendon will deteriorate. Good luck! Tom
If you've got an inflamed knee-joint and/or tendon it's important not to cause it further stress whilst it is settling down and recovering from whatever it is you've done to it. Do you know how you came to injure it?
In the absence of Dr Tom (he's away for a few days) I suggest that you use an elasticated (or neoprene) support to keep it stabilised - especially if you intend doing any kind of training on it. I also suggest that you don't use pain killers or anti-inflammatory drugs prior to training, as that may mask the problem to an extent. By all means use anti-inflammatory pills at other times, if you need to of course.
This type of injuries usually respond best (initially at least) to RICE - Rest, Ice (15 mins), Compression, and Elevation.
If you come along to class, be especially careful when standing on that leg in order to kick with the other. Ensure not to twist the knee in any manner. When kicking with that leg, do it slowly and don't lock out your knee. Pain is a signal - any pain whatsoever means that you should stop doing whatever it is you are doing immediately.
Not sure if Louise is a member here yet or not, so I'll post this on her behalf:
Hi,
I have just come back from the doctor asking about my knee and have been told that the tendon between the knee cap and the tibia is inflamed. She has advised me to stay off any high impact sports and I was wondering whether there is any part of the Kickboxing that isn't high impact and would not damage my knee. Please let me know as I don't want to stop coming to lessons just because of an injured knee (even if it is the best thing to do)
