Knee muscle pain

[GimmeSnow]

At the end of my second day on the slopes - boarding about 5 hours each day - my knees were KILLING me. I couldn't feel the pain on the hill - was having too much fun - but, oh god, the burn when I'd slow down at the base. The thing is, even though it kept hurting, I kept saying "One more run, I can do one more run" until, finally, no, I couldn't and I knew it.

So, I hung up my board and hit the lodge for some hot chocolate. When I finished up, and tried to stand, I fell. I actually fell right over. My knees just couldn't support my own weight.

Now, obviously, part of this is due to me being out of shape. Another part is going for 5 straight hours two days in a row while out of shape. Yeah, I get all of that. But, still, is there something I can do to possibly ease the pain a little?

Should I take breaks during the day? Should I go to the gym when I'm not on the slopes? Should I drink more water than I already do? Should I adjust my binding positions? (-5,+15 on day one and 0,+20 on day two) Should I be standing differently? There's gotta be something.

And don't tell me I'm just old and my body is falling apart. I'm only 28!

[karatekid1975]

I was about to ask the same question. I have an old martial arts knee injury, and snowboarding irritated it (sorry, my spelling is bad). I went wednsday last week and boarded for a good 4 and 1/2 hours. That's when I first noticed it. Today was 5 hours. My knee is BURNING like hell. And when I try to bend it, I get this sharp pain on the left side (left knee). And I got this huge knot right below my knee on the left side, also. The first day I went this year (and the the two days last year), I didn't have this problem. I didn't hit the slopes more than 3 hours then. I am out of shape also. I haven't trained in martial arts for a few months. So I'm with GimmeSnow on that one.

[Dan Gerous]

I had knee pain a few years ago. Had a few bad mountain bike crash and my right knee was banged up. After that, snowboarding was a pain, I had to quit anything that includes running (no more soccer) and that lasted a while, a few seasons.

What I did was ride my bike more to get the leg muscles stronger. When the muscles get strong around the knees, it helps them stay put and support them and now, no more knee pain. Of course, it takes time. I'm not talking about 10 minute bike rides once a week, I do long hard rides many days a week with lots of climbing all summer long, mountain bike is good and fun, I also do road rides but that's much less fun, I go to work on the bike too... With that, I never get knee pain anymore when snowboarding and the muscles makes a snowboarding 7 hours/day, 5 days straight possible. Even spring days with the heavy wet snow or a powder day doesn't stop you.

If you don't care about bikes, gym works too. Anything that will get your leg muscles stronger will help.

Your stance can also make it better or worse. I used to ride with a close to 0 0 stance and that was not too good on the knees. I ride ducked now and it puts less twisting in the knees I think...

[karatekid1975]

Good point, Dan. My hubby used to mountain bike. His knees are so in shape (on top of starting MA with me a few years ago and it made his knees stronger). Maybe I should get into both (MA ... Martial arts again, and mountain biking). That would more than likely help with my problem (and lose weight).

[graceful31]

I also agree with Dan.
(I had a great responce typed up, but for some reason unknown to me, it wouldn't let me post and said I was trying to spam.)
Other than excerise, eating right, getting sleep and drinking water,stretching is also very importent.

There are 4 ligaments and two tendons in your knee. In your knees, there are 2 tendons and 4 ligaments. The diff. btwn ligaments and tendons is that ligaments connect bone from bone and tendons connect from the muscles to the bone.

The 2 major tendons in your knee is the “quadriceps tendon” ( which connects from the quads muscle to the patella (a.k.a knee cap) and the “patellar tendon” (which connects from the knee cap (the patella) to the tibia).

These tendons includes the patella, are sometimes called “extensor mechanism” and when combined with the quadriceps will allow for leg straightening.

Ok, onto the ligaments…these ligaments attach from your femur to the tibia.

There are 2 ligaments in the back of your knee which cross over each other. These are the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) and the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). (hence the word “cruciate” to cross) Anyway these provide “rotational stability to the knee.”

The other two ligaments run along the outside and inside of the knee. The lateral collateral ligament (LCL) and the medial collateral ligament (MCL) These ligaments ensure that your knees don’t buckle when you stand up.

If you tore or badly strained a tendon or a ligament, you need to get help, go to a friggen’ doctor and get your knees checked out. This kind of injury can have lasting effects on your knees and it may inhibit your ability to snowboard, among other things.

A “proper” stretch lasts about 15-30 seconds (the longer you stretch the more flexible you ligaments and tendons eventually become)

I would suggest strecthes which strech your hamstrigns, quads...ect. I like to do deep lunges cos it raises the body temp, makking muscles pliable.
hopethis helps

[LamarRider11]

what I do when my knee is hurtin from playin lacrosse or whatever/snowboarding/skateboarding/hocky is to wear a knee brace under your ski pants which provides support and also helps on impacts but as the others said mountain biking helps as long as your not doin anything that might injure it more, ie flipping over the handle bars

[LamarRider11]

what I do when my knee is hurtin from playin lacrosse or whatever/snowboarding/skateboarding/hocky is to wear a knee brace under your ski pants which provides support and also helps on impacts but as the others said mountain biking helps as long as your not doin anything that might injure it more, ie flipping over the handle bars

[LoopyDood]

My knees (and my entire legs) are naturally strong. But, during the summer, I sometimes ride my bike about 20km at a time, once every 2 weeks, and like 10 minute rides four times a week.

It really helps to snowboard. Afterwords I end up dead, but oh well. Its well worth it! :p

Also, do stretches before you go boarding. Even reading a book while standing up, and crouching (not all the way!) helps alot.

A knee brace can not worth the expense unless your injury is permanent. My dad has had a bad knee for about 20 years, and he recently got a good quality brace. It cost him about $1000, and it really helps him with anything physical he is doing.

Last season, I had a really bad fall, and somehow ended up hurting my inside right hip. It sucked, and I really felt injured during that time. After a month it stopped hurting, but then I did the exact same thing, but worse. Every day, I would do streches, and it healed within a week.

My point is, just do streches. That's the secret!

[Jimi77]

I agree with the stretching advise - that's what my doctor told me when I started complaining about knee pain and they couldn't find anything wrong. If you can stretch sometime during the day that helps. I also found Creatine helps with the muscle pain/cramps.

[karatekid1975]

Good point with the stretching. I should have known that from doing martial arts. We ALWAYS stretch before a workout. But yet, I never do with snowboarding. But I'm going to start

[keckJ349]

all of the above work great, but a little more is if you are like me and overweight this will really affect your knees, even if just 10lbs more than last season, and also a very easy way to work your knees is to go up a ladder or steps, if you can easily do this work opn skipping a step or rung on the way up the increased distance will give you more stretch and more resistance which wil work you muscles better, and when this become easy get a backpack and some really BIG books, weights, or a weighted vest and climb normally again. This probably sounds crazy but most people have access to the stairs at work at home or at the mall and second of all i can say this works I am a construction worker and i climb a ladder 5 days a week usually with 20-140lbs of material and my knees hold very well in strange situations and flexes. also BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN MOVING FROM NORMAL CLIMBING TO EXTENDED OR WEIGHTED cause it is easy as heck to fall when overextending or overweighting any suppoert joint

[Tye]

I have such bad knee's from injuries that I have to get all doped up on pain killers when I go snowboarding, and usually wear a brace. When I get home, I can't walk cuz the pain is so bad.

[graceful31]

I have such bad knee's from injuries that I have to get all doped up on pain killers when I go snowboarding, and usually wear a brace. When I get home, I can't walk cuz the pain is so bad.

That really sucks, Tye. Have you tried anything like physiotherapy or maybe even surgery?

[blueeyes1032]

My father is now 65 years old. He has very much pain in the knee joint. Sometimes the knees are much swelled and he feels a very much inflammation in his joints. He used to take pain killer every day. But I think, it’s not a permanent solution. Is there any injury inside of his joints? Please let me have your helpful opinion. Thank you.

[GimmeSnow]

So the general concensus is that I should be hitting the gym?

I shouldn't be adjusting my stance, drinking more water, taking more breaks, etc?