As I've ramped up my lower body training for an upcoming athletic competition, I've run into unexpected knee pain in the form of general join soreness and heaviness. No specific injury, my knees just plain hurt.

Could my volume increase, and lack of attention to extra stretching for the quads/hams/hips/calves be resulting in the knee soreness?

Anyone else experience this in their training ramp up? My training involves weight work, sprints, specific footwork drills, and HIIT.

I guess I'm trying to determine if my knees are mad at the volume, or mad at my poor attention to flex/stretching, or a combo.

Sounds like osgood-schlatter disease. It's something boys get going through puberty when the leg muscles start to grow and put pressure on the knee joint. I got it at 10-12 and I get similar pain now when I'm building up miles on the bike as winter ends.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/osgoodschlatter-disease

Maybe there's an adult version or maybe I'm completely wrong but the pain I get during spring is what I remember from when I was a kid.

Yes to all Tikka. Roll out your whole posterior chain. Roll out the sides of your legs (you will hate me for this).

Could be your shoes. Could be poor technique catching up to your increased volume.

Yeah, I spent 20 min with the roller yesterday. The IT bands always always suck. I need to get better about marrying the roller 2x a day for 20 min. Will see if a couple weeks of this helps. And it probably just needs to be part of my routine. Make time for it.

Could be both. Adjust your volume and find out. Back off when you get a chance and see how the knees feel.

Will do. Hard to drop too much volume without losing an edge. But I have to solution my knees.

Any thoughts on how to order of operations the following items?

Percussion massager
Foam roll
Stretching

Before and after training/competition

TikkaShooter said:

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Will do. Hard to drop too much volume without losing an edge. But I have to solution my knees.

Any thoughts on how to order of operations the following items?

Percussion massager
Foam roll
Stretching

Before and after training/competition

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Before: dynamic movement. Of the 3 you listed, I would foam roll because you honestly have to move a lot to foam roll well. For the love don't roll right on the IT band. Hip, quads, calves, hamstrings- sure knock yourself out.

After: stretching

Percussion massager kinda when ever. I use throughout the day like before bed or at work.

Also for the record, probably not Osgood Schlatter. Sounds like more like a pure load tolerance/mobility issue

Thanks for the input. I def think it's load tolerance and mobility. I might need to add hot yoga to the routine. Did it a few years ago and flexibility increased significantly

I had a knee issue once. Went to ortho hoping for a quick knee clean up and he told me you're just getting old and fat, quit playing basketball.

So google helped me realize that stretching is good for you and I never stretched. My quads were always super tight and pulling the patella off ideal position. So with stretching and time off it was like it never happened and I ran full court games 3 times a week.

I have learned nearly every "injury" is usually closely related to the amount of rolling and stretching I'm doing. I also suggest using a hard softball to roll your bigger muscles / glutes. Muscles pull everything out of wack.

As someone who used to never stretch for more than 5 mins, ive learned that the lack of flexibility has led to many issues over time (back, hips, knees). I now stretch daily for probably 20 minutes as part of my daily routine more so than any lifting or cardio. You never think you need stretching until something goes awry. hip mobility for me is most important. When they are tight, it tends to pull everything in the wrong direction and the body tries to overcompensate.

Yoga
Rolling
Stretching
Massage gun

Been doing all these for the past few days and my legs feel great. Knee pain has lessened. Will see how this feels long term. It's a big time commitment but it seems like it's a must do.

I had knee pain when I first started working out a few years ago. Airrosti was a big help, but here's a video for help specifically targeting foam rolling your IT band.

https://www.airrosti.com/3-tips-for-itbs-pain-relief/

It's estimated to take over 2000lbs to stretch the IT band 1%, so don't do the first roll in this video (directly along the IT band). It's both pointless and likely counter productive.

Don't directly roll the IT? I've never heard that. Would love more info. The more often I directly roll the IT the better it feels over time. Makes my entire posterior chain feel better. Or so I think

That's been my experience too.

TikkaShooter said:

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Don't directly roll the IT? I've never heard that. Would love more info. The more often I directly roll the IT the better it feels over time. Makes my entire posterior chain feel better. Or so I think

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I've been doing PT for maintenance with someone who is very very good at her job and has a client list that includes olympians and professional atheletes. From the horse's mouth, the benefit of foam rolling is not the rolling, it is applying direct pressure to the parts of your muscle that are tight. You aren't supposed to roll back and forth, but instead gently and slowly role until you find an area of tightness or resistance in your calf, IT band, hamstring, whatever. When you find that spot, you stop "rolling", and hang out there for 20-30 seconds. For IT and quads let gravity do the work, for calf and hamstring when you find a spot that needs attention put your opposite leg on top for added resistance. If the pain is ever more than 4/10 dont apply more pressure and / or stop rolling, you're doing more harm than good.

TikkaShooter said:

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Don't directly roll the IT? I've never heard that. Would love more info. The more often I directly roll the IT the better it feels over time. Makes my entire posterior chain feel better. Or so I think

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"Pinning" a muscle like the guy above mentioned is a great way to do it. The relief you may get from rolling the lateral thigh is probably from the vastus lateralis if you're more in the top of the thigh or from rolling the bicep femoris on the back side of the leg. The band itself isn't changing. The muscles that tense it (TFL and glute max) should be the main targets

ETA: I love foam rolling and prescribed it to a patient today so don't hear me say that at all.

Wait until y-all discover body tempering.

HaveGoodGetGive said:

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As someone who used to never stretch for more than 5 mins, ive learned that the lack of flexibility has led to many issues over time (back, hips, knees). I now stretch daily for probably 20 minutes as part of my daily routine more so than any lifting or cardio. You never think you need stretching until something goes awry. hip mobility for me is most important. When they are tight, it tends to pull everything in the wrong direction and the body tries to overcompensate.

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I have a coworker who had migraines. Someone suggested back/shoulder tightness as a cause and they decreased drastically when she really committed to stretching.

I think tightness and bad shoes led to pretty bad jumpers knee, which I ignored for months, and kept playing tennis.
Anyone have a PT they recommend in Dallas area? Preferably north Dallas

3D Physical Therapy