As the years have gone by the knee would often 'go out' and I'd end up with fluid on the knee again. One memorable time it happened shortly after arriving in Florida to visit a girlfriend. Not wanting to go straight back home, I spent the whole two weeks hobbling around on crutches with a bag of frozen pees strapped to my knee consuming copious amounts of Vodka to dull the pain, ahhh the folly of youth. I had to quit several jobs because of it and in Japan when practicing Iaido I had to skip the Seiza (kneeling Kata ) altogether and just practice standing butchery.
So one of the great joys for me of Ashtanga has been that despite all the pretzel poses I've never had any problems with my knee. There was a little stiffness, I seem to remember, last winter but nothing that hindered me in any way.
This week however, no doubt because of the cold weather it's really playing up again. It's not swollen and there's no fluid. I don't seem to have jarred it or twisted it in anyway, it's just started to hurt like hell. It's the left leg on the right side of the knee. It seems to have come on since Tuesday when I went to London and was walking around all day (ahh, just remembered that bit, so that's why).
It was hurting when I woke up Wednesday morning and yesterday also. I managed to get through Intermediate the last couple of days avoiding anything involving the knee too much, Supta V, left side of Bharadvajrasana etc. But today was Primary.
Primary is not the series to practice if you have a dodgy knee, just nowhere to hide. Thankfully I learnt Ashtanga with the Swenson book and had all those variations to full back on, but it was a depressing and unsatisfactory practice. (my Primary, my beloved Primary!).
I'd forgotten about the walking around on Tuesday until just now. I'd begun to think that I was doomed to agonising winters and limited practice every winter.
Anyway yesterday I bought something called cura-heat. It's a knee support bandage that has a little pocket you can put a heat pad in. The heat pads I know from Japan, wonderful idea, you just open the packet and the air activates the pad causing it to warm up. You put them in your pocked to warm your hands and some of them have a peel off sticky strip that you can stick to your clothes where you have muscle ache.
I put it on this morning before practice but it didn't seem to help and just became irritating. The bandage itself isn't bad, much lighter than the usual sports bandages. Come to think of it it seems to be good for apres practice. I'm wearing it now and my knee feels fine.
Anyone have any other ideas, rubbing with caster oil? Please don't tell me I need to go and have needles stuck in it.
12 comments:
How many years and to what level did you get up to in Aikido? Ex-karateka myself!
Hi AC. I Did Aikido for two and half years. Green belt gearing up for brown tags If I remember correctly. Was absolutely gutted when I had to give it up, loved it, I was the same about Aikido then as I am about Ashtanga now. When I was living in Osaka, Japan I had friends who practiced at Stephen Segals Dojo, would have loved to have gone. As it turned out I was lucky enough to practice Iaido in a very small group invite only, still have my sword. Why did you give up Karate?
Hi Grimmly, I hope there is soon a solution for your knee and I hope the pain goes away.
Me too, I did Aikido bzw, 5 years, every day, of course.......
:)
After 13yrs practising x5 days/wk I was starting to lose my love for it and I stopped caring about the grading system. I was working 60+ hrs a wk and it peed me off that when I showed up at the dojo the main sensei was not teaching!!
When I turned my back on it, it was an exercise in non-attachment.
13 years, wow long time, remind me not to argue with you about which side binds first. I kind of liked the Iaido grading system, white and perhaps one day black. My style of Aikido had tags, white, white with yellow tags, yellow then yellow with green etc. etc, why? What was wrong with white, yellow, green and so on. Surprised nobody has brought out a belt system for yoga..... perhaps i speak to soon.
You too Ursula. there does seem to be a martial art connection with Ashtanga , what's that all about?
I could not harm a fly these days.
Iaido grading the 'traditional' way.........
In the style of karate I practised, no matter how 'good' you were the fastest you could get from white to black belt would be 2.5-3yrs. Then you had to practise a minimum of 2yrs before you could test for your 2nd Dan, 3yrs for 3rd Dan etc.
I've always thought the 'gate' postures in Astanga a bit like the grading system myself. Initially I wanted to learn the Surya's because they reminded me of katas. I used to love how the katas were taught, every movement broken down and then brought together again. Mind you, I have been known to spend 30 mins doing the Suryas before the 'main' stuff.
Ironically the longer I spent practising karate the more I resented the stretching we had to do for some weird reason. But everything comes full circle, the gods playing a cruel joke on me, :-) I can only laugh with them now!
In Ashtanga yoga and in Aikido we work with energy. That's the connection. Both styles are soft, but require strength.
Aikido has more dynamic and there is a partner. I still love Aikido, but I am no more able to do it due to the given hours.
The hierachy in Aikido is perhaps something I wouldn't like so much anymore. That's true.....
Get well soon....
I've had knee pain during practice once or twice and castor oil wraps have worked really well for me.
Here is what I did: warmed up the oil a bit (not so much that it would burn my skin!), soaked a piece of unbleached cotton in it and then wrapped it around my knee. Then cling film on top to avoid staining the couch and also to keep the heat in.
Left it on for a couple of hours while I watched some telly or read a book, then washed it off.
Worked wonders. Of course, during practice I was extremely careful, making sure my knee was fully bent while attempting lotus postures (pain in the medial side of the knee often comes from trying to do the hip rotation required for padmasana while the knee is not fully bent - easy to do in poses like Vatayanasana).
Hope this helps.
Thanks so much for this V, appreciate it and will give it a try. Think I'll drop anything involving the knee for the next couple of days and try not to walk on it any more than necessary. Just need to source some caster oil, thanks again.
I don't mind being the bearer of not-so-good news, so here goes. Rest. Plus ice, compression and elevation. It SUCKS, I know. But you don't want it to get worse, right? Your practice isn't going anywhere. Take care of your knee.
Thanks YC, your right of course, Rest is usually the best thing. Taking today off practice and then perhaps some light Vinyasa Krama next week. You're thinking, ICE? Was thinking about that yesterday as heat doesn't seem to be working, but then there's no swelling. Will try the caster oil wrap thing because I'm curious about it (didn't SKPJ recommend caster oil baths) and if that doesn't work all try going cold. Not too concerned about it, comes and goes every couple of years in cold weather, it'll pass. And as you say the practice isn't going anywhere.
hi Grimmly
hope your knee feels better soon. CP, when he was writing, wrote a lot about his routine for avoiding his knee injury.
cheers,
Arturo
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