Training with meniscus tear

[ryno9000]

I have an (undiagnosed) meniscus injury in my right knee. First powerlifting meet is in 3 months. I have found that I can train okay with it, it just hurts for a while days following. I REALLY don't want to miss this meet, and I understand being in it for the long haul blah blah. Have any powerlifters out there dealt with this? Advice?

 

[stevesmi]

depends on the injury

 

[burnthiscorpse]

Medial or lateral meniscus? How did you do it?

I have torn the medial meniscus in both knees. One has been repaired. the other is still awaiting repair along with my ACL for the last 21 years.

The left one isn't that bad. Doesn't give me any issues as long as I don't go crazy with planting and turning ect...
The right one I tore slightly training at a pro wrestling school. Then a week later I tried to be cute and tore it wayyy worse. It flipped up and lodged in my knee joint. Excruciating pain. My quad atrophied from 28" to 25" while I was waiting 5-6 weeks for surgery because with a traumatic knee injury the brain basically shuts off the quad muscle to try and avoid further damage.
If the meniscus is torn, when it happened you should have felt maybe a pop and it should have felt (in an over exaggerated way) like your leg was about to flip out to the side.
How is your knee if you stand with your feet about a foot apart and squat as deep as you can (just body weight). In my experience with both knees, on a fresh tear when I do this motion about 3/4 of the way down the knee will slip slightly out of place on the tear. its pretty scary to feel. Then when you stand back up you might have trouble straightening your leg as it may stick or be caught. I have actually had to smack the knee cap back to pop my leg back straight. That only happened twice with the first tear like 20 years ago.

If the injury is fresh I would imagine it would be fucked up when you try to squat? If it really is torn and isn't bothering you during lifting then obviously it is very slight. My biggest concern is that while squatting or dead you will be going extra hard for a max effort lift and injure it WAY worse. Under the kind of stress like this especially the squat...its very possible you could completely blow out your entire knee. Imagine going for max effort and being all the way in the hole and your tiny tear giving way to a major tear. That isn't so bad...its a meniscus. Even a major tear (even if its painful) can be fixed and you have a 6 week recovery. HOWEVER.... if it tears worse the knee will slip...if it slipps with 400, 500, 600, or whatever on your back....that slip is going to turn into a complete disaster....meniscus, ACL, PCL, likely MCL.... you may never squat again after that bro.
I am absolutely not trying to be a doom sayer or a bum you out. Just trying to give you the perspective from someone with this injury on both knees. BTW...when I turned the 2nd minor tear into a major issue there was no weight, all I did was push off with my foot.

 

[ryno9000]

Medial or lateral meniscus? How did you do it?

I have torn the medial meniscus in both knees. One has been repaired. the other is still awaiting repair along with my ACL for the last 21 years.

The left one isn't that bad. Doesn't give me any issues as long as I don't go crazy with planting and turning ect...
The right one I tore slightly training at a pro wrestling school. Then a week later I tried to be cute and tore it wayyy worse. It flipped up and lodged in my knee joint. Excruciating pain. My quad atrophied from 28" to 25" while I was waiting 5-6 weeks for surgery because with a traumatic knee injury the brain basically shuts off the quad muscle to try and avoid further damage.
If the meniscus is torn, when it happened you should have felt maybe a pop and it should have felt (in an over exaggerated way) like your leg was about to flip out to the side.
How is your knee if you stand with your feet about a foot apart and squat as deep as you can (just body weight). In my experience with both knees, on a fresh tear when I do this motion about 3/4 of the way down the knee will slip slightly out of place on the tear. its pretty scary to feel. Then when you stand back up you might have trouble straightening your leg as it may stick or be caught. I have actually had to smack the knee cap back to pop my leg back straight. That only happened twice with the first tear like 20 years ago.

If the injury is fresh I would imagine it would be fucked up when you try to squat? If it really is torn and isn't bothering you during lifting then obviously it is very slight. My biggest concern is that while squatting or dead you will be going extra hard for a max effort lift and injure it WAY worse. Under the kind of stress like this especially the squat...its very possible you could completely blow out your entire knee. Imagine going for max effort and being all the way in the hole and your tiny tear giving way to a major tear. That isn't so bad...its a meniscus. Even a major tear (even if its painful) can be fixed and you have a 6 week recovery. HOWEVER.... if it tears worse the knee will slip...if it slipps with 400, 500, 600, or whatever on your back....that slip is going to turn into a complete disaster....meniscus, ACL, PCL, likely MCL.... you may never squat again after that bro.
I am absolutely not trying to be a doom sayer or a bum you out. Just trying to give you the perspective from someone with this injury on both knees. BTW...when I turned the 2nd minor tear into a major issue there was no weight, all I did was push off with my foot.

The pain is all medial.

What's weird is that it actually feels "ok" while squatting, after extensive warmup and rolling etc. Stairs hurt, and I was swimming this weekend and kicking in water was like a complete no-no. It DOES feel like it might snap to the side, as well as very slightly "locks" during random steps. But not too bad.

However, I had it checked out by one of my very experienced trainer co-workers. It doesn't hurt or flex during any lateral pressure or anything like that. He then pressed really hard into my lower adductor/hammy - right above the knee, which fucking HURT! He said that is good news, because it might just be some tendonitis (the "meniscus tear" was just my own diagnosis). I should get it checked out - what you said frightens me and I do not want to really fuck my knee for life. This meet coming up is important to me - but I'm not expecting to win or anything that would warrant it being worth the risk. I really appreciate your post.

 

[burnthiscorpse]

The pain is all medial.

What's weird is that it actually feels "ok" while squatting, after extensive warmup and rolling etc. Stairs hurt, and I was swimming this weekend and kicking in water was like a complete no-no. It DOES feel like it might snap to the side, as well as very slightly "locks" during random steps. But not too bad.

However, I had it checked out by one of my very experienced trainer co-workers. It doesn't hurt or flex during any lateral pressure or anything like that. He then pressed really hard into my lower adductor/hammy - right above the knee, which fucking HURT! He said that is good news, because it might just be some tendonitis (the "meniscus tear" was just my own diagnosis). I should get it checked out - what you said frightens me and I do not want to really fuck my knee for life. This meet coming up is important to me - but I'm not expecting to win or anything that would warrant it being worth the risk. I really appreciate your post.

You really need a MRI bro asap. Your description of symptoms is meniscus tear all the way. No tendonitis causes these symptoms. If you have other pain around the knee it is possible it is from the tear. When certain things lose stability other parts try and compensate for the lost stability.
Try going outside or on some turf or whatever and do some karaoke's (or however its spelled) about 20 yards each way facing a different way each time. You don't need to go a hundred mph but put some speed into it. If its a meniscus tear I can almost guarantee it will slip while you are doing these.

 

[burnthiscorpse]

Tell me exactly what you were doing when this injury happened? I absolutely cannot kick when I swim with my left leg. Well...at least not very hard and even lightly it really starts to hurt my knee like a mother fucker in a couple minutes. THAT is not my meniscus....it is my torn ACL.
If you kick while swimming and it causes pain all around the knee, at the back, sides, maybe a feeling of in the middle that sounds like ACL to me. But again I need to know what exactly you did.
Just as an example, if you have huge ass legs like me, and even slightly tear your ACL you will likely be able to deal with it because your big ass strong legs provide balance and stability. As for lifting, it would actually be better than a meniscus. Even though its way different to repair.

 

[ryno9000]

Haha shit! I demonstrated karaoke last night for some clients and nothing "slipped," But I only went about 5 yards, because it hurt like a mother fucker.

What's weird is that there was no acute injury. It has just been slowly starting to feel worse and worse over time, but there was no event so to speak that caused it.

 

[burnthiscorpse]

Haha shit! I demonstrated karaoke last night for some clients and nothing "slipped," But I only went about 5 yards, because it hurt like a mother fucker.

What's weird is that there was no acute injury. It has just been slowly starting to feel worse and worse over time, but there was no event so to speak that caused it.

Interesting. Well you just need to get a MRI bro. As soon as you can to rule out any internal damage so you don't make it worse possibly.

 

[johnh4]

I would stay off of it for a while to begin with