Knee Tendonitis, A Training Tool?

When I sit cross-legged, for meditation, I can feel my old knee tendonitis pain. But only if I over train, load-wise. Photo by passing kind lady.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) as a training tool, too?

Absolutely!

My knee tendonitis runs along the blue line, from my vastus medialis to the insertion. Pushing on the circle helps relax the muscle, plus changing movement patterns. Photo by FitOldDog

I love Ironman training, but if I push myself too hard my old knee tendonitis rears it’s ugly head.

Furthermore, I don’t want to break my AAA stent graft (I did bugger it up once, but it’s been fixed).

How do knee tendonitis and an aneurysm come together as training tools?

Having a life-threatening aneurysm trains my mind. It caused me to undertake more rigorous meditation, as a regular part of my day. This helps me to stay in the moment, and enjoy every minute. It also turns off that chattering (what if) monkey in my head. What a relief it was to be able to do that on command (took a while). I don’t waste time worrying, and spend more time doing intelligent training.

I tend to sit cross-legged. when I meditate. If I overdo my training, which I did the other day – it was Rory’s fault (well, not really – I was the one stupid enough, to try to stay up with him on the bike).

This effort strained my left vastus medialis (medial quad muscle). So it tightened up, pulling on the tendon insertion by my knee. This irritates that old tendonitis. How do I know (guess) it’s tendonitis – it has that characteristic stinging, kind of tearing, feeling (it’s hard to describe).

Interesting site to learn about knees. Click on image for link.

I can get the vastus medialis to let go, by pushing on the distal (kneeward) end with my thumb (the circle in the photo).

The tight vastus medialis creates tension when I sit cross-legged. It lets go, after a few days, usually.

But what does that teach me?

Here’s the trick.

Body movement awareness: I noticed that I can walk or run, with or without pain in that tendon, depending how I walk or run. If I engage my medial quads, running from my center line, it hurts on every stride.

If I disengage my medial quads, somewhat, transferring the load elsewhere, by allowing my legs to extend behind me a little more than usual, no tension. No pain.

Isn’t that interesting. It allows me to (a) stop irritating the vastus medialis muscle/tendon, and (b) learn more about how I move.

I do love to learn.

Happy Trails,

FitOldDog

PS I bet some people will say it’s my medial hamstring, but they would be wrong. Sorry! I thought about that for a while. Pretty sure!