Why does my knee hurt?

March 30, 2021 11:43 AM

I have problems with my knee hurting when in full flexion / compression.

Just to get this out of the way: YANAD. YANMD. TINMA.

My knee hurts when I fold it fully. As in, if I were standing and wanted to do a quad stretch and I bring my heel up to my butt. Or if I were doing a deep squat / Asian squat. Even child's pose in yoga brings me discomfort. I am a male in my mid-40s at an appropriate weight, but very tall which could bring about knee issues. Maybe.

I visited an orthopedic doctor a few months ago. They took an x-ray and said my ACL is fine, my MCL is fine, LCL and so on. Basically the doctor said, "You're just getting older" and dismissed me. It was during the beginning of COVID so I was disinclined to stay indoors and argue with them. Point being: a professional looked at an x-ray and didn't see any obvious structural damage.

A year ago I was not having this problem. I practiced yoga regularly, 4 times a week, and it was only after I stopped doing yoga constantly (see: COVID) that this discomfort came about. Correlation? Causation? Who can say.

I can fold/compress my knee about 90 or 95% of the way without any issue. It's only that last little bit that starts to hurt, and the 98-100% mark is where my body says "Cut it out and stop that NOW." I don't have any noticeable discomfort in adduction / abduction / rotation. It's only that last little bit of fold that makes it hurt, and it feels like if you could simplify the concept of 'knee' as a single ball the pain would be right in the middle of the ball. It's almost like I have piece of grit in there that's being pinched when it gets tight enough.

If all this rings a bell because you or someone you know has had a similar issue I'd love to hear about causes and solutions.

posted by komara to Health & Fitness (2 answers total)

I'm a bit worried because I just recommended a book I'm currently reading in another thread and maybe I have the fervor of the newly converted, but it might be relevant to you. I hurt my back last week, and I do think some of my problems might come from the fact that I'm not regularly bike commuting during the pandemic, so I'm missing a lot of movement. Anyway, it felt like my muscles were contracting hard and not releasing, not like I had broken something or had some injury. A friend loaned me the book Somatics, and it's excellent. What resonated with me: the beginning of this book has stories of four or five different people who go to the doctor and the chiropractor and so on and get xrays and nothing shows as wrong and sometimes they can get temporary pain relief but not solve their problems, and some are told they are "too old." This book rejects that idea and suggests that, because of injury or overuse or underuse, we have forgotten how to relax some of our muscles. I haven't even finished it, and I'm convinced. So maybe it will help you too. The author's prescription isn't a hugely complicated fitness program but a simple morning stretching routine. It's a pretty easy read and makes so much sense.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:21 PM on March 30, 2021 [3 favorites]

Could there be a Baker's Cyst behind the offending knee? I have one, and my symptoms are similar to what you report.
posted by DrGail at 2:51 PM on March 30, 2021