Knee pain from Skiers

Hi guys,

I've been doing SLS/PE1 for what feels like forever. However I am making progress thanks to a few tips from the forum! I started off with multiple panel mats to enable me to do deck squats and am now done to where I can do them on floor.

My problem is with Skiers. I had a partial lateral right knee menisectomy a couple of years ago my knee no longer bothers me at all in everyday life. Doing skiers I am ok turning hips to my left but when I turn to my right it feels as if the contents of my right knee are getting shredded.

I could put up with it although it still felt "strange" when I first started as my ROM was quite high (ie I wasn't able to go very low down) but the lower I am able to get the worse it feels it really feels as if I am shearing something in my knee.

My question is what are skiers supposed to mobilise is it your knee joint, your calves or hamstrings or something else and is there any other exercise which is equivalent or any advice you could give to make it "doable"?

I know I'm going to injure my knee if I keep going (I had to drop the last two sets today). My normal linear mobility is ok I can squat down ass to grass and obv can get up from deck squats now.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated one knee surgery was more than enough :'(

Many Thanks!

Drastically reduce the ROM, or suspend the exercise until you have checked with your doc.

Upon resuming, start with a reduced ROM and progressively increase it

This^^^^

Go see a doctor.

Thanks guys, I appreciate your concern but have a strong suspicion my doctor's response would be "What are you doing that for?! Stop doing it then!"   Will give it a rest for a week or two anyway. I think it may be a range of motion problem. The cue on the instructions says glutes should get level with knees which I am managing but I notice the gymnast in the clip doesn't get anything like that low. Think I'm maybe just going deeper than my knees are currently ready/adapted for. When come back to it will back right off maybe do it with assistance.

Still wish I knew what it was meant to do and then I could do some kind of assistance exercise to help. I bought one of Steve Maxwell's joint DVD's will do that in meantime see if it helps. Thanks again I appreciate it!

you're mobilizing your knees and hips sound familiar? (swivel hips come to mind)

try stretching, rollin your calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes and lower back. before my hip flexors put a lot of stress on my knees doing the iM's and rolling those areas have alleviated certain symptoms, though not entirely alleviated my lack of strength and poor mechanics.

focus on also really getting to know the movement. do it kneeling down as if in cat cow and move into the position, remember what it feels like, do it laying down, see where the mobility deficit is (mine is in swiveling my butt to my right) and getting it as close to each other as possible.

also, what have you been doing to warm up?

Hi Keilani thank you for the advice. I get the mobilizing the hips but I'm not sure I want to increase the lateral mobility of my knees as that's how I sheared the meniscus in my right knee in the first place albeit with a weight on my back at the time.

I might video it, upload it and see if there is anything that stands out as odd to anyone. I'm not sure how I could practice it in any other position than upright without it losing all meaning. I always do it last after the SL and MN and I'm usually sweating by then but you're right I probably could do more to warm up the knee joint itself.

I don't feel tight anywhere. I'm beginning to wonder if the gymnast in the video is demonstrating it accurately as part of the written bit says "Keep the knees stationary and swivel the hips to the side" but his knees are definitely not stationary they are following his hips around at the same angle. I can understand how following the written instruction would open up your hips but the video just looks as if it would shear the soft tissue in your knees which is what I feel like it's doing.

I took a video and posted it on YouTube. The first lot of Skiers I did it the way I have been doing it as per SLS/PE1 video showing Front and Side. The Second one I tried keeping my knees facing front or "stationary" as I could and swivelling hips only as the text suggests. Think you can see the difference in movement when I turn to right   Any feedback (apart from stop chewing gum and tidy your living room   )?

/watch?v=dMyqrJxW2Q8

IBGC said:

I'm beginning to wonder if the gymnast in the video is demonstrating it accurately as part of the written bit says "Keep the knees stationary and swivel the hips to the side" but his knees are definitely not stationary they are following his hips around at the same angle. I can understand how following the written instruction would open up your hips but the video just looks as if it would shear the soft tissue in your knees which is what I feel like it's doing.

Stationary in space, not in alignment.  Don't move from the knees, move from the hips.  Basically, don't squat down with your hips over your feet and your knees going off to the side.

Thank you Bipocni so just to clarify it should be more like the second one I did with knees pointing straight ahead and in vertical alignment with feet but hips and upper body twisting to the side to open up the hips? I hope so, it certainly feels better. Is that correct/what you meant?

Would have been really good if they could have put in a bit more description in about what the movement should work and what it should feel like.