|
|
| I was doing the double pigeon pose- ankles to knees with shins parallel- and I must have been pushing it with tight hips I guess. As I bent forward my left knee made this horrible crunching/popping sound (like gristle) that the whole class heard. The teacher looked shocked and said, "Was that your knee?!" I took it way easy for the rest of the class skipping poses that scared me, which at ths point was almost all of them. For some reason it doesn't hurt too much, though it does hurt somewhat. I feel something is wrong and my knee feels very week. I have never heard such a loud, awful sound from anyone's body including my own and I've had many broken bones and other injuries. I am a little frightened by this one though the pain isn't much-yet. What might I have done and if the pain isn't so bad, am I in the clear? |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Time will tell, I suppose. I had a big loud "snap!" in my leg once (that several people heard) that must have been some sort of tear, but it eventually got better without any attention at all. OTOH, I had a hamstring tear that sounded and felt horrible but nobody else heard. That took a LONG time to recover from and required a good massage therapist to help with. Take it easy! |
|
| |
|
| Though lots of breaking sounds are common in the Forest, they are of the trees. Since it is bones in your case, you have to go to Osteopaths, and not yogis. |
|
| |
|
Location: London, England | Hi there,
I'm not too sure what double pigeon pose is, can you describe it? Also, where did the knee hurt afterwards? Usually, when a sound like that is made by the knee, it would be a serious ligament injury-maybe completely torn. You should go get it checked out. There are four ligaments at the knee, and injury to each will produce swelling in different areas, and also, popping sounds are not made by all of them.
Nick |
|
| |
|
| double pigeon is almost like lotus. You sit with one leg bent infront on the ground with the other on top so that both shins are parallel andone knee is directly over a foot and the other foot is directly over the other knee. Then you bend forward to stretch hips and gleuts. The top leg gets stressed somewhat like it does in lotus. The twist was just too much on my knee instead of my hip. I went to accupuncture today and will go to a doctor if it's not better in a week. Is that too long to wait?
Eddie |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Just a small warning about accupuncture. I know someone who had a tear in her shoulder who went to accupuncture and felt so much better that she ended up doing more damage. Take it easy. |
|
| |
|
Location: London, England | Hi Eddy,
And does it it hurt on the medial side of the knee?-if so, you may have damaged the medial meniscus. or the lateral side of the knee? In which case you may have ruptured or torn the lateral collateral ligament. Is there inflammation?
Worryingly, the most common way to get a sound like that would be rupture or tearing of the anterior cruciate ligament-you need to get down to the docs. Not everyone needs surgery for this, depends.
Also, try being more tight in your legs when you do sitting poses. I teach 'zipping up,' where you pull the leg muscles up into the hips-it kind of gathers the joints into alignment.
Yes a week is too long-the acupuncturist should not have treated you.
Nick |
|
| |
|
| Hi Eddie,
Welcome! It's been nearly thirty years now that I've been moving bones around in people to restore better levels of healthy motion and well being, 24 as a chiropractor and years earlier as a student of human health. Sometimes joints release with LOUD noises. One comes to recognize the location and quality of those sounds after hearing them for so long. One thing is certain: the greater the muscular tension crossing the involved joint, the louder the sound when the bone "cavitates" (or, 'pops' releasing acumulated tensions).
Under the hands of a chiropractor or osteopath such releases are nearly always helpful as they enable the involved joint to enter into a more easily moving position relative to the muscular stresses surrounding it. It's my experience that human joints are self-correcting, if able to do so. DCs or DOs apply invasive force to immobile joints to correct motion defects. But resting postures, properly aligned, may also allow for motion corrections in the form of joint repositionings, not by forceful intervention but by simply relaxing, or letting go of involved tension. We may correct bony malpositions and motion restrictions in joints in this way: relaxing into anatomically aligned resting postures. This is restorative yoga. But, it is very difficult to cavitate a joint by forcing the joint with muscular tensions. Without weight bearing, it is unlikely that you have done any serious damage, IMHO. The lack of pain on weight bearing also suggests that not much injury has been sustained.
Chronic joint tension will open when the muscles surrounding it allow for that to happen. Injury to my left knee 50 years ago resulted in left hip restrictions (as way of protecting the knee over time). One night, after several years of restorative yoga daily, I rolled over in bed and the left hip felt like the whole earth had moved. It was accompanied by a sound loud enough to wake up my wife next to me. That was the beginning of that hip's return to better health. The releasing continued with less sound over the next few months with continued practice. The hip was doing what it was allowed to do: move more fully into it's complete range of motion. This finally resulted in more freedom of movement throughout the body, less pain and more ability for deep relaxation.
The advise to see a specialist is good to rule out the injuries Nick has suggested. Any decent DC, DO or MD orthopedist should be able to put the knee through some simple tests to see if any holding elements have been disrupted. If the knee just went through an important opening, it will naturally be somewhat vulnerable feeling as you are using it more fully now and the surrounding soft tissue will need to gain integrity to accomodate this new range of motion. It should return strongly within a couple of weeks. Please keep us informed and best of luck.
Michael
|
|
| |
|
| As a knee surgery recipient (1992 before my yoga practice) I can tell you that the significant damage typically comes with swelling or fluid on the knee. Pain could be strain or tear or neither.
I can also tell you that the mental energy of "I've done damage" does not facilitate the healing process. So in your case either positive thinking (which does facilitate the healing process, or a visit to an Orthopod.
Not all cracking noise, either in the spine or the joints is "bad".
What you are feeling, this hurt and weak sense, may just be fear from the noise which scared you. and that is perfectly fine. It is to be listened to. But again don't make it a self fulfilling prophecy. You may be fine and that sort of thought process, even if there's damage, will serve you better in the long run.
If you are not able to mitigate the fear right now then I would not wait long to get it looked at.
Edited by purnayoga 2007-04-11 2:38 PM
|
|
| |
Horrible crunching sound
