long story short - i learned to tuck when hopping sif. hopped way way too much, too much tucking really. completely overused my knee, was way too sore to even return from a squatting position. i’ve been off the uni for 4 days now…and probably tomorrow and the next day. it’s healing but i’d like to prevent this in the future.
i def won’t overuse again…but what kind of stretches are good for pre sif hopping? and i’d actually like to start some knee exercises today, as my knee is alllmost better. what kind of exercises could i do that will benefit my knee squatting so low? squats obviously but i’m not doing those quite yet…
if any of yall have had pretty bad knee pain, what exercises would you do? i’ve had enough rest now…just not quite ready to get back on the uni, i don’t think.
I’d stretch my ankles, feet, calves, quads, lower back, shoulders, if not more. Do so after warming up for about ten minutes and fast enough that you haven’t cooled down after.
Your knee pain could be caused by a lot, but it sounds more like you are over extending yourself.
If the pain persists, go see a chiropractor or a sports med.
rest is good
strength training
ride up hill, climb stairs and take elevator down
With weights: leg press, leg extensions, leg flexers, lunges, calf raises, abductors, adductors,
You could have developed a muscle imbalance. It happened to me and believe me they really suck until you know how to correct them and they become very easy to manage.
I overdeveloped part of my quads pulling my kneecaps to one side giving me horrible pain. It got to the point where I could hardly walk.
The exercise that a doctor told me to do (7th doctor I saw, first one that knew what was wrong) was to simply sit in a chair and straiten my leg. 3 sets of 10 3 times a day and within a week I was running and riding pain free. This was after over a month of debilitating pain whenever I tried anything like running or riding.
You may really benefit from some type of crosstraining to keep your muscles balanced. Running, walking, hiking, basketball, soccer… Yes they aren’t hopping on your unicycle but will indirectly help AND keep you riding.
To fix the former, I’ve worked on flexibility and purposed to mix in other activities like hiking to exercise muscles that efficient unicycling neglects. I suspect that as I’ve become a more skilled unicyclist, I don’t get enough medium intensity exercise for my legs because I’m mostly spinning on flat without much resistance or hammering up or down a hill.
To fix the latter, I did “hot and cold” treatment where I would alternate cold water or ice just below the knee followed by a hot pack or hot water to increase blood flow. I did that for 30 minutes a day for around a month concluded with a visit to hot springs, and the symptoms disappeared.
I have also had a muscle inbalence in my knee. My problem was also due to problems with the cartilidge(sp?) which is pretty much permenant. But I was able to do some leg excercises that helped my muscles keep my knee cap more in place, thus less of a pain.
I had knee pain when I started climbing and descending hills. I worried that it was my age as much as the activity. I put brakes on my unicycles and it helped a lot. Now I am able to climb and descend with and without the brakes (unless very steep) and I don’t have pain (knock on wood). For me it was mostly time. I also stopped riding everyday until I built up to it. I hope I will have a lot of years left to ride hills. I don’t do tricks though so I can’t comment on pain from jumping etc.
yeah that seems to be the main thing, i just need to start unicycling every other day, giving things time to heal. i’m just so addicted to unicycling, that it’s like withdrawal not unicycling, lol.
I do sporatically but not on a regular basis. If my knee ever feels sort of funny I will do them for a couple days. The pain has never come back.
Make sure you do more than just running and riding. That is what I was doing when my knee went wonky on me. Riding for a couple hours most days and running at least once or twice a week to “keep things balanced” as I noticed that my hamstrings seemed to shorten/get tighter if I was focusing on spinning too much without going for runs.
The doctor told me thet the muscle balance I had was common in runners and bikers. Swimming would be a great addition to your regiment as it involves a kicking motion similar to my leg exercise. I like doing a few laps when I find myself at a pool for this reason. And if I become a faster swimmer I might be talked into getting into triathlon
Yah my pain felt like it was just under my kneecap. Try the exercises, I did them mostly when in class so it took no time out of my day and they are really not hard to do at all but made a world a difference.
P.S.: Please call me either Eric or Sask. Saska would be short for Saskatoon, a nice city that I live in periodically but I am really not a fan of cities. Much happier out here in the bush.
Actually when I first got the brakes I would use the little red gizmo to set a drag. I rode up an easy hill only to remember it was still set. It did give me quite a workout.
If it hurts figure out why it hurts and make the neccesary adjustments. Let your overuse injuries completely heat to avoid scar tissue.
I have had overuse/traumatic injuries from gymnastics, running, cycling and martial arts and even from playing guitar. I also have had cronic back pain for 20 years probably tracing back to a back injury 25 years ago from slinging 50Lb bags fo dog food around.
I also had a friend who had two knee total knee replacements from working on sailboats and racing them. All the squatting and kneeling did him in.
I was told this by a back therapist who worked at a large back rehabilitation clinic. Every time you move a joint, especially if it causes pain you are writing a check on an ‘account’ that has a fixed number of checks.
I have a broken bone in my foot (sesamoid) that will never heal because I played through the pain for six weeks before going to a Podiatirist. Result: Chronic pain and end of martial arts since I can’t full bend the ball of my foot with out aggravating the ‘injury’. Also my knees were giving out.
Guitar playing: Playing with my elbow to bent, the one draped over the guitar. Result: Six months off from playing and then learning to play in the classical position with the guitar on my left leg. Which really is more confortable and better for your back than hunching over the guitar.
Gymnastics: Scar tissue in both shoulders from doing what are called dislocates on rings and horixontal bar. These are moves that parttial dislocate the shoulder.
On my uni my seat needs to be at an exact height to ride without knee pain and I also bought pedal extenders to allow my foot to rest fully on the pedal without having to twist my foot inward.
Lastly a friend who had both knees replaced at age 50 due to years of sailing and working on boats. Too much squating and kneeling.
So take care of those injuries and let them heal. Figure out how to trick and ride without undue pain. Plenty of advice has been giving about balancing out the over development of the quads we get from riding uni. We don’t have the option of clipping in and hooking up our hamstring/buttocks while riding like cyclist do.
Find some quad/Psoas stretches on the internet. Also Piriformis stretch is good because almost nothing we do stretches that muscle.
Very good advise ezas, as a runner I’ve pulled/ injured my share of muscles and if you don’t let them heal COMPLETELY before jumping back in then you’re setting yourself up for more pain later. I pulled my hipflexer (3-4 years ago) and it still bothers me if I overexert myself.
Tristan
