Born Again Gym Rat: Jumper's Knee?

Friday, July 4, 2014

Jumper's Knee?

The gym is crazy crowded today but I find a decent spot in the parking lot. My son is looking forward to sharing games with other kids in the Child Care Room. Because I have only a 2 hour window, which I usually exceed, I need to organize my priorities. It's Leg Day and I front-load my cardio, doing all 5 miles first. Again, my left knee feels fine until I up the Incline to 7. After 25 seconds of growing discomfort, I drop the Incline down to 5. Five miles takes me 53 minutes and I vary the incline between level 3 and 6, but mostly I vary my speed to keep my heart rate within a healthy range. I'm lucky I can get on one of the Precors. Two other ellipticals are occupied by chatting women. I don't know how they can pedal and chat without giving themselves stiff necks from constantly turning to look at each other.

While I'm pedaling, I glimpse an extremely huge human in my peripheral vision. He waddles onto the end elliptical and pedals slowly while resting his entire upper body and arms on the console in front of him. He must be over 400 lbs. I wonder why he's not on the treadmill since that would be easier to get on, but then I realize that his joints are probably shot. And now I know why the end ellipticals don't ride as smoothly as the center ones.

The Smith machine is free and I'm happy that I can do Squats and SLDLs there. The rest of the gym has a lot of vaguely familiar faces. Perhaps they used to workout in the mornings but since the gym will be closed at 3 pm, they're here now? Or perhaps it's suddenly dawned on them that summer is here and they're not beach-body ready? There's a lot of HS kids as well since the gym runs a summer special: $99 for the entire summer, no contract, no commitment. I only pay $20/month but I had to pay out $200 first for the first year. This is year 3.

There are a lot of guys in the free weight area. Most of the women are either doing cardio, or using the Cybex circuit machines. Squats seem okay. The heaviest weight feels the best, which is weird. My lower back crunches oddly, like popping a knuckle. I'm having a bit more trouble with the SLDLs because again, I'm having an issue with my grip even with VGs. A guy wants to know how many sets I have left and I tell him 5. I cut my SLDLs short. People keep taking plates off the Smith rack and it's messing me up because plates I was planning to use at the next set aren't there any more. Grrrr,

I do a quick cage stretch, then a few Seated Leg Extensions. My knee feels odd doing these so I drop the weight. It doesn't hurt, but I normally don't feel my knee so I figure better to be cautious. Last is the Glute-Ham Raise at the Lat Pull-Down machine. After I grab a bosu and adjust the lap/knee pad for my ankles, three HS guys show up at the cable station 90 degrees from me. WTH? The running shorts probably don't help my cause. An extremely rotund woman flags me from the other side and asks if I'm using those cables. Uh, no. I do my odd-looking push ups. Three sets of 12 reps. I'm so glad I'm plugged in and can't hear anyone.

Because I'm running out of time but I need to stretch, I do an abbreviated Mat Stretch with splits and only one set of Dive Bomber Push Ups. No plank, no crunches. Done! I see a few guys standing across the gym, staring. I ignore everyone. The gym scale reads 111.2 lbs and I'm rushing through my shower to change and collect my son. When I get home I look up knee pain and find a useful diagram which I'll post here. I'm thinking I have some mild form of Jumper's Knee since it only started during the 10th round of kickboxing the Nexersys yesterday, and it doesn't hurt except if I bend my knee at an extreme angle, as in bringing my leg up for a Knee-In, or pedaling on a severe Incline. That suggests an impact injury exacerbating the lower tendon that hold the patella to the tibia (shin) bone. The solution is rest, and perhaps an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen.

Yay! My hubs is on his way home in a rental car and it's momentarily stopped raining. I'm going to make teriyaki salmon and fresh sauteed snow peas for dinner tonight. And maybe kick back with a beer. Happy 4th of July!

Leg Day