Knee pain- meniscus tear

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hi I recently started having pain around my right knee. Upon consulting an ortho and doing an MRI got to know there is some tear in my meniscus. The doctor is suggesting surgery, however i wasn’t sure and i also read your article on website around surgecial intervention for meniscus tear. I am an active individual, and don’t want to lose out on gains or strength. Will your knee rehab templete be helpful

2

Hey there! Sorry to hear about the situation with your knee pain and symptoms. As you likely know from reading our knee article, there are many individuals with imagining findings of meniscal tears who do not have knee pain, and these findings of meniscal tears do not have a strong correlation with and individual’s symptoms. Furthermore, outcomes for those who undergo arthroscopic surgery and no better than those who pursue conservative management.

Can you tell me a little bit more about your current training?

3

Hi, thank you for the reply. I little more info about me I am 34 and following is what I do typically in a week I do a mix of workouts.

  1. Twice a week I do strength and hypertrophy training. This includes compound movements like bench/dumbbell press, squats, deadlifts, dead rows, shoulder press( usually a warm up set of 10 reps followed by 3-4 working sets of 4-6 reps each) And a hypertrophy of 4 exercise one each for quad, chest, back and shoulder(usually 4 sets of 10-12 reps). sometimes i also do a quick bicep and tricep workout as well. This workout will last somewhere between 60-90 minutes
  2. Twice a week I do condition and power training with dumbbell and barbell. This will be explosive moves like snatch, thruster, burpees and curl, etc in amrap or emon fashion. This lasts for roughly 45-60 min
  3. Once or sometimes twice a week I do bodulyweight training. Push ups, pull ups, squats, jump squats etc
  4. Once or twice a week I take rest or do some dynamic stretching

a little bit more about my knee pain:
There is no swelling around the knee. I don’t feel any pain while sitting or moving around the house. However when i walk for more time i feel slight pain. I am not able to completely bend the knee. As a result I am only doing upper body exercises like pull ups push ups dumbbell chest and shoulder press, back rows etc

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4

Thanks for providing more information. I do think that our knee rehab template would be beneficial for you. We would not recommend avoiding lower body exercises at this time, but rather finding a tolerable entry point back into those movements. The article that I referenced above, as well as the knee rehab template, will provide you with more information on this concept and how to implement into your rehab/training.

If you have the means, I do think that you would benefit most from an online consultation and one-on-one rehab focused programming. The major benefit here would be the ongoing communication with a rehab focused coach and programming specific to your unique situation.

Either way, I do feel confident that you will be able to move forward positively and have success in managing your situation conservatively, whether with our rehab template or remote programming.

5

Thank you for the information