I’m sure most, if not all of you who read my blog, know that I have a bad knee; a knee which I injure too many damn times, and therefore must have something wrong with it. It’s my right one, specifically, you know. The one I strain my tendons and ligaments in all the time? One wonders why I haven’t blown it yet, like destroyed my ACL or something.
Anyway, this morning I had Kinesiology lab and were were doing Manual Muscle Tests (testing a specific muscle group for strength and to see if there’s any pain, if there’s any at all) and goniometric measurements of the lower extremities (lower body, feet to hips, basically). Anyway, setting aside my minorly sprained ankle (which I may tell you about in a minute), I made a discovery about my knees.
Goniometry is the measurement of angles, basically. In kinesiology’s case, the angles are our joints, thus we’re measuring the range of motion of that joint. When measuring the knee, the start value is our knee extended, straightened, but not fully extended. When we measure the full extension of the knee, we’re measuring how much it hyper-extends. Sooooo, I got my knees’ ranges of motion measured.
When you measure the degree of extension when it comes to the knee, you prop the foot up on something—a sweatshirt, a book, something similar—and allow gravity to pull your knee “backwards” until it locks. My left knee was relatively normal, it’s extension range of motion was 3°, a relatively normal range. My right knee, on the other hand, was a completely different story.
When we propped it on the sweatshirt, it didn’t lock. This meant that it wasn’t fully extended. So, I tried to adjust my foot’s position, but by the time she actually took the measurement, it still wasn’t fully extended. But even with it not being fully extended, the measurement we got was 19°. So, I’m saying that my estimated ROM for my right knee is at least 20°. One of these days, I want to get a more accurate measure.
So, it totally threw me off when I found out my right knee was about 16° more extensible than my left knee. When I thought about it, I figured hey, maybe that’s why I’m having ligament and tendon problems with my right knee, and maybe that’s why I always hyper-extend my left.
So, anyone else have any thoughts to add to this? Any questions you might want to ask? I’ll answer what I can. So be sure to check your comments, because I don’t think I have a plug-in that notifies commenters if/when their comment is replied to.
Oh, before I go, I said I was gonna tell you about my ankle, right? Well, if I didn’t who cares? I’m telling you anyway!
Okay, so, last Friday, some of the female members of the track team met up to play Ultimate Frisbee (I’m not running track this year, unfortunately, so Coach probably hates me…). It was really fun and all.
So the field we were playing on, one of our endzones was actually sloped a little. You can sort of see where this is going. Well, towards the end of our scrimmage, I was on offense cherry picking the end zone. Kris… Kristen (?) threw me the frisbee, and I turned to try and catch it. When I missed, I turned back around and rolled my ankle REALLY bad. I felt a small pop, and it hurt like a BITCH for a while. I walked back over to our end (because we eventually scored), rubbed it a few times, and then shrugged it off and continued playing. While it didn’t hurt all that much (or maybe it did and I was too focused on the game to actually notice) during the game, when I finished eating and went back to my room, it was killing me. Later that night, it was swollen. With the advice of my good friend Steve (yes folks, he’s still very much alive), I propped it up on my desk and the swelling did go down.
I’m checking my ankle right now and… it looks like… there’s no swelling. But occasionally, when I walk, there’s a shooting pain that goes down my talus, and sometimes on the underside of my foot too. It’s not a crippling pain, but it’s noticeable enough to be annoying and slightly painful.
There you have it. Okay, leave comments with theories and questions if you have any. I’ll reply and answer what I can.
Well im glad ur learning things about yourself. I guess the next step in your process, which im sure you’ll find the answer in time. is to find a way to reverse the effects. Or is that not possible?
Comment by Brian — September 10, 2008 @ 7:57 pm
Well, hyper-extension comes naturally, but a joint that can hyper-extend is prone to injury, I would think. I don’t think there’s any way to actually repair hyper-extensibilty, because it’s natural, but the only thing that should be repaired would be ligaments and tendons that get pulled via injuries.
Comment by G — September 10, 2008 @ 8:08 pm
So, does this mean that, at some point, you stretched out that set of ligaments permanently? Sort of like what happens when you stretch out a rubber band or a hair doo-dad, where it will never go back to its original size/shape but it can still be used?
Comment by Me — September 10, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
I’m not sure if I specifically stretched my ligaments out permanently, but it’s completely possible to do so. I’ve had a history of straining my ligaments and tendons, especially in the knee, and eventually they will most likely be stretched to the point where they they’ll lose their elasticity, meaning the ability to go back to normal after being stretched. At that point, methinks surgery is needed to correct. (I keep thinking about the 4 major ligaments in the knee; the ACL, the PCL, the MCL and the LCL)
As for where I stand along that line, I don’t think my knee’s in that kind of condition, but the only way for me to actually find out would be to talk to a specialist. They’d probably be able to tell me if my natural hyper-extensibility contributes to my frequent ligament/tendon straining. I wouldn’t be surprised. But for now, we speculate. Hence why I’m having this discussion.
Comment by G — September 10, 2008 @ 8:56 pm
I’m thinking maybe it might be a genetic thing…My knees give me fits too, especially the right one, which tends to hyperextend at the most inappropriate times, like when I’m standing still or walking. Maybe I should get my angles measured (when I get a job with health insurance), because I don’t think my knees lock properly either. Or something.
Let’s hear it for backwards-bending knees!
Comment by Your Cousin, N — September 11, 2008 @ 5:30 am
Oh! so, wait. In other words, that sixteen degree difference in extensibility of your knees is natural? Wow. I know this was just a sort of demo project lab thingee, but did they tell you how normal/common it is to have that kind of difference between left and right limbs?
Comment by Me — September 11, 2008 @ 6:41 am
There are other people who have their own natural degrees of extensibility in their knees, some of them have naturally hyper-extending knees. It just so happens that my knees are the way they are.
I’m not really sure if having such a difference in the degree of extension with my knees is natural. Hence why I was wowed when I discovered the difference, and why I jokingly told my lab partner “I think something’s wrong with my knee.” It might be, that because I constantly pull the ligaments and tendons in my knee, they stretched to a point where the extensibility of my knee increased. Not necessarily a good thing, because that means my knee isn’t as supported as it could be, which could lead to more injury.
Nomi – if I can get my hands on a goniometer, and if I can get you up here to NY, I’ll gladly measure your knees’ range of motion. That’s what I was taught to do in lab yesterday (not to mention it would be good practice for me)
Comment by G — September 11, 2008 @ 7:44 am
I have no idea. You be the 1st in my side of the family. As it is, you know a hell of a lot more about the human joint system than I do (and I know a lot more about the plant version of joints than you). Now if it was related to computers….
It can be proof of Alien blood traits since a lot of folks question as to whether or not I am from this planet…
Comment by Dad — September 11, 2008 @ 3:40 pm