Sore knees - is this a common Aikido injury?

[Swordlady]

My right knee has been sore for the past couple weeks. Sitting in seiza is sometimes painful, and so is walking up stairs (I was at a Phillies' game yesterday, and cursed the four flights of stairs I had to climb to reach my seat). I've been going easy with the stretching exercises during class - though oddly enough, the knee doesn't feel that bad while doing techniques.

I don't recall pulling anything in my knee, or doing anything else out of the ordinary. So what is causing the soreness, and what can I do to make it go away? I certainly don't want to make it any worse.

[SFC JeffJ]

I don't know if it's a good tell or not, since I've been having problems with it for years, but my left knee's posterior crutiating ligament kills me after being in seiza for extended periods of time. Between that and the RPS, my knees seem to ache all the time anymore.

Jeff

[theletch1]

I know that you're fairly new to the aikido but that you've been doing sword art for awhile. You sit seiza while doing the sword waza so sitting that way in aikido shouldn't cause much problem. Try to really analyze the way that you're doing the hamni walk. Some times when you pivot during the walk and some of the tai sabaki during technique you can put extra torsion on the knee.

[AmericanKenpoChris]

I would listen to what your knees are saying to avoid future injury. Don't confuse pain from something that appears to be causing you physical as well as mental concern for the good soreness that is evident the day after a workout as a result of working your muscles.

We are all different, and I would only do what works for me. There are certain things that I have taken note of that cause undue stress on my body.

For some, stair-stepping is a great exercise, but I noticed that it inflames my knee joints. I have to limit my leg exercise to just what I derive from doing techniques and forms. I definately have to avoid leg curls and squats.

From my own experience, doing excessive repetitions can be bad. When I practice kicks, I will look at it from a realistic view. You fight like how you train. I would rather do ten hard front kicks, side-kicks, back-kicks, etc., than unnecessarily doing anything that will cause me pain.

Poor body mechanics can stress your knee joints. When exercising or stretching, don't let your knee joint pass over your ankle. This causes undue stress. For example when doing a lunge stretch, keep that front leg's knee upright over your ankle.

Listen to your injuries. If I type too much, it aggravates my carpal tunnel.

Best wishes

[KOROHO]

Sorry for the late reply. I've been away.

I had problems with one knee for a long time, but I started in Aikido anyway.
The I got deeper in Iaido and practiced much more often. That is when my right knee started getting worse and then my left knee started going out.
I think I started with bad knee genetics, the Aikido caused some problems and the extra seiza from iaido made it worse.

Now that I only do standing sword arts my knees are not getting worse.

I would guess that SwordLady likely would have developed knee problems from the Iaido after a while anyway, but adding more extensive seiza with the aikido training accelerated the break down of the knees.

Try to to do less seiza.

[morph4me]

Knees are the most common sports injury, so I wouldn't be suprised if it was a common Aikido injury. I've had 2 surgeries, one on each knee, the first one was directly related to Aikido, my foot got stuck on the mat and my body rotated around my leg, the second one had nothing to do with Aikido, as far as I could tell. The surgeon said that people hurt their knees every day doing things like getting out of their cars.

[zDom]

The surgeon said that people hurt their knees every day doing things like getting out of their cars.

Workers compensation claims safety reps say same thing: many knee injuries from existing cars.

A good place to be careful with self and mindful of body position.

[Drac]

They are common in Karate, Kung-Fu, Hapkido etc...etc...Wait until you get a wee bit old..Tigers Balm (red) becomes a good friend...

[morph4me]

They are common in Karate, Kung-Fu, Hapkido etc...etc...Wait until you get a wee bit old..Tigers Balm (red) becomes a good friend...

I'm already a wee bit older