Knee Pain Getting into Seiza

Kojimada

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Hello,

For decades, I have sat in seiza. I have been able to get into seiza rather smoothly.

I recently got back into practicing Kenjutsu. A few months in, I started developing a pain near the connection where the patella tendon connects to the shin bone. Basically, the bony part of your knee that takes the most force when getting into seiza, just below the knee cap.

The pain shoots diagonally up towards the outside of my leg and ends about where the patellar tendon is, though the tendons are not connected to one another as far as I am aware.

Does anyone know of any exercises or stretches one can do to help alleviate this issue? Again, I have never had pain like this in all my experiences getting into seiza or doing any sort of suwariwaza, so this thing is quite new.

I thank you for your time.
 

punisher73

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Here are some stretches and ideas for sitting in Seiza. I would also recommend a foam roller (tissue release) to help with it.

This is NOT medical advice, and depending on the pain (you know your body) you might want to talk with a doctor or sports therapist. My daughter had something very similar and the only thing that helped her really was one of those "concussive massagers" (not sure the exact name).

Also, my knees are not the best, and I use a meditation bench to help if I want to sit in the position a long time.
 

jobo

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Hello,

For decades, I have sat in seiza. I have been able to get into seiza rather smoothly.

I recently got back into practicing Kenjutsu. A few months in, I started developing a pain near the connection where the patella tendon connects to the shin bone. Basically, the bony part of your knee that takes the most force when getting into seiza, just below the knee cap.

The pain shoots diagonally up towards the outside of my leg and ends about where the patellar tendon is, though the tendons are not connected to one another as far as I am aware.

Does anyone know of any exercises or stretches one can do to help alleviate this issue? Again, I have never had pain like this in all my experiences getting into seiza or doing any sort of suwariwaza, so this thing is quite new.

I thank you for your time.
why not just not do it, i have a problem wiith it to,, so i dont, it not after all the,slightest use for fighting, unless your at a japanese tea party and it kkicks off
 

isshinryuronin

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If the pain is from patella/tendon/upper tibia contact with the floor, a knee pad will do the trick. If it's from the stretching of the tendon, a pad on the back of the heels (or on the lower butt) will lessen the knee bend angle and take pressure off the joint. For me, the pain was on the instep bone and a thin pad helped in my iaido training.

After a long lay off from karate, my knees gave me a lot of problems in everyday activity, but after working out again, along with some light weight training, they got surprisingly better. I also took Glucosamine/Chondroitin at the same time. So, hopefully as you continue to train, the tendons or ligaments may loosen up on their own. As Punisher said, PT may help, but I have found few therapists that really know their stuff.

Or, stop getting old - that will take care of lots of problems. That's my current strategy. I'll let you know when I'm eighty how that's working for me.
 

hoshin1600

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After so many years my knees don't like the floor either. I can't say what your issues are but one thing to be cognizant of is that the alignment of the knee cap can be off and creating issues. Stretching might not help if that's the cause. If I sit in seize it feels like my knee is going to explode.
 

punisher73

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C-564-2.jpg

Here is a picture of a meditation bench. I have some wood left over from a decking project and built one. Much easier to build your own if you can.
There are also places online for plans.
 

jobo

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C-564-2.jpg

Here is a picture of a meditation bench. I have some wood left over from a decking project and built one. Much easier to build your own if you can.
There are also places online for plans.
yea a stool is a lot better idea, you could use that to polish your shoes as well
 

JP3

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why not just not do it, i have a problem wiith it to,, so i dont, it not after all the,slightest use for fighting, unless your at a japanese tea party and it kkicks off
My guess would be because practicing that stuff can be a lot of fun for the OP, and fulfilling. It's quite meditative, at least is for me.

No argument with the usefulness point, however.

We have a kata (basically the testing/demo kata for 3rd Dan) that begins with the initial 8 techniques for tori from seiza... and I had a student who had two replaced knees. His range of motion, completely from a mechanical perspective, would Not allow his legs to bend much past approx. 90 degrees. So, seiza and sawari-waza was out. From the traditional perspective.

So, we (my guy, his uke & I) took a bunch of time, trial & error, analysis, video review of what it was that we were doing and we converted that part of that kata to operate out of the standard western backed chair. It ended up surprisingly good and "principle-sound.".


(Note, nearly aiki kata demo "principles," they aren't really demo-ing a "technique." It's not going to look like an a$$-kicking just happened. LOL!)
 

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