Pain in the knee joint during physical exertion. Why joints hurt after training and what to do with it
Everyone knows that sport gives a person health. We come to a sports lifestyle with different genetic inclinations, physiological abilities and diseases.
To maintain health, training should be carried out in accordance with the characteristics of the body of each individual person. Despite the use of individual approaches in training, many begin to complain of joint pain.
A joint is a perfect movable structure that can withstand body weight and overload when moving.
It contains blood vessels of the circulatory system and nerve endings. Therefore, any joint injuries will cause pain of varying strength.
During training, the knee joint is the most vulnerable to pain.
Causes of joint pain after exercise
Why can joints hurt after training? First of all, it is necessary to determine the exact localization of pain. For those who only recently began to attend the training room, it is very difficult to figure out where the muscle pain, and where - as a result of joint damage.
It is urgent to seek medical help if during the movement you feel pain discomfort, a crunch is heard, restrictions appear in a certain part of the body. On the surface of the damaged area, with pressure, sharp or dull pain is felt, swelling of the tissues is formed, body temperature rises.
If pathological symptoms appeared in the knee after training, then there may be several reasons for its development:
- . Its stretching or rupture violates the stability of the knee. And also causes excessive mobility of the hip joint.
- A femoral injury also provokes the development of pain.
- The presence of flat feet causes the patella to turn inward, and the person is in pain.
- Complete or partial trauma to the meniscus, sprain of the meniscus ligaments, their old superficial injuries - all this disorganizes the shock-absorbing capabilities of the legs. A person ceases to bend a limb, scrolling movements become excessive.
- When the nerve roots are pinched in the lumbar region (osteochondrosis), the innervation of the knee and hip joints is disrupted.
- Significant excess of body weight in comparison with the norm. One extra kilogram body fat provides a 6-fold load on the knee joint.
- The development of degenerative-dystrophic processes under the influence of sports overload and malnutrition. It begins with internal inflammation of the tissues of the joint (arthritis). It ends with the complete destruction of the cartilage tissue and deformation of the bone surface (arthrosis).
The most prone to the formation of such articular pathologies are people who are fond of strength training (bodybuilding, weightlifting, etc.). And those who are engaged in boxing, martial arts, basketball, etc.
At the same time, a sedentary lifestyle can also contribute to the formation of joint diseases. They do not bypass people who are subjected to frequent hypothermia.
Medical statistics show that people who have passed the 30-year milestone are more likely to suffer from knee injuries. Why it happens? This is due to a natural decrease in the amount of collagen produced by the body.
What to do with knee pain after training?
When after training you felt pain in the knee and noticed that it began to swell, the color and temperature of the skin over the joint changed, its mobility decreased, then follow these first-aid steps:
- Put ice or some cold object. It will prevent the development of edema of the soft layers. Several times a day for 10-15 minutes you can apply ice. To avoid cold injury to the skin, first place it in a bag, then wrap it in a dense fabric. Frostbite will not occur if frozen meat or vegetables are used. Stick to the indicated time, otherwise you risk damaging the nervous sensitivity of the skin.
- Lie on your back and raise your leg so that it is above the level of the chest. Accumulated fluid in the knee will begin to flow. So you can avoid more swelling in the joint. When you rest on the bed - put the roller under the injured knee.
- The next day, you can use painkillers gels or ointments. They have a warming effect and eliminate the pain symptom. The special composition of the funds allows deep penetration into the joint. And activate blood circulation in the disturbed area.
- If after 1–2 days the symptoms persist, be sure to visit the orthopedist. The specialist will prescribe the prevention or treatment of knee pain. As a rule, with minor injuries, the doctor prescribes anti-inflammatory drugs. Known aspirin and ibuprofen will help reduce pain.
Most often, it is the knee joint that is injured, but sometimes the hip joint can also hurt after training. To alleviate the condition, you can use the recommendations above.
Joint immobilization and nutrition
Never self-medicate. The use of antibiotics immediately after injury increases tissue edema. Their small dosage can provoke nausea, and frequent use violates the functions of the liver and intestines. Moreover, for each type of damage, a special regimen for the use of the drug is prescribed.
The same principle applies to the use of a retaining dressing. The need for it and the method of imposition can only be determined by a specialist. Incorrect use of the dressing can aggravate the condition of the knee joint.
Do not forget to consult your doctor about what supplements you can buy to strengthen your joint organ.
This is especially important for people who restrict diet for weight loss. A lack of calories leads to a deficiency of essential trace elements.
The most effective supplements include those that include: glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate and collagen. A useful combination of these components restores and strengthens the ligaments, cartilage "pillow". Promotes the production of inter-articular fluid, which prevents the development of fragility of the joint components. Strength and elasticity of the articular membranes is maintained due to saturation with additional body proteins.
How to train for joint pain?
If the doctor allowed you to continue training, then try to reduce the load, review your program of sports. Consult a trainer in the gym. Perhaps you did not adhere to the correct exercise technique, which caused pain.
Or change the type of activity to a lighter in relation to the load of the knee and other joints. For example, swimming is a good option. What you should pay attention to:
- The first rule that you must learn is to stop intensively loading the disturbing joints. Change your training priorities and focus on strengthening the muscles, ligaments around the joint that ensure its stability.
- Increase sports load gradually. First, select exercises that include the entire range of motor functions of the joint. Then, go on to the exercises that will help to work out the legs, thigh, ankles separately.
- During training, be attentive to your well-being. Slight pain can accompany you, in particular, when performing dynamic exercises. But with each new activity, as the joint strengthens, the pain should gradually disappear. Severe pain is a signal to stop exercising.
As soon as you notice an improvement in the condition of the knee joint, you can proceed to the full range of exercises to train the entire muscle group.
Strength training for knee pain
Special strength training for the legs makes the muscles and ligaments of the knee joint strong. Their strength and endurance forms a stable supportive muscular structure for the knee. The stronger the front and back of the thigh, the stronger the joint will be.
The usual squats with weighting or with a bar will help in this. Exercise involves the large muscles of not only the legs, but the whole body, improves blood circulation in the lumbar region, accelerates metabolic processes in the body.
The effectiveness of the exercise is possible subject to the following recommendations:
- Do not take heavy weights. It is better to do a few repetitions with a light weight (tendons are strengthened).
- Focus on the heels. When pushing off the floor with your feet, you remove a partial load from the knee.
- Make sure your knees always “look” towards your socks. And they didn’t move forward during the squats.
- Bend your back, slightly let it lean forward. But a sense of stability should not leave you until the completion of the exercise.
- If you want to train with the barbell, then put it on the shoulder area, keep the elbow angles upright to the floor. So, you fix the shoulder blades and tighten the upper back muscles and the spine will take the correct position.
- To develop all sections of the knee, do squats in deep amplitude. She develops all the physiological makings of the articular organ.
In addition to squats, excellent results can be obtained when performing exercises: reverse lunges with a barbell, deadlift, etc.
Cardio for knee pain
For people with pain in the knees, cardio training, which includes the “flight phase”, is prohibited. That is, jumping rope, running, fitness on the platform and other activities with jumping. These exercises contain moments when both feet of a person come off the surface.
Such sports create strong concussions in the articular organ. The weight of the human body is carried to its knees, and even with shock force.
It is necessary to replace these types of sports loads with cycling and elliptical trainer. They activate the recovery processes in the joints by eliminating shock movements.
Stretch marks in training for knee pain
At the beginning of the training and after it, it is worthwhile to perform exercises for stretching the muscles of the legs. Allow enough time for her, preferably 10–20 minutes. Stretching muscle fibers and ligaments keeps the joint flexible. Do not allow severe pain during exercise. You should feel the tension, but no more.
Do not be overly addicted to stretching. This is the wrong step towards improving the articular organ.
First of all, stability is important for the knee, its excessive mobility leads to dislocations, broken legs, etc. Therefore, carefully select a plan for sports hobbies so as not to harm yourself even more.
It is important to remember: you need to stop when sports continue to cause discomfort and increase pain. You may need to visit a doctor again, because any pain always has its own reason.
How to forget about joint pain?
- Joint pain limits your movement and full life ...
- You are worried about discomfort, crunching and systematic pain ...
- Perhaps you have tried a bunch of drugs, creams and ointments ...
- But judging by the fact that you are reading these lines, they did not help you much ...
But orthopedic surgeon Sergei Bubnovsky claims that indeed effective remedy from joint pain exists!
Every person who cares about their health tries to lead an active lifestyle and engage in fitness. But not everyone who wants to make sport a mandatory item of their regime does. Sometimes at the very beginning of classes, people lose their mood, faced with a number of problems.
Having once felt how knees hurt after training, many beginner athletes refuse further training. Why is it worth it and how to avoid unpleasant sensations in the knee joints after active training, the women's site “Beautiful and Successful” will tell.
Why knees hurt after training
Joint pain is a frequent companion of novice athletes. Tennis players often suffer from pain in the elbow joint of the working arm, gymnasts usually have lower back pain, and football players know firsthand what knee pain is.
The cause of discomfort lies in the structure of the joint, which is a complex joint.
The joint is a capsule connected to the bones, elastic and strong. Parts of the bones enclosed in the capsule are covered with cartilage. Inside the capsule there is a thick elastic mass - synovial fluid, which prevents the cartilage from rubbing against each other and contains nutrients for them - glycosaminglycans. The body is constantly replenishing reserves of synovial fluid and the nutrients contained in it.
But with intense loads, the amount of this fluid can be greatly reduced. As a result, the cartilage begins to rub against each other, the joint crunches, hurts, and eventually may lose mobility altogether.
Knee joints are one of the largest joints.
In addition, they are so arranged that with almost any physical activity they have a rather considerable load. No wonder knees start to hurt. Yet pain can be avoided.
Knee pain after exercise: prevention
The site site recommends that all of its readers should consult a doctor first if they experience joint pain, to find out how serious the problem is. In some cases, doctors recommend taking special medications that make up the deficiency of nutrients in the synovial fluid - chondroitin and glucosamine.
- Nutrition correction. In order for the knees not to hurt after training the legs, it is necessary to provide the joints and bones with all the elements necessary for their health. The diet should be rich in foods containing omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids, as well as proteins, calcium, vitamins and minerals. Therefore, good prevention of the appearance of pain in the knees after training is the use of dietary meat, fish, cottage cheese, vegetables and fruits.
- Drink. It is very important to prevent water shortages in the body. To do this, drink clean water - at least 2 liters per day. It is imperative that you keep the bottle of water with you during class to occasionally take a couple of sips from it. These simple measures will help the synovial fluid recover faster.
- Load reduction. Often the joints of the knees hurt after training the legs at high loads. If pain has appeared, in any case, the intensity of the exercises must be reduced, and the time should also be reduced.
- Coating. If the knees hurt after, you need to change the place of training. When training on asphalt or concrete, the load on the legs increases, this affects the condition of the knee joint. It’s better to train on softer tracks.
- Performing a warm-up. Immediately before performing the exercises themselves, you need to thoroughly warm up all the muscles and joints of the body. This will increase their elasticity, as a result of which they will be less injured. Experienced athletes know that at the end of a warm-up, it is imperative to perform rotations in the hip and knee joints. This simple measure is a great way to prevent knee pain after a workout.
- Rest mode. The joints must be allowed to unload, so after intense training it is recommended to rest so much time that the joints have time to recover. It is also important to sleep at least 8 hours a day.
In addition to the listed preventive measures for pain in the joints of the knees after training, you can use several simple methods of treatment.
Knees hurt after training: what to do?
Knee pain appears as a result of a joint injury. You can treat it with the help of simple methods.
- An injured knee should receive rest and support. To do this, it should be fixed with a knee pad or elastic bandage. The latches must always remain on the knee during exercise.
- Reduce the load on sore knee Orthopedic insoles, which are designed to support, level and improve the function of the foot, will also help. Their use helps to reduce pressure on the knee joint.
- It is useful to apply an ice compress to the sore spot several times a day for 5-10 minutes.
- If your knees hurt after training your legs, you can treat them with anti-inflammatory ointments: Ibuprofen, Diclofenac, Indomethacin, etc.
- Joints will benefit greatly. special exerciseswhich help reduce pain, increase joint mobility, reduce its fatigue.
If your knees hurt after training your legs, the most important thing is not to stop exercising. As practice shows, after 2-3 months of regular training, provided that the load is correctly selected, the pain in the knees completely disappears.
Therefore, in no case should you give up training. It is necessary to work rationally on your body, to improve it, and then no health problems will arise.
The belief that pain after exercise is the norm is actually wrong and can lead to a number of dangerous consequences. Yes, a slight burning sensation in the muscles is the norm, but caution must be exercised with regard to the joints. So if your knees hurt after training in the gym or at home, especially if this happens regularly, and the discomfort does not go away for a long time or even intensifies with each lesson, you need to think about why this happens and what to do in such a situation.
If you regularly load yourself more than necessary, and at the same time eat incorrectly, the knee joint, which is very vulnerable, will let you know about it with degenerative-dystrophic processes. Although his strength is quite considerable, because he constantly encounters loads, supporting the weight of your body, nevertheless, the possibilities of the joint are not unlimited. With a neglect of your health, internal inflammation of the tissues may appear, which in the future will lead to the destruction of cartilage and bone deformation. If your knees hurt regularly after training, you can pay attention to the following methods:
- Several times a day apply something cold to your knees and hold for 10-15 minutest. Low temperatures fight swelling of soft tissues.
- In the evening, lie on your back, raising your legs above your head and the bed is a roller under your knees. It also helps fight swelling and tired joints.
- After training you can use warming and analgesic ointments for pain in the knees. They will help overcome pain and improve blood circulation.
If the pain persists for more than two days, no matter what you do, it is best to consult an orthopedist.
Intensive strength training is always stressful for the knee, but if a person is healthy, they should recover quickly. However, overtraining, combined with other problems, such as not proper nutrition, heredity, age, certain diseases and so on, reduces the ability of the knee joint to recover. Accumulating in tissues, pathological changes can lead not only to pain, but also to very serious chronic diseases.
Age-related changes
It’s hard to argue with statistics, but it shows that the older a person is, the higher his risk of earning knee damage. The reason is that over the years, collagen synthesis in the body decreases. This is a natural process, and arguing with nature is difficult.
However, sometimes you can take courses containing gelatin and collagen in courses. They contribute to the restoration of cartilage, strengthen bones and ligaments, reduce pain in the joints. Also, sometimes you can take physiotherapy courses: massage, electrophoresis, amplipulse helps. Another great way to recover is the lap walking technique, which Dr. Bubnovsky often advises patients.
Injuries
If after training the knees get sick, and this is not the first time, it may be a bruise, sprain, rupture or other injury. Any problem of this nature requires an examination by a specialist, since initially you need to make the correct diagnosis.
Depending on the injury, the nature and location of the pain may vary. So, when stretching or breaking the cruciate anterior ligament, the knee may lose stability, become too mobile. And if after training the pain behind the knee, the cause may be a trauma to the femur, as well as a pinched nerve in the lumbar region with osteochondrosis, giving off to the knee.
To prevent injury, consider the following points:
- Before training, be sure to do a warm-up, which will consist in warm-up and stretching exercises. This will make it possible to maintain joint flexibility and reduce the risk of injury.
- To immobilize the knee you can use the bandage of their two-meter elastic bandages. Regarding the method of leg wrapping, it is better to check with the trainer.
Inflammatory processes in the knee joint
Inflammation can occur due to repeated bruises and damage to the joints, vitamin deficiency, infections, metabolic disorders, weak immunity, and so on. However, in athletes, the most common causes of inflammatory processes are injuries to the extremities, and this applies to both the knee and elbow joints. This may be bursitis - an inflammation of the knee joint, which, if untreated, can lead to atrophy of all muscles located in the mummy. Synovitis is an accumulation of fluid in the articular cavity, which provokes stiffness of movements, severe pain and fever, and can cause arthrosis. Tendonitis is an inflammation of the tendons.
The cases described above are very serious, and self-medication in the case of them should be ruled out - you must consult a doctor. BUT for the prevention of inflammation is still the same "Walking on your knees."
Overweight
Keep in mind that every extra kilogram increases the load on the knee joints six times! In combination with physical activity, excess weight can affect the condition of the knees extremely destructive, which will make you feel pain. You need to make every effort to lose weight. Limit your diet and eliminate harmful foods from it, drink plenty of water. It is also important to pay enough attention to cardio training - they are aimed at the direct burning of fat.
Improper exercise
Improper exercise or incorrect construction of the training program is the most common reason why knees hurt after training. Discomfort can be felt in the following cases:
- Excessive enthusiasm for strength exercises, therefore, the load on the knee joints will be higher than the level of physical fitness allows.
- Wrong distribution of load by the athlete, which increases friction under the patella and pain appears.
- Incorrect technique for performing certain exercises in the hall. For example, if, when crouching with weight, when standing up, you fully extend your knees, this increases the traumatic pressure on them, hence the pain.
To determine the cause, try to analyze at what point you had a pain — what exercise you did, and with what weight. If necessary, make adjustments to the program or replace the exercises with other, less stressful joints. Particular care must be taken in exercises such as deadlift, various types of lunges and squats, as they give a serious load to the knees.
Also consider the following points:
- If your knees constantly ache after training, try to exclude “hocking” exercises from them, in which you need to lift both feet off the surface.
- You can try to perform exercises with less weight and greater amplitude. This will improve the cellular nutrition of the joint and restore structures that have been damaged.
Another reason that can lead to knee pain is the performance of dynamic exercises in shoes, which is of poor quality from an orthopedic point of view, or does not fit you in size. In this case, the legs will be set incorrectly, and the load distribution will also be uneven. Therefore, it is recommended to use special sports shoes of good quality and clearly your size.
Musculoskeletal diseases or genetic defects
Sometimes the cause of pain in the knees is flat feet, as it contributes to the fact that in the process of movement the patella rotates inward. Also, the case may be in injuries that in the past were not qualitatively treated, in complications after diseases of an infectious nature.
For example, you can consider arthritis and arthrosis. In the first case, cartilage is destroyed, which performs a cushioning function and ensures the sliding of parts of the joint. This leads to chronic knee pain, which is constantly increasing, and in the future, the consequences can be more serious up to disability. At the same time, the knee will swell first, the skin around it will turn red, and it will hurt.
Arthrosis begins with a crunch, numbness in the morning, limited by the functionality of the knee. In the future, it can progress, leading to consequences up to a change in the foot of its shape. Therefore, it is important not to ignore the first symptoms of the disease.
If the knee hurts and swells
If the knee after training not only hurts when bent, but also swells, this can indicate several pathologies: trauma, joint inflammation, exacerbation of arthritis or arthrosis. Also, the knee may turn red, hurt if pressure is applied to it.
The nature of the pain may also differ. It can be aching, pulling, cutting, appear immediately after training or the next day in the morning, in a state of movement or rest. It is also possible to increase the temperature, local or throughout the body. These symptoms will need to be described to the doctor - they will help him make the correct diagnosis.
Knee pain: prevention and treatment
What to do if your knees hurt after a workout? First, you can try to use the above recommendations: use ointments, bandages, apply cold, reduce the load and adjust the training program. However, if this does not produce results, then go to the doctor - the reason can be very serious, and the sooner you start to fight it, the greater the likelihood that you will be able to avoid negative consequences.
Even if knee pain does not bother you, it is better to take care of preventing this issue. Feeling a crunch, you should already be thinking about joint health. For preventive purposes, try give yourself a gradual load, without jerking, taking into account the state of health and physical fitness. This is especially important for beginners, as they often overdo it with training.
Important regularly undergo medical examinations, so that this or that pathology is detected on time. Food also plays a role. Eat enough foods rich in vitamins and minerals, since the components that the joints need are quickly eliminated from the body, their supplies must be regularly replenished. Also try drink enough water. Especially the food item is important for those who are overweight.
Why knees hurt: video
Joint pain is a common problem for people involved in sports, not only professionals, but also amateurs. Most often, knee and elbow joints, to a lesser extent, ankle, wrist and hip. Why is this happening? What to do with discomfort, and how can it be prevented? These and other important questions are answered further.
Three causes of pain
Discomfort in the joints after training can be caused by the following reasons:
Pain in the tendon-ligamentous apparatus. Overextension of tendons and ligaments leads to their trauma and, consequently, to pain.
Pain inside the joint:
Arthritis. In the case of pain after training, we are talking about inflammation that occurs after an injury (dislocation, shock, etc.). not only with movements, but with palpation, it often increases in size due to edema or an increase in the amount of intraarticular fluid.
Arthrosis is the destruction of articular cartilage resulting from chronic microtraumatization.
The famous bodybuilder Lee Labrada said: "Your strength, if genetically limited, is only the strength and endurance of your joints." As a result of prolonged excessive load arthrosis occurs, which subsequently causes pain and stiffness.
Some trainers and sports physicians believe that muscle pain after a workout is a useful thing, showing that the body has received enough exercise. Bodybuilder's slogan: "No pain - no growth." However, this does not apply to joints: some exercises can cause pain, which will require intervention, not by a trainer, but by a doctor. An experienced athlete will always distinguish between “right” pain and “wrong” pain.
Features of the defeat of "traumatic" joints
Elbow pain
This problem is most typical for representatives of power sports: bodybuilders, powerlifters, to a lesser extent hockey players and tennis players, but any strength training can lead to problems in the elbow.
This joint is very delicate, therefore, it needs maximum stability when conducting strength exercises. Do not intend to stretch it or bend along an unnatural trajectory, the most dangerous for him are the French bench press and deep push-ups on bars with weights. Also, do not abuse isolated exercises for biceps and triceps, which lead to chronic trauma to the cartilage of the elbow joint.
Knee pain
The knee joint is a global problem for any athlete. Active sports (football, skiing, tennis, wrestling, gymnastics, etc.) are characterized by dislocations, bruises and damage to the ligamentous apparatus. For power (bodybuilding, weightlifting, powerlifting, etc.) - abrasion of cartilage membranes and the formation of arthrosis.
Joint pain is a common reason for seeking medical help. And every year the negative trend is growing, which is largely due to a combination of adverse factors affecting the body. But often even those people who try to lead a healthy lifestyle and maintain a good physical shape, feel the manifestations of a particular articular pathology.
You can often meet people who feel pain in various joints after strength training, running, fitness or yoga. In many cases, this can be explained by increased load, but sometimes you have to look for other causes of this phenomenon. In any case, it is better to see a doctor who will determine exactly why pain occurs and what needs to be done for their treatment or prevention.
Causes
People who seek to see themselves healthier, stronger, or slimmer know that without exercise this is impossible to achieve. Starting to work out in the gym, many do not take into account the individual characteristics of the body, which is why even the seemingly standard load on the joints can cause complaints.
But much more often people overestimate their capabilities and, trying to get a faster effect, increase the intensity, duration or frequency of training without coordination with the instructor or doctor. Of course, this will become a source of problems with the musculoskeletal system, which lie in the trauma of the ligaments, tendons, muscles and joints themselves. Only in some it manifests itself more acutely, while in others it gradually, imperceptibly flowing into chronic conditions. Tennis players are characterized by lesions of the elbow in the form of epicondylitis, soccer players often reveal knee meniscopathies, and yoga lovers can suffer from problems with the hip joint.
In addition to injuries, one cannot exclude reasons of a different nature that are indirectly related to sports. We are talking about diseases of the articular apparatus based on metabolic and immune disorders in the body. These include the following:
- Rheumatoid arthritis.
- Gout.
- Rheumatism.
- Osteoarthrosis.
Why joints hurt in a particular person, you can find out after a comprehensive examination. And you can’t do without a doctor anymore - you need a clinical examination and additional studies, based on which they make a conclusion about the nature of the pathology and the need for therapeutic measures.
If the elbow joints are disturbed or the knees are sore after training, it is necessary first to determine the origin of the symptom, and then plan further actions.
Symptoms
Signs of joint damage can be quite diverse. It also happens that the pain comes from another source when the ligaments, tendons or muscles are damaged. But it is necessary to distinguish between natural sensations that arise after training from pathological signs.
It is clear that an intense load causes pain in the muscles (krepatura), as they accumulate lactic acid. But this, as a rule, occurs the next day, may be accompanied by some fatigue, but it never bears acute symptoms and always stops as training increases. Region hip joints may get sick due to intense stretch marks or certain yoga poses. However, such sensations normally disappear with time.
Injuries
Under the influence of excessive load, microfractures of connective tissue fibers can be observed, due to which sprains of ligaments, tendons and muscles appear. In the future, inflammatory or degenerative processes may join in - this is how tendonitis, bursitis, tendopathy are formed. In this case, symptoms appear in the periarticular tissues:
- Pain with various movements.
- Local swelling.
- Redness of the skin in the affected area.
- Soreness when feeling.
When knees hurt after training, it is necessary to exclude meniscus pathology, since this is a fairly common condition among athletes. In this case, the inner part of the cartilaginous plate is more often affected, and discomfort is localized along the joint gap. If there is a separation of their own ligaments or meniscus horns, then the appearance of symptoms of joint blockage is possible when it is impossible to make movements in the knee.
Traumatic injuries during active training are the most common cause of pain in people involved in sports.
Diseases
If pain occurs after training, some joint diseases cannot be ruled out. First of all, you need to think about the possibility of arthritis. It can be both infectious and non-infectious in nature. In the latter case, we often have to talk about rheumatoid arthritis or gout, when the general processes in the body are disturbed. These diseases are characterized by a multiplicity of lesions - polyarthritis, which can involve the elbow and knee joints.
The following symptoms allow you to suspect a rheumatoid process:
- Arthritis of the joints of the hand.
- Symmetry of the lesion.
- Morning stiffness (more than an hour).
- Hand deformities: in the form of the neck of a swan, a buttonhole, walrus fins.
You can make an assumption of gout when there is inflammation of the big toe, tofuses (subcutaneous deposits of uric acid crystals) in the ears, eyelids, above the joints, as well as signs of urolithiasis. It should be remembered that any arthritis in the acute period will be accompanied by similar symptoms:
- Pain.
- Swelling of the joint.
- Redness of the skin above it.
- Increase in local temperature.
- Restriction of movements.
Having noticed such symptoms, they are difficult to associate with the previous training, but physical activity can seriously aggravate pain and provoke a worsening of the situation. But for osteoarthrosis, the prolonged exposure to an excessively strong mechanical factor is much more important. This contributes to the appearance of degenerative-dystrophic processes not only in the cartilage, but also in the ligaments, tendons, muscles. The disease is characterized by such manifestations:
- The pain at the beginning of the movement is “starting”.
- Stiffness in the morning (no more than half an hour).
- Sensation of crunch, clicks, friction in joints.
- Deformation of the knees, elbows.
- Limitation of mobility.
Joint diseases constitute a serious obstacle not only for playing sports, but also for everyday human activities.
Diagnostics
You can understand why pain in the joints occurs after training, after an additional examination. In combination with a clinical examination, this allows the doctor to make a final conclusion. Use instrumental and laboratory methods, which may include the following procedures:
- Biochemical blood test (rheumatic tests, calcium, uric acid, acute phase indicators).
- X-ray diffraction of joints.
- Magnetic resonance imaging.
- Arthroscopy
Be sure to consult a traumatologist and rheumatologist.
Prevention
To avoid the appearance of pain in the joints after training, you must adhere to safety precautions during class and follow the recommendations of the instructor. In addition, it is recommended to undergo a preventive medical examination in order to know which loads will be beneficial for the body, and which is better to refuse. It is necessary to increase the intensity of classes gradually, to avoid rash movements.
Of great importance for active people is proper nutrition. It should include all the necessary nutrients, and the energy value of the diet should not only cover the daily expenses of the body, but also provide growth muscle mass (during strength training). It is necessary to eat protein foods, dishes containing collagen and gelatin (jellied meat, jellies, jellies), calcium (milk, kefir, cottage cheese, cheeses), fresh vegetables, fruits and greens, drink plenty of fluids. It will be useful to recall the exclusion of alcohol and smoking.
Treatment
To maximize the effect of treatment, first you need to completely abandon physical activity. How long will it last - the doctor will say. Sometimes it will be useful to create additional fixation for the joint with an elastic bandage or orthosis, which will provide additional rest to the elbows or knees. In the future, therapeutic agents are used, which are mainly of a conservative nature.
Drug therapy
The consequences of improper training are often eliminated with medications. For some, a short course is enough, and some have to take medications for a long time. It all depends on the severity of the pathology and condition of the body. As a rule, for pain in the joints prescribed drugs:
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (Movalis, Ibuprom).
- Chondroprotectors (Arthron, Don).
- Decongestants (L-lysine escinate).
- Vascular (Actovegin).
- Vitamins and minerals.
What to prescribe for a particular patient, the doctor decides. Self-medication may result in adverse events.
Physiotherapy
So that the effect of treatment comes sooner, in addition to taking medications, it is better to be like physiotherapy. They will improve metabolic processes and microcirculation in the tissues, which accelerates their healing. Good results are obtained using the following methods:
- Electrophoresis.
- Magnetotherapy.
- Wave treatment.
- Paraffin Therapy.
- Balneotherapy.
Therapeutic gymnastics and massage
Restoring the function of the articular apparatus is impossible without physiotherapy exercises. The exercises to be performed do not carry burdens on damaged structures, but rather reduce inflammation, strengthen ligaments, and normalize the structure of cartilage tissue. For each joint, its own movements are developed, which must be done in accordance with medical recommendations.
Massage helps to improve blood circulation and relax tense muscles. It can be performed independently.
If joints begin to hurt after training, you need to understand what this is connected with. Maybe you just need to reduce the intensity of the load, the pace of classes and just relax. But if this does not help, you should consult a doctor who will determine what to do next.