Mobility exercises for knee/back pain

[nixium]

After many, many weeks of inactivity, with a majority of my time seated watching various rectangles, I've decided to seriously hit the weights. So far, I've only been doing lame stuff like the elliptical and some swimming, and I wanted to get into a SS/SL style program. So started with body weight squats and push ups, and very soon ran into the following problems:

1. Left knee is sore, and shooting pain in the side when I squat more than 15 in a row.
2. Lower back hurts because I was over enthusiastic with the cruches.
3. I had tendonitis of the wrist (pinky side) which I thought was solved.. but doing shoulder presses caused some pain down the side of my wrist and forearm.

I've decided to take a month to rehab, stretch, do cardio, core work and mobility.

So, I did some research. There are some very experienced powerlifters forum, and at least one medical professional (*cough* sociallychallenged *cough*) I would greatly appreciate it if you could check my links below and give me some advice on what you think of the recommendations:

Low back rehab:
www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=110&page=2

Knee rehab:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=363

How to squat properly:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/no_pain_squat.htm

Tendonosis:
http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/08/on-tendonitis/
Check the section on "chronic tendonitis"

The plan is to do cardio (heart rate around 150-160) every day, and rehab exercises every other day. The cardio would be low impact - elliptical/swimming. No running or climbing.
stretch every day, throughout the day and after workout.

Any other recommendations? I plan for this to last till October beginning, when I get to a barbell capable gym. If I still have issues after that, I'll need to go back to a PT.

Thanks!

 

[Sid59]

After many, many weeks of inactivity, with a majority of my time seated watching various rectangles, I've decided to seriously hit the weights. So far, I've only been doing lame stuff like the elliptical and some swimming, and I wanted to get into a SS/SL style program. So started with body weight squats and push ups, and very soon ran into the following problems:

1. Left knee is sore, and shooting pain in the side when I squat more than 15 in a row.
2. Lower back hurts because I was over enthusiastic with the cruches.
3. I had tendonitis of the wrist (pinky side) which I thought was solved.. but doing shoulder presses caused some pain down the side of my wrist and forearm.

I've decided to take a month to rehab, stretch, do cardio, core work and mobility.

So, I did some research. There are some very experienced powerlifters forum, and at least one medical professional (*cough* sociallychallenged *cough*) I would greatly appreciate it if you could check my links below and give me some advice on what you think of the recommendations:

Low back rehab:
www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=110&page=2

Knee rehab:
http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=363

How to squat properly:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/no_pain_squat.htm

Tendonosis:
http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/08/on-tendonitis/
Check the section on "chronic tendonitis"

The plan is to do cardio (heart rate around 150-160) every day, and rehab exercises every other day. The cardio would be low impact - elliptical/swimming. No running or climbing.
stretch every day, throughout the day and after workout.

Any other recommendations? I plan for this to last till October beginning, when I get to a barbell capable gym. If I still have issues after that, I'll need to go back to a PT.

Thanks!

i think you have it covered.
I've been following http://www.mobilitywod.com/ for tips and last year, i bought this book on stretching exercises. Great addition to lifting and cardio. When time a lots, i spend tv time rolling on foam or going through the book of stretches.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

It's great that you're being proactive about your injuries, but there are some really big issues with using internet info to rehab yourself. Before I get into that, let me ask you some questions.

Before you got the low back pain, did you do the sit-ups/crunches with your feet hooked under something or without? If you did them hooked, you could have simply overworked your iliopsoas. Personally, I think that might go away if you give it some time (I'm not sure how long you've had this pain). If it doesn't, then there's an issue. There are a ton of structures in the low back that can cause pain. Doing general strengthening exercises may help, but they may also exacerbate the problem. I don't do sit-ups consistently specifically because they're a bad, not-very-functional exercise. I moreso do planks, leg raises, front lever progressions, etc. I do SOME sit-ups, but they're not my main core work.

The knee stuff can also be fairly complicated. In addition, you may not have a very good squat due to the squat tutorial. That squat tutorial is utter crap. You should not turn your feet out 45 degrees, as that shortens your hip's external rotators that help you maintain good hip and knee position. If those muscles are short, they don't produce as much force. Also, the squat stance is insanely wide. They're teaching people a powerlifting squat stance which is not optimal for general function. It's good for powerlifting, but I would not use that tutorial as your guide.

Essentially, if you're going to squat, you should watch this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOH6b0jJ2bQ watch the second part of that video too - it should be in the sidebar). I think it may address some of your issues. Kelly Starrett (that guy, he's a doctor of PT) has a lot of good videos on squatting. If you look for them, you'll have some stuff to watch and work on. Keep your knees OUT (don't let them cave to the inside of where your ankle is on the ground). That requires good, active externals rotators of your hip. In addition, you gotta make sure you have full hip ROM. Look for that at the above poster's link (mobilitywod.com). That website is run by Kelly Starrett and has some phenomenal prehab exercises and mobility work that you can do.

I quickly skimmed that tendonitis article and the information is right. However, it will only be effective if you're actually experiencing pain from tendonitis. This is an issue because joint, ligament, muscular pain can all sound and feel a lot like tendonitis. The problem is that you don't know for sure. This is where self-treating can become an issue, as it's hard to treat something correctly if it hasn't been ID'ed correctly. If the exercises help, great. If anything makes it worse, don't do that anymore. If the pain hangs around for more than 2 weeks and isn't decreasing, go see a PT.

I think the cardio idea is good, but you can also include some light resistance training (stuff you can do 10-15 reps of) to improve your general endurance, coordination, and mobility. Try doing body weight squats, push-ups, pull-ups, etc. Whatever you can comfortably do. Moving in multiple planes is one of the best things you can do to keep mobile.