Faster legs

[Eternal]

Long story short, after nearly 2 years (!?) my knee finally healed up enough for me to start working out again for football. The small thing? I'm a kicker.

Because of that, while strength is important, so is a fast leg. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get my legs faster? Plyometrics (sp?), sprints, and explosive lifting is what I have been thinking, but I wanted some other opinions/ideas.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Plyometrics are great but you may want to consider sprint training on a bike or maybe even a spin class to build a base first.

 

[Un-Aru]

I'm assuming the two years of injury consists of the operation, recovery and rehab periods. Otherwise if you've only started to walk again properly going straight into plyometrics is just gonna pound your knee into dust...

One thing people forget when overcoming long-term injuries is not only getting the STRENGTH back in the surrounding muscles, but the FUNCTION as well. If you've been limping for a long time the muscles have been firing in a different pattern for a long time and your body gets used to it. What happens is that you start overloading the muscles, but the muscles continue to fire in the abnormal pattern your body is now used to. An imbalance is created and you start to get patella tendonitis and other such injuries/syndromes, and the rehab cycle starts again.

 

[wheelin&dealin]

What do you mean by fast legs? Faster sprinting speed?

If so, send me a pm. I'll give you a tonne of info.

 

[Eternal]

Originally posted by Un-Aru
I'm assuming the two years of injury consists of the operation, recovery and rehab periods. Otherwise if you've only started to walk again properly going straight into plyometrics is just gonna pound your knee into dust...

One thing people forget when overcoming long-term injuries is not only getting the STRENGTH back in the surrounding muscles, but the FUNCTION as well. If you've been limping for a long time the muscles have been firing in a different pattern for a long time and your body gets used to it. What happens is that you start overloading the muscles, but the muscles continue to fire in the abnormal pattern your body is now used to. An imbalance is created and you start to get patella tendonitis and other such injuries/syndromes, and the rehab cycle starts again.

Actually, there was no operation and rehab. It was just recovery, which could be why it took so long.

I didn't have a limp or anything like that, it just hurt like hell if I went to kick, or when it got cold or I did something stupid to it, like straighten it out too long. So I assume the function is still there, but it was just a strain or something that only flared up when I go to kick.

Got any ideas on how to develop my leg a bit better?

 

[Un-Aru]

Ahhh I see. Was the injury originally caused by a direct blow to the knee or one kick that seemed to go wrong? (suggesting damage of some sort) Or did you notice it gradually building up over time, ie was it getting progressively worse, particularly at each kicking practice. (suggesting tendonitis)

If you have made a complete recovery and can run, kick, jump and sprint without ANY discomfort there's no reason why you can't resume full training. Take it easy at first though or you'll just put a load on your knee that it's not yet ready to handle and you'll get an overuse injury. I recall reading that to get the maximum benefit out of plyometrics you should be able to squat about twice your own bodyweight. I consider that a little excessive but it does indicate that you need to have a good degree of strength to begin such training.

 

[Eternal]

Originally posted by Un-Aru
Ahhh I see. Was the injury originally caused by a direct blow to the knee or one kick that seemed to go wrong? (suggesting damage of some sort) Or did you notice it gradually building up over time, ie was it getting progressively worse, particularly at each kicking practice. (suggesting tendonitis)

If you have made a complete recovery and can run, kick, jump and sprint without ANY discomfort there's no reason why you can't resume full training. Take it easy at first though or you'll just put a load on your knee that it's not yet ready to handle and you'll get an overuse injury. I recall reading that to get the maximum benefit out of plyometrics you should be able to squat about twice your own bodyweight. I consider that a little excessive but it does indicate that you need to have a good degree of strength to begin such training.

Little bit of both. One kick seemed to hurt it, then it felt fine for a bit, then it started to hurt worse and worse.

I can squat twice my weight...Not too hard for me (I don't weigh a lot, haha). But I'll go hit the squats tomorrow to see what happens.

 

[Un-Aru]

Yip that sounds fairly typical. You may have hyper-extended the knee to cause the initial strain, then the repetitive kicking action caused further aggravation when the tendon/ligament wasn't fully healed. Of course I'm no specialist, my experience comes from having to do rehab work on all manner of injuries. You may want to consult a sports physio for a professional opinion, though I'm sure you already have. But good luck with the squats, let us know how it goes...

 

[Eternal]

Didn't end up doing squats. I talked to a doctor for a bit before hand and he had me do the leg extensions, leg press, and hamstring curls, to get my legs used to the stress of weights.

Did alright with them. I managed to do nearly the same amount for hamstrings, but didn't have a lot of strength with the quads. Guess that's what happens with a knee injury.

FYI: The leg extensions/press where lower weight, high rep to start with for now, so I guess it's gonna start slow for now. Also, since we've been getting steady snow, I won't be kicking for a while, but I'm gonna do some dry drills.

 

[Un-Aru]

Hmmm be real careful with those leg extensions cos the biomechanics of the exercise has all the stress (shear forces) going directly through the kneecap and toward the back of the knee (where hamstring meets calf) In saying that, if there's no pain (structural pain not muscular and you should feel the difference) usually it's ok.

Something to remember, if theres an inordinate amount of pain during an exercise the muscle that's bearing the brunt of it has a tendency to 'switch off.' This leaves supporting muscles to take over and as they get stronger over time, the muscle that switches off gets weaker causing a greater imbalance and causing more problems. You see this a lot with 'patella tendonitis' where the vastus medialis (teardrop muscle in your thigh) is much weaker than the lateralis (big meaty outside part of your thigh) This imbalance causes the kneecap to be dragged off centre and causes a hell of a lot of pain.

 

[Eternal]

Originally posted by Un-Aru
Hmmm be real careful with those leg extensions cos the biomechanics of the exercise has all the stress (shear forces) going directly through the kneecap and toward the back of the knee (where hamstring meets calf) In saying that, if there's no pain (structural pain not muscular and you should feel the difference) usually it's ok.

Something to remember, if theres an inordinate amount of pain during an exercise the muscle that's bearing the brunt of it has a tendency to 'switch off.' This leaves supporting muscles to take over and as they get stronger over time, the muscle that switches off gets weaker causing a greater imbalance and causing more problems. You see this a lot with 'patella tendonitis' where the vastus medialis (teardrop muscle in your thigh) is much weaker than the lateralis (big meaty outside part of your thigh) This imbalance causes the kneecap to be dragged off centre and causes a hell of a lot of pain.

Aside from the usual "ouch, good workout" pain the next morning, it didn't hurt.

I'll have to remember that. At what point does the muscle tend to switch off though, or is it just when there is too much stress on the one joint?

 

[Un-Aru]

A very good sign.
Yeah it's usually centred on the joint. You'll feel the difference in pain, instead of the usual burning fatigue you feel in a muscle, there will be a sharp pain in the joint. Think of it as a defence mechanism the body uses to protect itself from further injury.

Actually the same thing applies to even a healthy joint, if the joint feels that it's gonna be under stress it can't handle, the 'golgi tendon reflex' kicks in and the muscles shut themselves down.