Knee "crunchiness" & BC results!

[HeatherAnn17]

Hi,

I've been missing for quite some time. I joined back in January this year and then found out I was expecting and then miscarried in April. Ever since then, my health has been a huge mess. I kept trying to restart T-Tapp and would fail. Well, 16 days ago, I started a two week bootcamp that I finally finished. I lost a total of 19.5 inches since then, 3.75 of them from my waist. I took two days off and want to get started again tomorrow. Anyway, my question is about my knees. I don't think I have much cartilage in my knees. I can hear them crunching and grinding when I try to do plies. They don't make any noise or hurt when I do hoe-downs or walk, just when I do plies. So, during my bootcamp, I just held the plie stance and kept my muscles tight, but I seemed to have developed a small bulge on my upper thigh and I think it must be from doing that. Is there anyway I can do plies without causing further damage to my knee joints? Thanks. Heather

[BlessedMama]

You definitely should hold the squat. My next question would be if you are keeping your shoulders back in alignment with the hips? Usually a gain in the thighs means you pitched forward with your shoulders and/or collapsed the ribs.

Get in front of a mirror to do a few reps. Really, really tuck/curl that core when your hands are over your head and make sure arms are back by or behind ears--not in front!

Also don't just bend your knees to go into the squat--push them out as if you are pushing elevator doors open, the hold that tension as if you're holding those doors! If you have someone else who could come and push lightly against your knees while you are trying to push them out against their hands. Hold that isometric contraction for the squat!

Kick out between each set of plies to give your knees a break. Also, make sure toes are pointing at 11 and 1 on the "clock" instead of a wider 10 and 2.

I'm sure a trainer will be by to give further help, but that is what comes to mind!

HUGS to you--so sorry about your miscarriage. Don't beat yourself up--just do what you can. Set smaller goals of consistency vs. bigger goals and then feeling badly you can't meet them.

[BlessedMama]

P.S. Push those knees to little toe as you push out to go into the plie squat!

[mamalove]

I find that if I go up and down and do the arms in plies, my form is way off. So I just hold the squat and plant my heels into the floor and visualize my heels coming together. That helps A LOT!! Or sometimes I don't do the arms at all, I just really focus on ribs up, butt tucked, knees pushing out etc....My thighs hate me when I do that!! lol

Did I get the heel thing right Trisch?? Not sure if I explained clearly enough...

HTH!!

[mamalove]

I find that if I go up and down and do the arms in plies, my form is way off. So I just hold the squat and plant my heels into the floor and visualize my heels coming together. That helps A LOT!! Or sometimes I don't do the arms at all, I just really focus on ribs up, butt tucked, knees pushing out etc....My thighs hate me when I do that!! lol

Did I get the heel thing right Trisch?? Not sure if I explained clearly enough...

HTH!!

[BlessedMama]

Yep! You really activate those inner thighs when you try to bring the heels towards each other. They really don't move, but that extra activation helps me to push my knees out and get the inner thighs into the game!

[homefire]

I'm guessing that you aren't pushing OUT with the knees enough. I often hold the squat during the whole plies routine because I have some knee issues, and I find that it can actually improve my form because I can stay tucked and keep knees out much better when I'm not moving.