Fitness: Knee & ankle support for bodybuilding

[Signals]

I wanted to get some feedback from all of our bodybuilding and workout enthusiasts here on the Zone. I just signed a contract with World Gym and I am sufficiently motivated to follow through on some fitness goals for the year.

When I was in my early 30's I had a membership with Bally's/Presidents and was fairly consistent with my bodybuilding goals and made some worthwhile progress for about a year, year and a half. However, life happened and I became lax and eventually fizzled out. Even though over the years I had gotten in shape off and on using Pilates and a fitness bike I had at home, I haven't done any serious heavy duty workouts.

I'm getting to my questions?

The two area's of concern for me are my knee and ankle. In my 20's I fractured my ankle and it caused some minor issues with workouts but it was bearable. Now that I am in my late 40's and determined to get into shape, but absolutely do not what to have any issues with my ankle or my knee.

My knee has never been injured in any way, but when I did lower body work in my 30's I would from time to time have knee pain of say 2 or 3 on a scale of 10.

Right now I am working on my rehab from my shoulder surgery from Nov. 2012, and that will take 6 to 12 months, so I will be doing lower body and core work, (anything that doesn't require shoulders for about 4 to 6 months.)

Having said all that I am going to do everything I can to head off any potential issues right from the start.

I know there a lot of bodybuilders/fitness enthusiasts here and wanted to get some feedback on the best types of knee and ankle supports for working out. When I was looking at all the different types and variations for support I decided I definitely wanted to get some opinions on the different kinds and results from you all.

So tell me about your experiences with knee and ankle support before I go burn money on stuff that isn't worth a crap.

P.S. for the few of you that knew about the shoulder surgery, the rehab is going fairly well, slow, but it's going pretty much as expected.

[Kangaroo]

I started working out again this year I am in my early 40's what i made sure to do is not to use all the heavy weights start of low weight and do reps.

Way to easy to pull muscles as you get older I am working out between 4-6 days a week depending on week and stayed pretty much injury free.

Listen to your body is my other suggestion by all means push yourself but make sure not to do it to quick or to much at once. I started off two days a week went to three and ramped up as my body felt stronger.

[Signals]

Originally Posted by Kangaroo

I started working out again this year I am in my early 40's what i made sure to do is not to use all the heavy weights start of low weight and do reps.

Yeah, I was definitely cognizant of the fact that I need to go easy on myself in the beginning, ensuring that joints, tendons, ligaments and muscle groups are sufficiently warmed up and strengthened enough to handle the load. I know for curtain I will spend several weeks doing more sets and reps with lower weight as opposed to getting impatient with the process, I'm just not in that big of a hurry. Besides, incurring an injury early and and having to lay off for healing would take more time than just being smart to start with.

Way to easy to pull muscles as you get older I am working out between 4-6 days a week depending on week and stayed pretty much injury free.

Listen to your body is my other suggestion by all means push yourself but make sure not to do it to quick or to much at once. I started off two days a week went to three and ramped up as my body felt stronger.

Yep, listening to the body is certainly a well learned lesson from my weight lifting days in my 30's.

Is there anyone else here in their 40's, 50's and 60's with any fitness, weight lifting and workout wisdom they would like to share? I am all ears.

[CATCH17]

I don't know much about the ankle stuff. I'd imagine about all you can do is brace it.

Same with a knee. You can buy those knee wraps and they are actually supposed to help with your form on squatting.


I hurt my knee a few months back though so i'm probably not the guy to listen to. I finally scheduled an appointment today because I thought it may be tendonitis.

I get random pain around my knee and the back of my knee and calf muscle gets tight.

[Risen Star]

Stretching and warming up is key. So is rest. If you rely on braces or wraps you are under developing those joint muscles and making yourself more prone to injury.

My advice is to take it slowly with good form and a moderate amount of weight. Do not try to compete with those around you.

[zrinkill]

I am 40 and do full body workouts 3 times a week, heavy weights.

Use proper form and do not try and compete with 20 year olds.

If you have an injury or a pulled muscle, let it heal until its pain free movement before you try to lift again.

Make sure you get plenty of sleep and protein.

[Kangaroo]

On the ankle some places have a device where you put a weight on it and you put your foot in and lift it helped my ankle a lot.

[rickjameschinaclub]

I've been lifting over 15 years, not to gain mass but simply to look good. Through years of lifitng, I created plenty of issues, including shoulder issues, frequently strained neck muscles, poor movement in athletic sports, and because of trying to correct these issue I had to sift through plenty of bogus information on the internet\. I finally pretty much corrected it when I came across a free web-site by Dr. Jolie Bookspan, whose specialty is sports physiology as well as how the body reacts in extreme conditions.

http://www.drbookspan.com/clinical.html

I recommend her site to any and everybody. It is common sense, avoids bogus information, simplifies why certain exercises don't work and so forth. She talks about correcting Neck Pain, shoulder pain, lower back pain, ankle pain, knee pain... The concept is essentially clear, i.e. most pain issues is primarily caused by postural issues and not an issue about 'strength'. Bad exercise form, i.e postural issues, can excarebate issues. Which is precisely why you see plenty of weightlifters with forward shoulder and neck pain, fall prey to rotator cuff issues, have knee problems, and the like.

I'd read that page I just provided.. If you have any specific questions about some of the concepts, you can ask them here and I can answer them to the best of my ability.

[Future]

Originally Posted by CATCH17

I don't know much about the ankle stuff. I'd imagine about all you can do is brace it.

Same with a knee. You can buy those knee wraps and they are actually supposed to help with your form on squatting.


I hurt my knee a few months back though so i'm probably not the guy to listen to. I finally scheduled an appointment today because I thought it may be tendonitis.

I get random pain around my knee and the back of my knee and calf muscle gets tight.

Don't waste your time getting an appointment if its tendonitis, all you can do is rest and ice it pretty much.

If you are having calf problems with it though, could be a strained or torn tendon, which is causing other parts of your body to compensate for your knee. That is what you should watch out for.

As for ankle support...I wear ASO ankle braces every time I play bball, lacrosse, football, or soccer. Super supportive and even though I've tweaked my ankle before, I've never actually sprained it wearing them. They aren't cheap, but if rolling an ankle is the problem, I'd definitely recommend them.

[CATCH17]

Originally Posted by Future

Don't waste your time getting an appointment if its tendonitis, all you can do is rest and ice it pretty much.

If you are having calf problems with it though, could be a strained or torn tendon, which is causing other parts of your body to compensate for your knee. That is what you should watch out for.

As for ankle support...I wear ASO ankle braces every time I play bball, lacrosse, football, or soccer. Super supportive and even though I've tweaked my ankle before, I've never actually sprained it wearing them. They aren't cheap, but if rolling an ankle is the problem, I'd definitely recommend them.

Some days it feels fine and some days it hurts. When it first started bothering me I had to drag my leg around for a few days. It also felt like my knee had a loose feeling. Like I was on ice or something.

The most consistent pain I get is on the inner part of my knee and the rest of the pain is just kind of randomly all around it.

It's been going on since October so I decided its time to go to the Doc.

Another weird thing is I took off from doing leg lifts for about a month. Then I went back to doing them and it actually feels better for a day or 2 after I lift.

[rickjameschinaclub]

Originally Posted by CATCH17

Some days it feels fine and some days it hurts. When it first started bothering me I had to drag my leg around for a few days. It also felt like my knee had a loose feeling. Like I was on ice or something.

The most consistent pain I get is on the inner part of my knee and the rest of the pain is just kind of randomly all around it.

It's been going on since October so I decided its time to go to the Doc.

Another weird thing is I took off from doing leg lifts for about a month. Then I went back to doing them and it actually feels better for a day or 2 after I lift.

Muscle pain or ligament pain? Do you let your knees sway inward when doing squats?

[Future]

Originally Posted by CATCH17

Some days it feels fine and some days it hurts. When it first started bothering me I had to drag my leg around for a few days. It also felt like my knee had a loose feeling. Like I was on ice or something.

The most consistent pain I get is on the inner part of my knee and the rest of the pain is just kind of randomly all around it.

It's been going on since October so I decided its time to go to the Doc.

Another weird thing is I took off from doing leg lifts for about a month. Then I went back to doing them and it actually feels better for a day or 2 after I lift.

Might be a problem with swelling, which is why using it would make it feel better...that could be tendinitis, or it could be swelling b/c there is actual damage.

Did you notice you hurt it, or did it simply start hurting?

[CATCH17]

Originally Posted by rickjameschinaclub

Muscle pain or ligament pain? Do you let your knees sway inward when doing squats?

This may sound dumb but I can't indentify if it's muscle, ligament, or both.

It hurts where my ligaments are and it hurts in the calf muscle too. The pain sometimes shoots out to random areas around my knee. It's not extremely painful or anything. Just feels like something is wrong with the knee.

Also the knee will pop sometimes.


I point my feet out a little when I squat and I go lower than parallel.

[CATCH17]

Originally Posted by Future

Might be a problem with swelling, which is why using it would make it feel better...that could be tendinitis, or it could be swelling b/c there is actual damage.

Did you notice you hurt it, or did it simply start hurting?

Well at first I thought my legs were just sore from the workout. Then a day or 2 later I figured out that I had done something either on the leg press, squat machine, or elliptical.

I've been wearing a jumpers knee brace because at first it made my knee feel more stable.

Just sitting in my chair I have a random pain that went to the top of my quad, went away, and went into the back of my hamstring. It's really random where the pain will be.


It's nothing unbearable though.

[Kangaroo]

Originally Posted by Future

Don't waste your time getting an appointment if its tendonitis, all you can do is rest and ice it pretty much.

If you are having calf problems with it though, could be a strained or torn tendon, which is causing other parts of your body to compensate for your knee. That is what you should watch out for.

As for ankle support...I wear ASO ankle braces every time I play bball, lacrosse, football, or soccer. Super supportive and even though I've tweaked my ankle before, I've never actually sprained it wearing them. They aren't cheap, but if rolling an ankle is the problem, I'd definitely recommend them.

So do you play in an oldman league for lacrosse. I played in a couple here in Houston back in the day hard for me to play anymore with all the kid stuff. I play the Alumni game in October where i went to college.