LET’S GET IT ON – Athlete’s knees

By Neil Bravo
You have to buy Derrick Rose a new pair of knees. Or at least his battered right knee.
If only.
The hardest part of being an athlete is an injured knee. Most great athletes, not just ballplayers, go down with knee injuries once in their careers. For Derrick Rose, it’s just not once, not twice.
Tiger Woods had knee injury, so do Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Rafael Nadal and Tom Brady. Ironwoman Brodie Moir had knee injury too recently.  Even football stars are easiest preys to knee woes owing to the sports’ contact and movement.
Runners are sidelined by the so-called “runner’s knee” – pain behind the kneecap, mostly from overuse – while about 80,000 people annually injure an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the tiny band of tissue that provides crucial knee stability.
I have bad knee too that pops and feels unstable when I work out. I have tried a number of therapies but deep inside I know if I am ever to get this knee to work like brand new again is to go under the knife which I do not find the need to unless I am a professional athlete or if I cannot walk.
It helped that I am using a Bauerfeind knee support. The same one used by Kobe, Kevin Durant and most pro athletes. It’s now being used too by PBA and UAAP players, and even golfing lawyer Atty. Ed Batacan. Thanks to my good friend Emet Penson who introduced me to Bauerfeind. Anyone interested to try one, may as well get in touch with me.
Having said that ad lib, let’s back to knees and Rose.
Now, it’s just too bad Rose had to go under the knife again for another knee surgery on the same right knee. Just not the right time when he was about to get back his old form the past few weeks before the All-Star break and the Bulls having a good shot at the playoffs.
Even with another knee surgery, I don’t know if Rose will come out the same again. And as I have said, that knee should be brand new.
Since we are into this, let me walk you through a bit about knee injuries. As doctors would say, the most feared knee injury is an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear. But any knee injury can keep you away from play or cause long-term problems.
In football, next to the ankle, the knee is a commonly injured joint. Direct (being tackled or blow) or indirect (pivoting, twisting) impact to the knee may affect the ligaments (particularly the anterior cruciate ligament), tendons or cartilage.
Let’s put it in a perspective. The major mechanical part of an athlete’s body is his knees. And the worst enemy of your knees is tearing that thing called ACL which is one of the major stabilising ligaments in the knee joint that prevents excessive movements of the lower leg against the thigh.
Imagine this. Seventy per cent of all ACL injuries happen without contact with another player. Mechanisms in sports involve a one-step stop deceleration, a sudden change of direction, landing from a jump with the knee and hip at extension – or a lapse of concentration.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist for you to know that once you injure your knee, you will be away for sometime from the sport you play. And worse, when you come back, the trauma will be there. So your movements will not be the same for fear of being injured again.
Three things sports scientists are recommending for bad knees (or how to avoid them)—running and walking, cycling and swimming, and squatting and lunging.
I don’t want this to sound like a health column, but once in a while it pays to know.
My mom, who turned 83 yesterday, walks with some pain on her knees as it goes with ageing. I bought her a rollator walker a year ago to help her walk. She never used it as much as I desired she would.
She goes. “We were born with legs not wheels. I’ve been standing on these knees for 82 years. I cannot buy a new one.”
Crazy mom. But she’s right.
Yes, we can’t buy knew knees. Not even Derrick’s millions can buy him knew knees. Not even Tiger, or Rafa.
Oh, the hazards of trade.
Postscripts: Listen to “Let’s Get It On with Neil Bravo” on 105.9 Balita FM every Saturday 8-10 a.m.