Meniscus tears caused by tight hamstrings???

There is no known appropriate range of hamstring flexibility. It is extremely unlikely that your knee problems have anything to do with your hamstrings. It isn't safe to run with damaged menisci and you should consider a different lifestyle if you want to avoid serious joint damage down the line.

Thank you "the liberal perspective" for your insights. I'm still hopeful I can continue to run with some changes. I plan to work on my tight hamstrings just in case that could be a contributing factor. Also looking at HOKA shoes for more cushioning, and plan to reduce my overall mileage a bit and include a weekly rest day which will be something new for me as I typically took a rest day every 3rd week.

Your approach is called arbitrary wishful thinking.

You may be right, but just not ready to it give up.

Marathoner3 wrote:

Thank you "the liberal perspective" for your insights. I'm still hopeful I can continue to run with some changes. I plan to work on my tight hamstrings just in case that could be a contributing factor. Also looking at HOKA shoes for more cushioning, and plan to reduce my overall mileage a bit and include a weekly rest day which will be something new for me as I typically took a rest day every 3rd week.

Consider spending some time working on hip flexor flexibility. I've found that when they are tight, I get knee issues.

I always thought tight hip flexors contributed to IT Band issues or other anterior knee issues. I will certainly look into that though. Thank you.

Not sure if it would have prevented your meniscus issues, but have read articles about the importance of strengthening quads and hamstrings to protect the knees.

I had a posterior medial horn tear cut out (luckily no other damage, even to articular cartilage) and the rehab really focused on strengthening and stretching around the joint, especially stretching the hamstring.

I know after my first two surgeries therapy focused on strength and stretching, but seemed to be more to regain flexibility and strength lost due to the surgery and not as a means to prevent future surgeries. Anyone out there who would consider themselves to have flexible hamstrings have multiple posterior horn meniscus tears???

i think it's possible. i know i've had knee pain as a result of a tight medial hamstring (semimembranosus) and it felt much like the medical meniscus tear i had in the other knee - which required surgery to fix.

but when i concentrated on hamstring flexibility, the knee pain vanished.

i don't think it's unlikely that an imbalance or severe tightness could radically change the way the knee articulates or responds to the energy/stress/weight-bearing involved in a running stride

Marathoner3 wrote:

I know after my first two surgeries therapy focused on strength and stretching, but seemed to be more to regain flexibility and strength lost due to the surgery and not as a means to prevent future surgeries. Anyone out there who would consider themselves to have flexible hamstrings have multiple posterior horn meniscus tears???

Prior to surgery I tried to rehab as the surgeon thought that my pain was due to the bruised tibia head, and that the tear might not be contributing to the pain. The PT told me that the initial focus of rehab would be to loosen up the tightness in hopes of relieving the downward pressure of the femur on the joint. It didn't work and the surgery needed to happen.

I am convinced, however, that the tear was there previously and that what bruised the tibia made the tear worse to where it needed to be cut out. A couple of years before, I knelt down in my living room and felt a sharp pain. From that point on, I could run without any pain, but could not kneel down without significant pain. This went on for a couple of years until the surgery. After the surgery I was immediately able to kneel down.

Thank you for your insights! Appreciate it!

Wear and tear...

Slavish worshipping of the marathon god. 80-110 miles a week for ten years.

Your answer is there.

Look no further.

I've had surgery previously on a torn medial meniscus. Have on occasion thought that I've torn it again (on both knees). After seeing the physio though the knee joint has been totally fine, but my pain has been through overloading the hip flexors and ITB due to my glutes not activating properly. Your glutes generate power as well as stabilising the knee joint by stopping it from collapsing inwards. When I strengthened my glutes the pain went away.

Tight hamstrings are often caused by other muscle groups and/or pelvis misalignment. If this is the case working in your hamstrings won't help. I wrote an article on this for Stack.

http://www.stack.com/2014/07/16/fix-anterior-pelvic-tilt/

gryp wrote:

I've had surgery previously on a torn medial meniscus. Have on occasion thought that I've torn it again (on both knees). After seeing the physio though the knee joint has been totally fine, but my pain has been through overloading the hip flexors and ITB due to my glutes not activating properly. Your glutes generate power as well as stabilising the knee joint by stopping it from collapsing inwards. When I strengthened my glutes the pain went away.

I had done some very minor damage to my medial meniscus a few years ago. I was on the leg press and my right knee folded inward by accident. I have had varying degrees of pain the past few years. I have spent two years trying various strength routines in the gym to strengthen quads, glutes and hams with slightly more than minimal improvement. Recently, I have been very consistent with hill training with mostly short reps on a steep hill--a very glute intensive workout due to lots of reps of rapid acceleration up a short and steep hill. Have not lifted a weight in a few months since starting the hill training. Knee pain is gone. I think you may be on to something.

Seems like the growing sentiment is lack of glute strength could have been more of a possible contributing factor than hamstring inflexibility.

The idea that wear and tear causes ligament tears or arthritis is largely debunked. Your ligaments do weaken as you age, making them more susceptible to tears.

Ghrelin wrote:

The idea that wear and tear causes ligament tears or arthritis is largely debunked. Your ligaments do weaken as you age, making them more susceptible to tears.

meniscus = ligament?

really?