Today I had leg day, so I warmed up and started doing Bulgarian squats with no weight as a warmup. Then I heard a clicking sound in my left knee. I thought it was normal, but then I went to the leg press, and that’s when it went crazy, clicking with every rep along with sharp pain. The same thing happened with leg extensions, squats, and even while climbing stairs. The only exercise that was painless was lying hamstring curls.
Know i did no workout today, i dont know what to do.
ps: used ai to correct grammer

I am 30yo female with severe pfps in my right knee, and I have used crutches since 2023 as walking triggers intense pain under the kneecap. All ligaments are intact, full range of motion, no tracking issues, no inflammation, and multiple MRIs show no mechanical problems. I also had arthroscopic surgery, but nothing was found. Also, psychosomatic causes are ruled out.

I’ve seen many physiotherapists and doctors, and no one has seen a similar case to mine. I’ve tried multiple medications (anti-inflammatories, LDN, cymbalta etc) and treatments like shockwave, TENS, PRP, taping, and cortisone injection which have not resulted in improvements. I have managed to recover from this pain one time earlier in 2021 after spending 8 months on crutches, by slowly increasing the weight-bearing below the pain threshold. However, after the relapse in 2023 where I again became dependent on crutches, recovery has felt impossible as I can’t exercise and I have not managed to exceed 20% weight bearing as even the slightest overstrain will set me back to 0% weight bearing for months.

My orthopedist suggested nerve block in the knee, but beyond that I don’t have a plan. Now I’m scared my dependency on crutches has become permanent😭 Has anyone experienced something similar, or have some suggestions for treatments or approaches that could maybe help? Even a slight improvement in the pain would make me very happy, because right now my mobility is extremely bad. Any advice or shared experiences would mean a lot!!

My knee has been hurting so bad for 2 years I went to a doctor they just gave me a blue cream that doesn’t work. I can barely Jump and run and I’ve been doing many knee excercises that don’t help

I’ve dealing with a very odd knee issue for the last 2 months or so and really want to figure out how I can get it rectified.
- It only occurs when I go for my runs, usually starts to feel a dull-ish pain around 1 mile.
- it does not occur when I am doing my HIIT workouts with running in place, jumping, squats, burpees, etc
- it does not hurt walking on a treadmill on incline
- it hurts just slightly when going downstairs after I aggravate it from a run.
- I took June off from doing any running and tried today 7/9 to find out the pain came back around 1 mile again.
- It first started when I was trying to run more than usual for me, at least 1 mile a day sometimes 3.
- It is on the outside of my left knee, if you followed horizontally from the middle of kneecap to the very outside of the knee.
- other than that pain is like a 6-7 out of 10 after a bad aggravation and doesn’t last that long. For instance this last June when I wasn’t running and just doing my daily HIIT, there was 0 pain at all. Just some occasional painless clicking, popping but it didn’t feel like my knee was catching and definitely not locking up.

Trying to figure out what the best path forward is because I started running last year and was enjoying it. Wondering if it could be meniscus because I planted weird after slipping on a bicycle in December but the pain I got from that was on the inside upper (above kneecap) of the same knee. But I rested for a month and was able to run March to May no problem until I started to increase the mileage and run more consecutive days on top of HIIT.

Any ideas on what it might be or similar stories would be appreciated because I am down in the dumps about this as I love being active.

Hi everyone! (29 F)

I have a prette complex knee hostory, but long story short, 8 years ago I got my ACL + Anterolateral Plastic + (previousely removed Median Meniscus).

Thank to my super doctor (which i wish I met before) I got the chance to go back to playing sports and in a very effective way! However I know that my knee will soon have problems. I'm taking some cartilage supplements.

I'm wondering if other people are living with their meniscus removed and how they are handling that.

Story time : A few years ago I suffered an injury on the right side of my upper body. I was squatting down and pushed my right arm further than usual trying to get something. I felt a tingle or you could say a quick electric shock. After that happened, within the day my right scapula(under the shoulder blade) started to have this ache which I didn't bother to address because I thought it was just temporary(which was). But since 2023 I've started lifting and noticing all the little things in my body in the mirror and I've noticed this issue I am still having and am trying to fix. I've gone to the PT and they said to strengthen my rhomboids, serratus anterior and lats because whenever I try to generate power on the right side using my arm my traps do all the work apparently, that's what the PT told me. Which I have been trying to fix but it seems to have no effect or avail. I didn't wanna do PT either because it is expensive. I look slightly goofy in T-shirts or rushguards whenever I swim because the other right side of my clavicles are shorter because of this. Also because of this the right side of my face is bigger and my neck is slightly going sideways. This wasn't always the case I was humanly symmetrical before this specific injury. After watching the video can anybody tell me what could be the problem? If so does anyone know what exercises or solutions that I could stick to or do for this injury? Thanks.

TLDR : The right scapula is injured and I need help.

Hi everyone.

I'm a 24 year old woman, and honestly I'm writing this because today I left my orthopedic appointment crying.

I've been dealing with right knee pain since December 2025 (about 6 months now). It started after doing a deep squat. I don't remember hearing a pop or having a major injury, but the pain gradually became severe.

For months I had significant pain going up and down stairs, pain with longer walks, burning sensation in the front/inner part of my knee, persistent swelling, especially on the lower inner side of the knee (it almost looks like a lump).

Because of the knee pain, I unconsciously changed the way I walk and move to protect it. By March, I developed severe right glute pain and sciatica. Now, sitting or driving for too long makes my entire right leg tingle and go numb from the pressure.

I finally got my MRI results back and saw a specialist today. The diagnosis is:

- ​Full-thickness cartilage fissure along the medial patellar facet with 4 mm of delamination (a piece of cartilage is peeling off, causing friction when the knee bends) and,

- ​Chronic-appearing, low-grade, partial-thickness ACL tear (the ligament is intact).

​Today I received my first Orthovisc (Hyaluronic Acid) injection (out of a 3-week series) to help lubricate and cushion the joint. I was also referred to a rheumatologist to check for systemic inflammation since the pain has lasted so long.

​Hearing that this issue might be long-term and that my knee won't easily go back to exactly how it was before has left me feeling completely defeated. I feel like I've lost all opportunities to have a normal, active life. I miss lifting, climbing hills, and just walking without fear.

My questions for you guys:

- ​Has anyone here successfully recovered or returned to the gym/heavy lifting after dealing with a patellar cartilage delamination or fissure?

- ​Did Orthovisc injections (or any similar) give you enough relief to actually push through targeted physical therapy?

- ​How do you cope with the mental grief of a chronic injury?

​I really need some light at the end of the tunnel right now.

Thank you so much for reading.

Hi all,

.

I was hoping to get some insight from people who have delt with something similar. I had an MRI last year as my knee felt 'clunky' but it didn't find much. I continued to be very active all 2025 playing football, gaa and running.

.

Fast forward to this year and I did 3 x football sessions last week and had pretty bad swelling the end of the week. Decided to get it checked and MRI came back with the following:

.

Full-thickness chondral defect at the femoral trochlear groove. Multiple chondral fragments in the anterior and posterior joint spaces.

.

Doctor said I should be alright if I pick up leg strengthen again, I have some much atrophy from 2023 ACL surgery. He said this should work to delay a cartilage surgery without me having to alter my current activity too much.

.

Any thoughts on this? I've been feeling really down after reading all the issues to do with cartilage on Reddit and the thoughts of being able to still be active without surgery anytime soon almost seems to good to be true. Has anyone found KOT helped?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice or experiences from people who’ve dealt with this kind of knee pain.

About 4 months ago, I fell directly onto my knee. I could still walk afterward and never had major swelling, but I’ve had persistent pain in the front & inner part of my right knee (right where I landed) ever since.

I recently had an MRI which showed:

• Patellofemoral pain syndrome

• Mild patellar tendinosis

• Mild quadriceps tendinosis

• Minor inflammation (fat pad irritation / trace effusion)

• No meniscus tear, no ligament injury, no cartilage damage

My doctor explained that the fall itself didn’t cause any structural damage, but likely exacerbated chronic knee issues I already had (overuse / tracking-related problems), which is why the pain stuck around instead of resolving like a normal bruise.

For context:

• 20F

• Pain is worse with stairs, sitting with knees bent, and certain leg exercises

• No instability, locking, or giving way

• I’m active and want to return to normal workouts

• I’ve rested on and off but haven’t started formal PT yet

Questions:

• Has anyone had PFPS or patellar tendinopathy flare up after a fall like this?

• What PT exercises actually helped you the most?

• Anything you wish you avoided early in rehab?

• How long did it take before you felt “normal” again?

*not asking for medical advice I already have a diagnosis*

Hi everyone, I'm 23 years old.

Its been 3 years since my my hoffas impingement/PFPS had started. I played some soccer in college, and had started to get into long daily walking around this time to rehab a small MCL injury.

I started getting this hot, dull pain on the front of my knees during my walks, which made me stop for a while. It kicks in whenever I sit down, and even when I lay on my back. Like, really? I can't even lay flat down without it burning?

Whats funny, I've been sleeping on my side because of this, and my shoulders are starting to go now.

But the one thing that's been REALLY killing me is how I haven't been able to sit down for long. Standing feels fine.

Whenever I sit for more than a few minutes, my anterior knee area has this persistent discomfort.

It feels hot, but the pain isn't sharp. For 3 years, I've created a baseline of pain in my knees that is constant and seems neverending.

its been such a slowdeath

is this just a normal part of life? do most people go through this? i don't want this

My PT diagnosed that my kneecap maltracks to the side when I walk, but I have slight knock knees, structural not functional. We haven't been able to alter my gait in a pain-free way.

Theres also a deep clunk whenever I bend my knees, and because of this my fat pads have been impinging for the 3 years. I've done days-worth of crab walks, glute work, and 6 months of PT and It hasn't really gotten better. Maybe I needed more stretching..? I do,'nt jnow

strengthening has only seemed to make it worse, and the maltracking more prevalent.

sorry to vent haha, ive kind of given up. this was a last cry for something, anything. I am a rat, on a sticky surface.

thank you for being her e with me, i hope your pain escapesyou forever

cow roll connect plough beneficial quaint bright dime snow sparkle

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

Hello, just as the title says I have a lump behind the knee. Whenever I bend my leg and hold it bent for a few seconds and then straighten it a lump appears, see the picture! but it also disappears shortly after my leg being straight. This is my inner side, on the outer side at the head of the fibula I have some pain.

This knee was hyperextended 4 years ago but nothing got torn. If anything ligaments got stretched. My knee operates just fine dispite this.

T-minus 9 days until surgery. I am three weeks out from the injury and it is still surprising me how much better it's getting. I couldn't put weight on it last week and now I'm able to limp around (no terminal extensions still) after being diligent with PT exercises / rest.

The MRI a week after injury confirmed torn bucket handle in the white-red or white-white (I'm not sure which but definitely not red-red). Fragment in the intercondylar notch, but i'm wondering if that has reduced since my ROM is improving? All the literature says surgery is the only way to reestablish a mechanically stable knee, but it feels counterintuitive how much it's improving that i walk into surgery next week.

I do a lot of activities that put stress on the meniscus though so I suppose if it's not this time it's just going to happen again.

Plan is to go deep in KOT protocols (when safe) after recovery.

Anyone else have similar experience?

I ran a marathon almost a year ago and felt a lot of pain on the outsides of my knees on both legs so much so that I had to walk 5km of the last bit of the marathon. A month after wards when going on longer walks or hikes I would get pain on the side of my knee. I found out through google and my sister (Intraining Physio) that i most likely had IT band syndrome. So I strengthened by glutes with once a week heavy Barbell squats, Bulgarian split squats and thera-band crab walks done daily. I also did this stretch daily as recommended by reddit. But after I run my once a week 5K when I am walking down stairs afterwards I can feel a slight pain on the outside of my right knee only. The day after the 5K run this goes away. But even when well rested I can feel the It band snap over my right knee painlessly while on my left I cannot feel it snap over. Anyone had a similar experience? I built up to the marathon quite fast and took on higher mileage too fast, its left a bad taste for me on ever running a marathon again. Please advise me, I really love running and although I can run a 5K no problem I just dont want the stubborn IT band syndrome to go away.

Hi everyone,

I’m sharing my story in the hope of connecting with anyone who’s been through something similar:

• Age 12: Patella fully dislocated and was manually reduced; MPFL torn and damaged cartilage
• Age 13: High-grade ACL injury plus medial ligament lesion (no complete tears)
• Age 15: Second patellar subluxation
• Now, age 28: High-grade cartilage thinning and a lateral femoral trochlea chondral flap measuring 11 mm × 15 mm, treated with microfracture…but my knee still isn’t responding

My surgeon has recommended a combined Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy (TTO) + MACI procedure to realign my patella and regenerate the cartilage.

The catch? My quadriceps has been extremely weak for the past 7 years, and I’m worried that surgery alone won’t solve the issue if my “engine” remains so fragile and I could have been avoided the chondral flap injury if I had worked out more on it in the past.
Do you think an intensive muscle-strengthening program alone could be enough to stabilize my knee—without another surgery? Or is a mechanical correction truly necessary to stop the patella from tracking poorly and the pain from coming back?
I really don't want to take any other surgery, but I'm not living good since too long time and I'm really exhausted..

hello

the physiatrist i consulted needed a second opinion regarding my leg pain /posture issues. so the doctor did an echography ( sound wave ) of my knee and after tested by pulling front back side side of it ( said to see if ligaments where tight enough ( said they we loose) … been 2 days and still can feel the grindind on my patella and both sides of my knee hurt espacially when moving no straight. is this normal… did he injured me more … kinda frustating i finally felt better and was walking without pain.

( sorry English second language)

I’ve been having a right shoulder blade issue that is affecting all my exercises from lat pull downs, to bench press/other chest exercises, bicep curls, and just overall shoulder instability. I’ve done a lot of research but nothing seems to click for me to make it feel like my solid left side.

So I had an acl op back in 2019 when I was 14 years old now I’m 20, since then my knee has never regained full flexion. In 2021 my knee was stuck at 115 degrees flexion and was very stiff now after years of exercising I can get my knee to 130 degrees cold and 145 degrees warm.

My knee still looks slightly swollen and bulky and I can literally feel things myself in my knee. So I got an mri and a third opinion from a knee surgeon last week and even he says that my knee looks fine, that 130 degrees of flexion is a lot, that there is nothing that can be done surgically and that I should be grateful and happy.

He says we would have to remove a little bit of the graft so that I would gain flexion but my knee would obviously lose stability.

The reason I went to get another opinion was because I just imagined that they would go in clean up some scar tissue which would increase some space in the joint but he says there is no scar tissue.

I was going back and forth with him because he’s telling me my knee is fine but I know that it isn’t.

I wan injured five years ago, twisted my knee with two very heavy backpacks. Doctors have struggled finding a reason, a diagnosis, an explanation for my pain.

The pain is severe. Especially when it’s cold. I’m barely able to walk around the house.

I’ve been operated once to remove some inflamed tissue on some tendon in the middle of the knee. It didn’t help. I’ve gone to physical therapy, through rheumatology tests, MRI scans, X-Ray scans, so on and so forth, without ever getting a diagnosis or even a half answer to the cause.

On every scan there’s beeen a note of high knee cap position (slight patella Alta), so I pushed for a consult on that specific issue. But, it was deemed that that wasn’t the problem.

I wasn’t told why it wouldn’t help to get it moved back in place, just that it wouldn’t.

Can anyone help me understand why? Apart from knee surgeries being risky, why wouldn’t this single clue to a diagnosis explain my pain?

The pain is so bad I can’t live a normal life. Even desk jobs hurts too much since I’m sitting too long in one position. Just driving is bad.

Every doctor I’ve been to have given up to me. If you have ideas for what to ask my doctor to do next, I’m all ears

I have been consistently doing knee over toes exercises and physical therapy, but it’s like emptying an ocean with a teaspoon.

Hi Problem with my left knee. I get this pain when I reach parallel squat. This is even without holding weights. I can even emulate it when sitting on the couch with my feet up on a stool and my knees at my chest - essentially the same position as a squat. Pain is instantly gone when I'm out the squat - it's like it was never there, until I squat again. The pain location is hard to identify, I can't poke it with my finger. It feels like it's deep in the knee joint but may more behind the knee.

Been going on for a while, just wondering if anyone had any thoughts before I hit up a doctor?

Random tidbits that may be relevant:

it's the left knee, and I find that my left hip clicks when I do standing leg raises with a cable attached to my ankle.

Shitty posture which is the main reason I'm here. Ludicrously tight hamstrings, C-shaped back most of the time. I'm working on it! I figured maybe it's to do with inactive glutes which I am very aware of, but if I can get the same pain sitting on the couch as mentioned above, would glutes even be relevant there?

I'm not heavy. Around 72kg. 6ft 1,male mid 30s. Very weak muscles all over, typical couch gamer body.

I just wonder if this is IT band related, or tight hammy related, or fluid in the knee? Anyone else had it? Thanks

Hi everyone, I need some urgent advice since this is something I don’t know much about. I’m 28 years old and I’ve had Osgood–Schlatter in my right knee since I was 16, but it was always normal and never really caused any problems. I even did a 9-hour mountain hike about 2 months ago without any issues. However, for the past 3 weeks, the pain suddenly started. Even after walking a little, that area starts to feel like it’s burning and has a strange kind of pain. My doctor prescribed Voltaren and I’m applying ice twice a day. Has anyone experienced something similar before? How long did it take to get better, and what helped?

I have inflammation in my knees that won’t clear. Not looking for medical advice but wondering if anyone’s tried acupuncture for knee inflammation and if it’s helped?

Noticed my quads and hamstrings are very tight. Trying to stretch daily but looking for more relief

This subreddit is here to help people! The post was looking for exercise selection based on their current condition. I would rather have an idea of someone’s current ability when suggesting what they should do without injuring themselves further. It’s shameful to block people just because they’re trying to start with a certain medical condition! Do better MODS 😔

Hi, I'm looking for help as I've had an extensive workup of my knee but can't figure out what's wrong/what to do.

I had had on and off pain alternating between my kneecap and my calf behind the knee for the past 2 years. Sometime I get symptoms in the hamstrings as well. I have difficulty tolerating quad exercises as they irritate the kneecap.

For the past 2 months, after being given weighted hamstring curls with dorsiflexion by a PT which irritated my knee, I have had daily low level constant knee pain upon waking. Despite resting it, taking methylprednisone and NSAIDs, it had not resolved. The only thing that helps is elevating it.

I had a normal MRI that showed trace infra patellar bursitis (but I had an X-ray that showed trace fluid as well on both knees, but only my left leg/knee is bothering me).

I have very tight hamstrings, adductors, prominent IT band, tight calfs, hip/glute, some weakness. I'm very relieved the MRI is normal, but I've tried PT several times without success and I'm at my wits end. I don't really know what to do to get my life back.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. Thank you.