Pliskin,
I feel for you to have to wait for this to heal, but that sort of thing happens to the best of us once in a while. That’s how we learn. Take your time. There is no deadline. Life is long.
You did not specify whether the pain you feel is on the inside or outside of the knee, but I’ve followed enough of your posts to guess it could be either or both. A few months ago you dealt with an illiotibial band injury (pain on outside of knee) but just three days before this post, you commented (
http://stadion.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=957 ) on your experience with the following exercise:
http://www.stadion.com/videos/patellofe ... tation.wmv . That exercise targets the hip extensor and strengthens/stabilizes the knee by way of the sartorius or “tailor’s muscle.” Did you overdo it, causing pain on the inside of the knee? Delayed onset pain can surface 2-3 days after injury of tendons.
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Pain on inside of knee: sartorius or “tailor’s muscle”
I didn’t find anything at
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_index.htm about this, so let’s try Wikipedia.
Brace yourself. Per Wikipedia, at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sartorius_muscle , the sartorius “Assists in flexion, abduction and lateral rotation of hip, and flexion and medial rotation of knee. Looking at the bottom of your foot, like you are checking to see if you stepped in dog poop, demonstrates all 5 actions of sartorius.” (Ok,
I laughed.) No offense intended, but that is exactly the sort of the action demonstrated in Kurz’ exercise for the hip extensor at:
http://www.stadion.com/videos/patellofe ... tation.wmv . This movement targets the hip extensors, and stresses the sartorius. Overdo it, and you will probably experience pain on the inner side of your knee.
To rehab it? I would first wait, doing nothing until I felt comfortable to try that same hip extensor exercise with body weight only, light band band exercises for stabilization of the knee (see below), prone leg raises or whatever feels right and gradually get back into stretching it.
An instructor at my dojang suggested doing a deep lunge, like a modified runner’s stretch, to strengthen this muscle when it is healthy. We were practicing various hook kicks (front leg, back leg, step-behind, spinning) at the time.
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Pain on outside of knee: Illiotibial band (IT Band) [You know this well; just notes here for other readers]
From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome , “Iliotibial Band Syndrome symptoms range from a stinging sensation just above the knee joint (on the outside of the knee or along the entire length of the iliotibial band) to swelling or thickening of the tissue at the point where the band moves over the femur.” I imagine the hip extensor exercise above could have aggravated your old injury. (?)
From Kurz:
Illustration:
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_knee-ili_art.htm
Rehabilitation:
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_xknee-il_art.htm
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Kurz seems to be a big proponent of waiting until muscle tears have healed and you have no more significant pain before you resume exercise or stretching. Instructors at my dojang and my kinesiologist (a.k.a. chiropractor) have suggested light progressive static or assisted PNF stretching on the sore muscle so that it does not heal short. The latter was new to me and I can’t say I like it. Very risky, unless you know what you are doing or have a great coach. I have always just waited it out and started “in kindergarten” again, as you so aptly put it, beginning again wherever I was.
I had an IT Band injury accompanied by misalignment of my hip a year ago (due to a practice spin crescent I shouldn’t have tried in the first place having had only a few weeks knowledge of martial arts at the time). A kinesiologist gave me lots of band work for the hip and for knee stabilization similar to the exercises shown in the lower right of the IT Band rehabilitation illustrations page referenced above. As you get well, you can raise the leg higher in the side raise and knee-up as you bring the leg in and set it down; do the opposite motion as well.
I still do exercises with bands 3-4 times per week to this day as I regard them a matter of survival. I was sidelined for six months for rehab of the hip and IT band and I will not go through that again. On the plus side, the maintenance (f.k.a. rehabilitative) exercises continue to do great things for the power and control of my kicks, and for my sense of balance. They also stabilize knees and ankles. I was told to do 10 reps each of four specific exercises and today, unless fatigued, I can often do all 40 in good form without stepping down. No, I did not have such keen balance before learning to do this. Yes, I am great at kata. Sometimes I add to these four “pillars” movements to mimic whatever kick we are practicing in class, for example, hip flexion for hook kicks.
On a closing note, you and I can commiserate today. I was out last week for overdoing something in class. The instructor asked for a flutter round. I had never done that, so I asked him to show me. Next combination was step-behind hook, flutter-roundhouse, from one end of the floor to the other. Do you know if you pump a little height into the flutter and snap a high front you can get off an aerial roundhouse just before your other toe touches the floor? Beauty. I won’t be trying that again until my hamstring is in better shape.
Take care of yourself, and remember: Take your time. Nobody’s watching. You compete with yourself first.
Cindy
Got to back off again of split training and go back to kindergarten doing squats and lunges. I lost 2 years of training for side split.
I really appreciate it.
. 
