My name is alex and i'm going to be 15
years old in about a month. About a month
and a half ago, during swimming practice,
we went to the workout room and I did this
machine called the leg extensions, where
you sit in a chair and start with your
knees bent, and then you try and extend
them while there is weight put on them.
One of my friends put on an enormous
amount of weight (i think it was 215
pounds) and could do a couple of reps, so
I tried to match him even though my usual
workout on the machine was 3 sets of 12
reps on 130 lbs. I got about half way
through one rep and I felt a painful
tearing or pinching in my left knee and
immediately got off. It hurt for a few
minutes but I thought it was nothing
big.
Everytime during swim practice where we
did kicking drills and stress was put on
my left knee, the pain kept coming back,
which eventually led me to have to quit.
Its been about 8 weeks and it doesn't
really hurt except if I run too fast or
put too much pressure on it, like trying
to jump up and down on just my left foot,
but even then its just a small pinching,
but it still hurts. It also feels like my
right leg is my really dominant leg, and
it feels like im walking on a stilt with
my left or like it is slightly paralyzed.
I've looked at other forums and posts and
am starting to think it's a meniscus tear,
but im not sure.
It's really tough for me because if I was
just an average person I would just deal
with it, but im a tournament tennis player
and it's really tough for me to deal with
this, because I still have the ability to
play well and I go to practice about every
day, but I can't really use my left leg to
it's potential and it's making me a lot
slower on the court. I really can't
afford a surgery because my parents
already work 2 full-time shifts just to
pay for my lessons and for our very first
vacation, we really dont have thousands of
dollars to throw away because of my
stupidity in the weight room.
Does anyone know what exactly happened to
me and how I can heal this injury?? If
there is no cheap way though, I would
still like to know what my choices are.
Thanks a lot for your help, I really
appreciate it.
