Knee pain from jumping rope?

Underdog

I'm trying to get some cardio in what little spare time I have these days and I thought jump rope would be a good option but a few weeks after I started doing it regularly (i.e. 2 or 3 minutes everyday, no rest days because, c'mon, 2 or 3 minutes) my right knee started to ache. I decided to stop while it got better, which took about a week, and then gave another two weeks of not jumping for insurance. I started again last week with a very mild workout. About 30 consecutive seconds each day, while taking a day off between. I went a little harder yesterday, with two 1 minute intervals seperated by several hours. Felt fine. Now I was just going at it again and about the 40 second mark, my knee started to get twinges. Not real pain, just an odd feeling but I figured better safe.

So I'm calling on anyone with experience in jumping rope to ensure that I am doing the exercise properly. Here's the run down.

I'm 5ft 7in about 160lbs. I don't have an extreme amount of fat but it isn't like you can't find any by grabbing at my stomach. So a good amount of dead weight.
I jump in my room, which is carpet that's rather flat given twenty years of use.
I jump only high enough to get the rope under me and I am on the balls of my feet the entire time.
I am barefoot; no shoes, no socks.
Before the pain, I jumped mostly with my legs entirely straight, no bend in my knees. Now I make an effort to make sure my knees are bent a bit, figuring that would help.
I don't go very fast now, although I did manage a decent pace before the pain started.
I tend to stretch after, not before.
No history of knee pain but had back issues in the past and recent niggling groin injury.
I have very flat feet.

Is there anything glaring that I'm doing wrong that could be causing this?

Fairchild

Warming up is always a good idea, especially before doing something high impact like jumping rope. In your case, I would warm up for jumping rope by... jumping rope slowly. Other than that you sound like you're doing everything else correctly.

Dr. Frenchenstein

warming up and stretching may help, also the bent knees are definitely the way to go. Impact with no bend is never a good idea. Was the ache constant even well after your workout?

From your description you aren't doing it incorrectly, that i know of. Try to go through the motions without the jumprope (do you do the one footed hop motion, or jump with both feet?) to make sure your form is good. it looks silly, but it's essentially the same excercise. you might need a compression brace or something, just to give your knee a little extra support. if your legs aren't that strong, your knee could be taking a lot more of the impact than it should as well. probably a PT is the only one to tell you for sure what the issue is.

jtan

I agree that a PT would be most likely to definitively tell you if there's a problem.

In my experience, I had knee pain that occurred on bending one of my knees about a year ago, and the AT I saw told me it was probably an inflammation of the plica and had me regularly take ibuprofen in response, which definitely helped.

Underdog

I'll make sure to warm up for now. It wasn't constant. I hurt when I had to use it only but if I was lying down or sitting, it felt normal. I jump off both feet although when the pain began, I had started to experiment with switching to single leg and then back to dual without stopping. I'll consider a knee brace if the pain ramps up. So far I've dialed it back and *knock on wood* no recurrence yet.

Is a PT Prothrombin time? How would that help? The wiki entry doesn't really make much sense to me. I will see the doctor in a little while for my flu shot so if necessary, I'll ask him about it.

Essee

I do believe he means "physical therapist," actually. And I agree that if this seems to be a problem that's sticking around, you probably ought to see one. You don't want a permanent injury in your knees... I have a couple family members who could attest to that.

boneposer

Before you go to a PT you might just get the thing looked at. A doctor can decide if you need an x-ray to diagnose bone damage or an MRI to detect tendinitis or other tissue problems.

Before bothering with any of that though, you might just try the ibuprofen protocol (it'll work with any other NSAID, but ibuprofen is the one that generated the name...not sure why). Take 1000mg every day for 5 days and see if that makes it go away. If you're not sure you can handle that high of a dosage start lower and gradually work up - stop if your stomach feels upset. Knee pain can be caused by a huge number of different things, and VERY few of them are severe enough to warrant a trip to the doctor. Still, you want to be careful.

Disclaimer which probably goes without saying: I'm not a doctor, PT, or certified fitness professional. You should Google all this stuff yourself, and take what you find with a grain of salt. There's a lot of bad information out there about this kind of stuff.

jtan

boneposer wrote:

Before you go to a PT you might just get the thing looked at. A doctor can decide if you need an x-ray to diagnose bone damage or an MRI to detect tendinitis or other tissue problems.

Before bothering with any of that though, you might just try the ibuprofen protocol (it'll work with any other NSAID, but ibuprofen is the one that generated the name...not sure why). Take 1000mg every day for 5 days and see if that makes it go away. If you're not sure you can handle that high of a dosage start lower and gradually work up - stop if your stomach feels upset. Knee pain can be caused by a huge number of different things, and VERY few of them are severe enough to warrant a trip to the doctor. Still, you want to be careful.

Disclaimer which probably goes without saying: I'm not a doctor, PT, or certified fitness professional. You should Google all this stuff yourself, and take what you find with a grain of salt. There's a lot of bad information out there about this kind of stuff.

I second this, as I've been put on ibuprofen regimens by athletic trainers for similar stuff, and I'd also add the advice that you split the dosage between 3 meals, easier to keep track of when you are taking your ibuprofen and might help the stomach.