Anyone out there ever torn a ligament in their knee ? Its fugging painfull, not reccomended. Any ideas of recovery time ?

Ask wilkinson ;-).

On a more serious note depending how bad it is then 6-8 weeks i think before you can start to excercise it again, Only gentle excercise mind.

if u can take Non steroidal anti inflammatories like brufen that helps to reduce the swelling, u need to rest and good physio.it can take months to heal,unfortunately the injury i did stopped me playing sport for a years and thats why i now mtb.it is very painful and i sympathise

Next Friday Im going into Hospital to have the Tension Banding removed from a jogging accident in 03. Feeling pretty pissed off cos I was hoping to put a few miles in this week ! Cant believe how painfull a torn ligament is, almost as bad as a broken patella.

I snapped my left knee ACL playing footy about 7 years ago. Some tosser took a shot at my knee not the ball. Everyone on the pitch heard the snapping noise.

I had an operation two days later to sort out the joint because it was so swollen and painful. As well as cutting away some torn cartiledge, they confirmed the ACL was snapped. Operation 2 fixed the ACL, a couple of months to prepare for this op, and several to recover. Operation 3 removed one of the screws in my lower leg because it was becoming inflamed every time i tried to run or do any serious exercise. This had me out of action for 2 years altogether. So I hope yours goes a lot better. And you're right, it really hurts.

I snapped my cruciate ligament a couple of years back. Yep it really hurt me too, amazing how many colours its possible for a knee to be. Physio will help, although the group session i had was terrible. I was at least 30 years younger than everyone else there and the excercises were aimed at the elderly people. I found that the more i excercise the leg, the muscles built up stabilising it. I dont play much squash anymore though as it usually ends with me regretting it. Again i was told 6 weeks minimum at the time then build up slowly after that.
Anyway get well soon Alex

Sorry Alan.

did some ligament damage about 4yrs ago and still feel twinges from time to time, its never heald right. give it plenty of time and rest.

Thanks Mark, I think I will fit in just fine with all the OAP's at physio. I fugged up my ligaments twisting out of my pedals. Ive been using clipless pedals for yonks and never managed to injure myself before. Trust me ! Does anyone still use old-style toe clips anymore. I know they look crap but at least there wont be a twisting motion to release my feet. Sorry if there are a load of spelling mistakes, but Blue Peter is on and Im letching at the new Bird.

try and find a good sports phsyio, ask at your local sports centre, worth there weight in gold.

Alan...do you mean you've injured yourself by repeatedly clipping in and out? Like a gradual wear on your knee?

If so thats quite worrying and I never realised it could happen.

I badly dislocated my knee last year because I couldn't clip out in time when I came off. As far as recovery time goes for me..it was probably over six months ago that I injured my knee and I still get very stiff and achey - especially when it's cold. I dont think it will get anything like normal for at least 12 months..so I'm told. Im not sure about actually snapping the ligament...mine was stretched quite a lot. I was told by the Physio that cycling was the best excersize for me as building up the muscles was the best way to keep my knee cap in place.

In oct 03 I tripped whilst out fpr a run. The patella was broken and required "tension banding" to hold the knee cap together as it healed.
I have never regained full use of the knee. Mainly because Ive been unable to put the miles in as I used to do.Consequently the muscles around the knee are pretty much non existent. This is what caused the injury I believe. It was one of those situations where unclipping had to be carried out in a hurry.
The result was I wrenched the bad knee and tore a ligament !

That sounds so painful. Were you told anything about building up the muscles around your knee because your ligament is knackered?? Did you have to have an op or anything? I was told I'm likely to dislocate my knee again because the ligament wont be as strong as before. If it happens again then I will have to have an op to tighten it.

It's a shame that doing something we love can have negative consequences :o(

If you have shimano spd's cant get cleats where you can clip out really easily. rehttp://www.chainreactioncycles.com//Models.aspx?ModelID=110
Will learn how to do clicky soon ;)
Toe clips arnt such a good idea, i have always found them hard to get out of in a hurry. Why not use flat pedals till your better, thay may not be as fast but it might be safer.

Yeah to be honest I dont really fancy toeclips. I dont wanna go down that route or you never know where it will end. Probably wearing those long socks and trouser clips that CTC members seem to think are the height of sartorial elegance.
What I may do is invest in a pair of Shimano's duel-sided pedal. That way my right foot can be clipped in and the dodgy leg's foot can rest on the beartrap side.
To be honest I find riding a bike using flat pedals really strange. Goes to show how spd's have changed cycling. (or my cycling anyway)

I would check with a physio if it would be a good idea having 1 foot spd'd and the other not, you may end up doing more of the work with the spd'd foot. I am no expert obviously but it would probably feel weird because your 2 feet are pedaling in different ways. Your right foot will be pulling the right pedal back around again but left foot would not be able to do this as well on your left pedal. Might be worth a go though. Flats really aint that bad once you get used to them. Why do you think they wear those long socks anyway??

probably to keep their knees warm !!!