Lateral knee pop heel hooking: My experience

Greetings, just posting this for anyone searching for some info on this type of injury.  Even though it turned out to be a minor one, the more info out there for people, the better.

How it happened:  I was pulling off a high heel hook, and when I grabbed the targeted hold, it wasn't as good as I thought, so it ended up putting a lot of pressure on the lateral side of my knee.  That's when I heard a pretty loud pop, and felt it on the lateral side of the knee.  I have no prior history of knee problems.  

Immediately after symptoms: No immediate pain, no sharp pains, no burning sensation. No bruising. No swelling. I was able to stand up with no instability. I could walk around fine. Had a bit of pain that evening(3 out of 10).

The next day/weeks: Zero bruising. Very minor swelling. Sore at the top of the calf. Sore on the lateral side of knee (5/10). Hurt a bit when I palpated the area. Still able to walk, but had a very slight limp.

4 weeks: Still had some lateral pain when palpating the injured area. Still had pain in certain positions; example: 90/90 stretch. I was still able to climb(only took one week off), but avoided certain positions/moves. I ended up making a physio appointment to get it assessed, and to get some exercises to help heal faster.

Physio Diagnosis: LCL sprain. Minor. Most likely cause of the popping was ligament flicking over a protruding bone. Some of the persisting pain was tightness in the area, and scar tissue.

I've only been to two physio visits, and I already feel a lot better. He basically knows what muscles to target to loosen up the area of the injury, and has techniques to break up any scar tissue that might be present. He has given me a couple of basic exercises; like banded bridges but you also open up the legs while you hold the bridge position.

I basically wanted to write this because it was a scary sounding injury. I immediately thought I had destroyed my knee when I heard that pop. I'm hoping this description can help someone else out there. I want to add that it's well worth the money to visit a professional that can test your knee and give you a proper diagnosis. If you have bruising, and/or swelling, then you must get it checked.

All the best.

I had a similar injury(s) years apart on both knees (both times cranking on a high heel, lots of torque on the knee) with a “did I just break a hold” sounding pop, no immediate pain and minor limitations for weeks to months after with the exception of trying to heel hook… a PA friend who also described the same thing happening to him said it was a band of cartilage snapping and that really only time will help. Pigeon pose triggered pain for months. Apparently more likely with age as with most things… it’s healed now, but I don’t heel hook like that anymore. Not sure if he misled me or what. but thanks for the input.

About 20 years ago, I tore my LCL while rolling in BJJ. Shockingly loud snapping sound and my leg buckled inwards, but honestly not terribly painful maybe 5/10. I had an MRI and it was confirmed as a complete tear and loss of the ligament, but my doctors said it wasn’t worth repairing unless I planned to pursue sports like basketball or soccer where a cutting side-to-side motion would be expected. Anyway, I didn’t have surgery and I’m missing that ligament in my left knee, and I’ve never had any problems climbing, hiking or heel hooking. No pain or loss of strength. Ironically, I have injured my right knee using heel hooks, but never my left. Make of it what you will, apparently it isn’t a terribly important ligament if you want to crush 5.11s and V4s!

Thanks for posting this, I did the same thing not too long ago. It resolved on its own with careful loading but I never understood what happened until now. In my case I think the root cause was a hard externally rotated heel hook proceeded by an increase in yoga that involved similar loading (i.e. pigeon).