Patellar Tendon Pain

[jdtemple]

Anyone else deal with patellar tendon pain? Jumper's Knee, I hear it's called. It showed itself several weeks ago. It gets really bad after leg day and a few days after. I took a break for two weeks. I spent one week on a cruise where I just did some light work with the machines on the cruise ship. When I got back, I did a deload week, where I did all my usual lifts at 70% of the weight. Everything seemed ok, but this week I'm back at the heavy stuff and the pain returned.

I know these things take a while to heal, and I'm kind of afraid that if I don't do something about it, it'll just keep getting worse.

I recently started wearing knee sleeves because of it, and stopped squatting in my five fingers and went back to some Rogue squat shoes.

I don't have much pain during leg day (which was this morning), but this afternoon, I'm hurting.

I'm just curious about what others have done to address the problem.

[IIISpartacusIII]

Some compression typically helps quite a bit. The knee sleeves will keep them warm but doesn't add much compression and most are not adjustable. I would recommend buying a compression strap and tightening it when training legs or when you feel significant pain.

[Mark1T]

jd, yes, I have patellar tendinitis really bad in my left knee. Have had it for a couple of years. Like yours, mine really flares doing heavier squats. I stretch more, and it might help very little.

I wear knee sleeves when squatting. But, for the last two weeks, I use a knee wrap on my left knee and pull the sleeve over that for my squat sets. It does help, but it is not a cure. From what I have read, patellar tendinitis occurs when the tendon doesn't track correctly when you bend your knees. With that in mind, I wrap the wrap toward the inside, which is clock wise looking downward on the left knee. That pulls the tendon to the center more.

I have never gone to the doctor, but if I did, I would request a cortisone shot. Other than that, maybe see a sports medicine professional, as jumpers knee is very common.

[dgilmore76]

I have patellar tendonosis and quadriceps tendonosis as wella s a partially torn patellar tendon. I did mine playing football last year, I am still in pain, I can not do leg extensions at all. squatting is trouble, I can kinda get away with doing leg press. I am just started getting A-Stym treatment on it all, I have only had two sessions and it seems to be helping, the orthopaedic surgeon said that if he had to operate on it right now it probably wouldn't work due to the scar tissue that is there. when I first hurt it about a year ago I did what you did and rested it a bit and did not push it too hard. in the end I made it really mad and been unable to run or really do legs for 6 months and I love legs they are by far my strongest body part. Just wanted to give you a bit of info on what I am going through. I would say do not mess with it and get it looked after correctly from the start.

[raynerd]

I have had this for a while now. It has got to the point I taking a break from squats. One thing that helped me was knee flossing using voodoo floss bands. YouTube it, Kelly Starlett does a good video series on the floss bands. I would do this before every squat session, put on my sleeves and be almost pain free for the session.
Right now I have stopped squats, and am working on various single leg exercises, BSS, stepups etc to try to fix the imbalances that cause the poor knee tracking in the first place. Weak abductors are another cause for poor tracking, as well sometimes it is happening due to the lower leg. Just trying to strengthen it all up I guess and let the tendons heal before I begin squatting again.

[Mark1T]

I have patellar tendonosis and quadriceps tendonosis as wella s a partially torn patellar tendon. I did mine playing football last year, I am still in pain, I can not do leg extensions at all. squatting is trouble, I can kinda get away with doing leg press. I am just started getting A-Stym treatment on it all, I have only had two sessions and it seems to be helping, the orthopaedic surgeon said that if he had to operate on it right now it probably wouldn't work due to the scar tissue that is there. when I first hurt it about a year ago I did what you did and rested it a bit and did not push it too hard. in the end I made it really mad and been unable to run or really do legs for 6 months and I love legs they are by far my strongest body part. Just wanted to give you a bit of info on what I am going through. I would say do not mess with it and get it looked after correctly from the start.

Good post and sounds like you really hurt your bad. You brought up leg extensions. I think leg extensions are what started and caused my pain in the first place and squats exacerbated the condition. Hope the therapy works out.

[crupiea]

This actually works and its comfortable.



Kt tape. I just take a normal strip, cut it in half and use it. The stuff can be pricey so I use the least amount possible.

Nice thing is you can wear it around all day.

[EjnarKolinkar]

I have had this for a while now. It has got to the point I taking a break from squats. One thing that helped me was knee flossing using voodoo floss bands. YouTube it, Kelly Starlett does a good video series on the floss bands. I would do this before every squat session, put on my sleeves and be almost pain free for the session.
Right now I have stopped squats, and am working on various single leg exercises, BSS, stepups etc to try to fix the imbalances that cause the poor knee tracking in the first place. Weak abductors are another cause for poor tracking, as well sometimes it is happening due to the lower leg. Just trying to strengthen it all up I guess and let the tendons heal before I begin squatting again.

You could look into eccentric slant board training, would run it past your doc or PT.

I made a slant board for my son upon reccomendation due to his issues. It been beneficial in his individual situation. His tendon is undamaged, no patellar pain syndrome, but osgood schlatter from basketball.

http://runnersconnect.net/running-in...nitis-running/

There are some vids on the tubez as well.


I dont know the extent of your problems and obviously cannot offer any qualified advice. Just posting a link.

[jdtemple]

I found this, and that helped quite a bit with the immediate pain. You can do it yourself, and it only takes a few minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1-LibsbxWY

[SamPhysioFox]

Isometric holds of around 5-10 seconds at an intensity of around 40-70%.

Tendinopathies are combinations of tendinitis (tissue inflammation) and tendinosis (tissue degeneration), so irritated degenerating tendons. The trick is to reduce pain to a point where you can then exercise to replace tendon tissue lost to the degeneration. Reduce pain by reducing training load and beginning isometric holds at an intensity where you feel no worse the day after.

PhysioFox has a fairly good strategy to manage this load management.