🦵Jumper’s knee is when there is irritation of the patella tendon, the tendon just beneath your knee cap. Where as quadriceps tendinopathy is when there is irritation of the quadriceps tendon, just adobe your knee cap. Patella and quadriceps tendon pain is a common source of anterior (front) knee pain often occurring from repetitive or excessive overload onto the patellar tendon. This is often a condition of younger athletes, especially men, who participate in jumping sports such as volleyball, tennis, football, and basketball. Loading the tendon is the primary stimulus that helps with tendon health!
❓How do we treat it?
➡️First, load modification is used with the goal of reducing pain. What do I mean? If playing soccer is your trigger to pain, at a minimum you should reduce the volume or intensity at which you are stressing that tendon. Likely you will just take time off of the trigger for a short period of time. While you are temporarily taking a break from your sport, you will begin a progressive loading program. Some pain is acceptable during or after exercise, however, symptoms should resolve quickly and should NOT worsen over the course of the loading program. Actually, loading often makes tendon pain feel better! This is known as the “warm-up effect.”
Start with isometrics!
‼️With isometrics shoot for 5 repetitions of 45-second holds with a 2-minute rest break, you want to go heavy! The load should be at about 70% of the maximal amount of strength that you can hold. After 45 seconds you should be getting fatigued. Isometrics have shown to reduce pain, which is why I love beginning my patients here. In this phase, you can also perform other exercises targeting your gluteals and calves in the meantime. Don’t progress quickly through this phase, this often takes a few weeks to progress through.
🔥Let us know how you are feeling after doing this in the comments!
