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patellar tendonitis

G

Gilo

New member
so i did my knee during army training and have patellar tendonitis have now got the OK to get back into the gym and was wondering if anyone had any ideas of different cardio i can do as running is still months away and the bike is getting pretty boring! the sitting around for 3 months not able to do anything has given me some stubborn tummy fat i want to get rid of.


cheers
 
Have patella tendonitis in both knees, stop running, even cycling can flare it up. I stopped playing sport for a few years and they seem to have come good, not much you can do unfortunately.
 
yeah cold weather is a killer as well. was thinking boxing or martial arts may be good due to the stretching and balance?
 
I get occasional boughts of acute patella tendonitis.

It really really sucks.

Here's my tips:
- squatting past parallel can really aggravate it, but only IF you - let you hamstrings relax and let you knees slide forward at the bottom. Learn how to squat using proper hip drive. Heeled shoes can also aggravate it because it forces you to adopt a more knees-forward squat. Low bar squatting with shins more vertical will take pressure off the tendon
- the tightness doesn't actually come from your patella tendon. To adopt Kelly Starrett's language, you need to work on the "upstream" and "downstream" tightness. Tight hammies, tight quads and tight calves all put tension on the tendon. Here is a protocol to help loosen this all up - it will help relieve the tendon:
Episode 33: FGB Push Press Prep. Patellar Tendonitis - YouTube
- you can strap the tendon. This is the way I do it:
Patella tendon tape - Guide to Taping & Strapping - PhysioRoom.com

If your patella tendonitis is chronic, you should consider looking at eccentric loading on a slant board and strengthening it up before embarking on squats etc.

Here is some great info on eccentric training for rehabbing a patella tendon:

The Eccentric Exercise Protocol for Chronic Patellar Tendinitis / Tendonitis
 
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I've had it for over 5 years.

Few things I found for me.

Rest it. Don't push through pain and cause it to become chronic.

Still do exercise just don't do anything that hurts.

Patella taping never did anything for me.

Stretching / foam rolling didn't make a difference for me.

Squats especially low bar squats were no good for me.

The only exercise I found that significantly helped was TKEs and backwards sled drags. i do them every day.
 
Also, wrt foam rollers. I think that they have become a bit of a fad and people just blindly recommend them. They are very useful if used properly. You can't move up and down on muscle tissue, without purpose, and expect it to help (not at all suggesting
you did this Bazza).

Self-myofascial release is more than just foam rollers. The best implements are much more aggressive and painful - like cricket balls/softballs/barbells/25kg weight plates. With patella tendon, foam rolling doesn't really help. Eg with the hammy, what helps is a really hard ball (lacross or cricket ball) smashed in the hammie-glute tie-in. You need to sit on it while on a chair/bench and while maintaining pressure on the ball, straighten-unstraighten the leg without sacrificing posture. Then roll laterally across the tender tissue. You also need a hard ball to make any difference to the quad tendon. Foam roller won't help that. It will only deal with trigger points in soft tissue.

Same thing goes with stretching without purpose. You need be in end range for at least 2 minutes to see any lasting difference in muscle tension. And the way you approach it also makes a difference. Grimacing/pulling pain faces actually makes stretching less effective. Distraction and maintaining diaphragmatic breathing help the muscle to relax. For some muscles, stretching doesn't do jack.
 
cheers fellas i messed mine up pretty good was in a hospital bed for about a month, crutches the whole lot had alot of muscle wasting and only been walking normally for a month or so. they did consider surgery if it didn't improve so anything that will help me sort it out i'm happy to try
 
Wow. That's bad then. I would go to a professional for a rehab protocol in that case. You need to build up slowly and ensure that you address whatever issue caused this in the first place. Also, I don't this hospitalisation qualifies as "tendinitis". Tendinitis is just local inflammation of a tendon. It sounds like you had something a little more serious, like tendon rupture or tendinosis, which requires a very different approach to ordinary jumper's knee.
 
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yeah i go to physio once a week for rehab and physio, when i did it the mri pretty well showed that my entire knee was just a big ball of swelling to the point the pocket behind my knee cap was swollen, tendon was close to tearing my knee cap is all loose, soft tissue damage everywhere...was lots of fun haha
 
Ouch. Best of luck with it. The bike must be boring the shit out of you. Obviously lifting is out of the picture. If you can ride a bike, can you row? I would also look into boxing or something similar.

My brother has battled ACL issues (1x arthroscopy, multiple drainings, 2x knee recos) and arthritis which has worn away his knee cartilege. Pretty much permanent injury until they develop a stem cell therapy. He initially did a lot of spin classes, boxing training and then started to introduce kettlebells (obviously avoiding or limiting exercises which aggravated the knee in any way). This got him really fit. He has gradually worked up to squatting and can now squat to parallel, 100kg for reps, which for him is a massive achievement.
 
yeah pretty much can only do upper body weights, i had a go on a cross trainer but felt like my knee was about to pop out so hopped back off that quickly. haven't given rowing a go yet but that's a idea. is a toss up between boxing or muay thai not sure what one would work better as muay thai has a lot more stretching maybe start with boxing and work my way into others from that?
 
Gilo said:
yeah pretty much can only do upper body weights, i had a go on a cross trainer but felt like my knee was about to pop out so hopped back off that quickly. haven't given rowing a go yet but that's a idea. is a toss up between boxing or muay thai not sure what one would work better as muay thai has a lot more stretching maybe start with boxing and work my way into others from that?
Click to expand...

Muay thai is probably not the best because of the impact on the legs from kicking and the twisting involved in your support leg. See how you go boxing and go from there. IF you can join a boxing club and do the conditioning stuff too - things like pushups, skipping if you can handle it, chins, smashing a sledgehammer into a tyre is good.
 
push ups and sit ups are ok, cant handle skipping yet but working towards it. the phsyio says that boxing will be good because it will work on the fundamentals of balance and movement but i will have to stay clear of any twisting or skipping activities for awhile yet
 
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