I have a tender spot below the knee - probably Osgood Schlatters or general inflammation.
Any injury experts or people with experience of this out there?
Obviously squatting and running are out of the question, but how about good mornings? Although there’s no specific movement that stresses the bottom of knee / top of the shin bone, would general weight bearing be likely to lead to more inflammation?
How about swimming to maintain general cv fitness?
Osgood Schlatters is when the patellar tendon starts to pull away from the tibia, resulting in calcification around the insertion point and development of a significant bump on the bone at the insertion. General tenderness there is probably just tendonitis, and not Osgood Schlatters. (I used to be an athletic trainer many, many years ago.) Rest for the knee joint is probably best, as you’ve figured out already. Some cold compresses might help for the tendonitis.
Patellar tendonitis is sometimes caused the athlete performing an exercise in a limited range of motion. An example of this would be someone not utilizing the full range of motion when squatting, or quarter squats. This is especially true if their sports demands a lot of jumping. To combat this, full ROM could be utilized. A good example of this type of exercise is one and a half squats. To perform these, you would squat into the full squat position, as low as you can go and keep the weight on the entire foot, not just the balls of your feet. From the full squat position come up to the quarter squat position. Then, without pausing, go back to the full squat position. Then you want go back to the complete upright position, that is one rep.
Often the athlete, if they work a perform full range of motion for their exercises, will experience a decrease in their symptoms. Also working the joint with an emphasis placed on eccentrics will help with tendonitis.
here is an article written by Ian King which might help:
Charles Poliquin’s take on patellar tendonitis:
http://www.strengthzone.com/women/VB0203.pdf
another article off of t-mag:
yorik: is there anything to be wary of with osgood schlatters?? I have it on both knees, more significantly on my left one though.
Ren: It’s been a long time since I’ve been a trainer. In fact, nobody can diagnose over the net. I could only suggest the obvious, which is don’t overly stress the tendon by flexing the knee deeply, or extend the joint with massive weight. You really need to ask a doctor to look at it, since the problem can range from very minor to severe. Your limitations will depend on the severity.
Speaking as a long term sufferer I have found that squats have rehabbed my knee to the point where i couldn’t run for more than 10mins non-stop to be able to run a half-marathon in 1hr 39min. I never dreamed i would be able to do this.
Squats strengthened my vastus medialis the tear drop muscle enormously. This muscle is very important as it helps keep the knee cap track properly which in turn reduces the tension on the patella tendon.
If you want to build up to running then ‘progression’ is the key. Running is by far the worst activity i found for agravating my knee pain. I built up my running volume very slowly. I would run three times a week a first but only if i felt no pain in my tendon. I would run til i felt slight discomfort and then stop. The next time i would try to increase this to 1 min beyond. And the next session another minute. Then the next week i would back off to where i felt discomfort. This was painfully slow as some weeks i didn’t increase at all. I never was able to run for more than 50mins without discomfort but because i knew that i was not at risk of a serious alvusion (tendon pulling bone off) I could push a little harder now and then. I was confident that it was discomfort as opposed to pain.
Don’t let anyone use cortisteroids on you! They weaken the tendon and mask the pain. Don’t give up. If you do run make damn sure you fork out money for the best cushioned shoes you can get and change them regularly. I found this helped tremendously. And stretch religously, especially the quads and hip flexors.
I’ve had them for a few years now, most likely due to all the rugby I played back in high school. I’ve worked long and hard to be able to run and squat. Did cross country 3 years ago (approx 3 years after i got the osgood schlatters). And can full squat over 240 (not bad seeing as 3 years ago I could barely hit parallel w/ 135). I was just curious if ther were any long term effects. And I do thank working out on making my leg a lot more stronger and stable.
Thanks a lot guys.
Some great advice there.