I have pretty serious patellar tendonitis. I have seen a doctor and am taking it easy and trying prolotherapy. My question is what can I do lower body wise while I am letting my patella heal? I still deadlift and that is fine but other then that I haven’t found much. I am curious as to how my knee would react to pushing a prowler around and I would like to know before investing in one…any help would be great.
Avoid any activities/exercises that result in significant anterior translation/force to the knee. Prowler pushes would be a great option. I’d also recommend reverse lunges and lots of glute work. If you haven’t begun already, foam roll your hip flexors/quads, ITBand, adductors, and mobilize the whole lower body.
Check out this article as well, lots of great advice: http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/rehabilitation/solving-anterior-knee-pain/
Thanks for the article and advice. I have been foam rolling and doing mobalization work. I’ll give those reverse lunges a try and look into a prowler. Thanks again
[quote]ramathorn wrote:
Thanks for the article and advice. I have been foam rolling and doing mobalization work. I’ll give those reverse lunges a try and look into a prowler. Thanks again[/quote]
Cho pat strap has helped me tremendously with my patella tendon. LevelHeaded covered everything else.
I had Patellar tendinitis for about a year and a half and as soon as I started squatting deep, and generally strengthening the muscles around the knee, the pain went away, and hasn’t returned since.
I’ve found strengthening the VMO to reduce/eliminate patellar tendonitis, as well as soft tissue work through the glute, TFL and IT band.
Light warmup
Foam roll Quads
Do isolation work with the antagonist muscle (Hamstrings)
Roll the quads(either a stiff foam roller or The Stick)
Stretch Quads
1llusion hit it right. Strengthen the VMO and make sure that you are hitting all the muscles of the quad and balancing the hammies. I suffered through this as a result of too much isolation moves and not enough warm up/rolling/stretching afterwards.
[quote]Coach Falcon wrote:
1llusion hit it right. Strengthen the VMO and make sure that you are hitting all the muscles of the quad and balancing the hammies. I suffered through this as a result of too much isolation moves and not enough warm up/rolling/stretching afterwards. [/quote]
IMO, the VMO focused training/rehab for patellar tendonitis/anterior knee pain is misguided. Especially when people state the source of the tendinopathy is too much isolation movement with knee extension. For one, it is extremely difficult to completely isolate the VMO and by doing TKEs or other “VMO” exercises you are placing additional stress on the patellar tendon by activating a quad that is already presumably tight and restricted.
The reasoning for anterior knee pain/patellar tendonitis is usually due to poor gluteal activity, poor hip mobility, poor ankle mobility, and poor trunk stability along with soft tissue restrictions. Instead of focusing on VMO work, most would be better off working of soft tissue quality of the hips and legs, lengthening of the quads and hip flexors, mobility at the hips, tspine, and ankles, and rehab/exercises focused on gluteal activation and trunk/lumbar control/stability.