Patella tendonitis

Some excellent work has been undertaken utilising eccentric loading in the management of achilles tendinopothy. this approach has been applied to patella teninopothy with some success, but I'm not sure it has empirical support. for more information check out Alfredsson, (1998).

Thanks Russ. Eccentric loading was something that was mentioned by my consultant when he made the initial diagnosis. However, he did say that to do these exercises correctly I would need to be shown correct procedure. I have found little information on this treatment but will check out your reference. I'm back to see the consultant this week so will maybe find out information.

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A good idea would be to add some development work for your quadriceps. by strenghtening these muscles, particularly vastus medialis, you will hold the patella in place and give support and strength to the knee joint. Although not a great machine, seated leg extension will give you hypertrophy of the quads. Aim for fatigue at around 8-10 reps. The vastus medialis only gets worked on the last few degrees of extension, so make sure you fully extend if using such a machine.

I'm now under a physio who specializes in tendonitis. The recommendation is to keep exercising the tendon as long as there is no pain. So cycling with high cadence, and cross trainers are fine. I also have a series of eccentric exercises to perform. There appears to be some improvement and the knee cap seems to have gone back in its groove and is staying. Still cannot run or cycle up hills. The physio did recommend seated leg extensions but I still get some pain even with the lowest weight. Hopefully the improvement will continue and maybe one day I will be able to try some short runs.

Brian

Hi, I think I have exactly the same problem. My knee cap constantly clicks when I bend it, even when running i think it moves out of its groove. I have pain on either side of my knee inbetween the two bones you can see when the knee is bent. I cannot run fast, only jog....swimming isn't a problem but i havent been on the bike since i injured it and that was over a year ago, i'm scared the circulating movement isn't good for the knee........
I heard running backwards is good?? I can do weight training only on low resistance weights............
Does this describe your problem? Any treatment ideas would be great!!

Thanks, and good luck.