Knee pain – patella tendon rehab
Patella tendon pain can be debilitating.
Pain can develop here due to repeated trauma specifically through eccentric loading (contracting and lengthening). The patella tendon attaches to the tibial tuberosity from the distal pole of the patella. It is commonly overused as the patella tendon is used to transfer forces from the quadriceps muscle group to extend the knee.
Pain is usually worse when loading the knee through flexion. What makes this difficult sometimes is that when we initially load this, it is painful. However if we carry on doing that same movement, the pain often disperses, only for it to come back with vengeance later on.
Firstly, you should always get your injuries checked by a qualified therapist.
However, managing the load through the need and then following a structured rehab programme is often enough to help with this injury. One useful way to help rehabilitate this tendon is via eccentric loading.
In the video below, Coach Tom performs his eccentric drop through his right knee which on a decline and then concentrically pushes himself out of the bottom position using both legs. If there is discomfort here, go through it. Stay below the pain barrier and perform a total of 100 reps throughout the day. This can obviously be built up to gradually increase the loading.
