UKC

I randomly developed patellar tendonitis about three weeks ago, not changed anything in technique or shoes, but after one ordinary 11mi flat run at moderate pace, left knee started hurting. Ive looked up symptoms and anatomy and its patellar tendonitis. 

Ive started doing some straight leg extensions to strengthen the quads, applying voltarol gel.

Aside from boring old rest, what have people found to work for them?

Thanks.

In reply to The Potato: Stretching, less cycling or changing bike position , new shoes , doing most running offroad and less landing on the ground climbing.

And various combinations of the above 

In reply to The Potato:

Would recommend doing some form of strength exercises as its probably some inbalance in your muscles if you haven't changed anything else. I had a similar problem getting niggles and following a basic strength workout regime sorted it out 

In reply to The Potato:

I 50% severed my patella tendon while running, a very sudden injury and really quite painful. It basically stopped me from running seriously. I'm not sure if there was pain leading up to it, at the time I was about 19/20 doing loads of different sports and running a lot, so I was simultaneously always tired and a bit in pain, but also totally fine because I was young. I'm trying (not very successfully because I'm lazy) to get back into running now approx. 8 years later. I'm sure with better rehab I could have got back to it sooner.

I spent 1.5/2 years trying rehab (in an admittedly not very dedicated fashion), which produced improvements, but then would go back to almost square 1 when starting running again. Eventually I got an NHS MRI which revealed I had a bony spur poking into my patella tendon. Then had surgery to remove dead bits of tendon and bony spur, and to try and mesh remaining bits of tendon back together again.

The physio advice I got was not very good, was much too intense for the level of injury I had.

If I magically went back in time I would:

1. Recognise that the NHS wasn't the best route to go down. At the time I didn't really realise that the NHS is not very good for non-major sporting injuries. Would pay for a private assessment and MRI.

2. Would use the quad extension machine in a gym. I needed very light loads when I started rehab, which was hard to achieve with bodyweight exercises. Quad extension machine allows very light controlled loading.

3. Medium/Long term would try and follow kneesovertoesguy style training.

I don't know if any of that will apply to you - yours maybe doesn't sound quite as bad? In which case I would recommend looking at kneesovertoesguy style training, particularly the split squat.

In reply to Fellover:

sorry to hear that, but also thanks for your story, no mine isnt as bad as that thankfully. 

Ive tried quad extensions at home but finding it uncomfortable at the moment, as are squats of any kind, im going to start those as soon as I can. 

I have done weighted squats and lunges (correct form) a few times a month as part of general training, I didnt think my quads were particularly weak, but who knows, maybe some of the 4 parts are.

In reply to The Potato:

There’s some good stretches on YouTube that helped me.

In reply to jezb1:

Can you share link or titles please?

In reply to The Potato:

The main thing for me is to not assume that the cause is near the pain. I had a tight hamstring and got it poked, prodded and massaged by leading physios, and stretched, rolled and strengthened it but it got worse.

One physio made a throw-away comment that led to me fixing it myself. He told me to think of my body like pitching a tent. Calves, hamstrings and glutes work together as guy ropes on the back and flexors, quads and peroneals are the front guy ropes. If they're equally tensioned, I stand straight and in alignment. If one's tight, it pulls the opposite one tight and I lean. In my case the hamstring was tight because it was being pulled by a tight quad. So stretching and strengthening the hamstring was pulling the quad ever-tighter, making it worse. A couple of weeks working on my quad and I was fine, and had wasted 18months of not running!

So if strengthening your quad isn't working, how relaxed, flexible and strong are your calf, hamstring and glute on that side? 

In reply to The Potato:

Stretching and foam rolling the outside part of the quads and at the same time strengthening the inner quad…essentially trying to get the quads to not pull the Patella out of alignment.

In reply to The Potato:

I wrote a couple of long blog posts on this subject a while back. This details various exercises: https://gearandmountains.wordpress.com/2019/06/25/knee-bother-part-2-of-2/

And this details some background: https://gearandmountains.wordpress.com/2018/12/08/knee-bother-part-1-of-2/

I've had a few people contact me from around the world saying these posts stopped them getting surgery or having to change their lifestyle completely, so the exercises seem to work for some people. They certainly worked for me.

In reply to The Potato:

awesome thanks all

In reply to The Potato:

Last year I had an operation to re-locate my patella. A completely different problem to yours, but I found that Voltarol cream was a big help in reducing pain. It's ibuprofen in some magic cream. Reducing the pain level might result in more damage to the tendon, but if you use it carefully it's a big help. I completely agree to get a good physio who can guide you through the correct exercises is essential.