Do you have knee pain brought on by running?
Do you have knee pain brought on by running?You could be suffering from Chronic Patellar Tendinopathy or Runner’s Knee. Regular strain from exercise can lead to conditions like Patellar Tendinopathy.
This is a condition also sometimes referred to as Jumper’s Knee: an overuse injury characterised by inflammation of the tendon attached to the bottom of the kneecap. Runners or athletes training in all levels are commonly affected by this condition, but if it’s untreated it can result in ongoing pain which can stop you exercising.
Most sports injuries are due to strain on the tendons. This causes a breakdown of collagen (the building blocks of tendons), especially in people who regularly jump and run.. You are also likely to suffer from patellar tendinopathy if you do repetitive tasks, have poor muscle strength or are over forty years old.
The good news is that many cases of tendinopathy are able to heal on their own. However, chronic cases that are left untreated can cause problems along the line.
What causes chronic patella tendinopathy?
Things that contribute to developing this condition are:
- muscular imbalance,
- poor strength and flexibility
- poor foot biomechanics.
However, the main cause of patellar tendinopathy tends to be associated with other factors such as a sudden increase in training/load, poor technique and training errors.
So what treatment is best for patella tendinopathy?
Physiotherapy should be your main action plan to treat chronic patellar tendinopathy. Physios are trained to work with you to devise the best ‘tendon-loading’ programme to make sure your symptoms improve and to guarantee recovery. We need to monitor symptoms closely to ensure that the tendon is not UNDER-LOADED (which can delay recovery), or OVER-LOADED (aggravating the tendon). Everyone’s capacity is different, and the load should always be adjusted according to an individual’s needs. In the rare cases that the pain still hasn’t gone away after six months, more invasive treatments such as corticosteroid injections should be considered.
Exercise is essential for alleviating chronic patellar tendinopathy.
The rehabilitation process in physiotherapy is split into four stages of graded exercises. You might be wondering, why exercise and not rest? That is because complete rest can cause a sharp decrease in working capacity and, on top of that, vast amounts of research has shown that tendons respond well to specific exercises.
Read here about exercises to help with this condition.
Don’t forget to book in for a check up with our Sundial physiotherapist Tech Ding!