Patella Tendonitis (repost from r/GYM

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faithliness

New member
Hey fellow gym brethren! So I've finally made it back to the gym today! For the last year I've been working out off and on at a little fitness center in my apartment complex. I was diagnosed with Patella Tendonitis a few months ago and was told to take a rest from running and walking as much (my step counter and fitbit put me at about 20,000 steps daily for my work). So I listened and was told to take Meloxicam (NSAID) daily.

Now, I know taking an NSAID daily is never a good thing in the long term. So I haven't been taking them every day. Maybe one every couple of days or as needed.

So this morning was leg day and I went to do Squats and as I was doing my reps my knee started to get irritated, not to the point I needed to stop, I was able to finish my workout. It does, however, have me concerned that continuing to do Squats might be detrimental to my patella tendon. I'm pretty confident my form is good. Knees never tracked beyond my toes, back was straight, chin was up and I was standing with my feet just outside of hip width.

Does anyone else have patella tendinitis here? If so, any tips to manage the pain, avoid it altogether?
 
@faithliness Knees going over your toes is not necessarily a bad thing. If your limb length is such that it naturally does this then forcing them not to may cause issues.

I've had similar pain in the past and the only thing that cured it was complete rest for a couple weeks then reduced the working weight significantly and slowly worked back up. Like 50 % of previous.

If mine comes back I'll be looking to have a proper scan done.
 
@faithliness If my knee is bothering me, I just discontinue movements like squats or leg presses. I substitute extra leg curls and leg extensions. I don’t really worry about my glutes. They’re kind of a lost cause for me anyway.
 
@faithliness I used isometric leg extensions - done with the knee at least 90⁰ bent. Started at less than 100% effort, closer to 80%, 8-12 second holds for 3 or 4 sets 3 times a week. Breathe throughout, exert on exhale, hold tension in inhale.

You'll feel a slight burn at the bottom edge of the kneecap where its pulling, any real pain, discontinue.

Took about a month and it was feeling tremendously improved for me. There's a bunch of research out there demonstrating effectiveness of iso for tendonitis and arthritis.
 
@mikeb34 I put leg extension down as part of my routine already, so I'll give this a shot and see how I feel in the next few weeks. Slight burn kindof explains a bit better the pain I was feeling, hence why I went ahead with my workout. I'm hoping it was more my mind playing tricks on me, I haven't been under the bar in a couple years.
 
@faithliness Check out the Knees Over Toes guy on YouTube. He has a lot of great information. Some of his suggestions include:

Walking backwards for 10 minutes everyday.

Using a tib (tibialis) bar or do wall squats.

He also has a partial squat that you do one leg at a time. Basically stand on the bottom step and bend your right leg slightly as you touch the left heel of your foot to the floor and then straighten back up. Do this as many times as you want with each leg.

All 3 exercises will strengthen the tendons around the knee and he had many more.
 
@faithliness I was plagued with knee pain for years until I got it diagnosed as patella tendonopathy/tendonitis.
Mine was caused by my quads being significantly stronger than my hamstrings and other leg muscles. I saw a sports physiotherapist and they gave me a load of boring little exercises to do which has cured it and I’ve been pain free for the last 5 years.
 
@faithliness I had similar pain in my knee for years. It all seemed to happen after landing on it while playing sand volleyball on slightly damp sand. I highly recommended not doing this. Resting/Icing helps but I’ll have pain if I bend my knee at a slight angle. I planned to get a MRI done but my insurance requires physical therapy before they help cover a MRI.
 
@faithliness I have this as well as osteoarthritis, PFPS, and impingements. I ran a lot and played sports into my 30s. I tried PT and an orthopedist who was great, but overall I’d get burning in my knees from just walking. I quit squatting and focused on quad development and mobility stuff…LOTS of high rep leg press, Bodyweight squats, and low impact cardio. With the help of a powerlifting coach I can now squat and do everything without pain.
 
@faithliness Bad form correction and constant cueing. I also had very strong hamstrings that were incredibly tight and weak quads. To compensate I did a ton of leg extensions at low weight and a lot of static hamstring stretching and band work he showed me. It’s slow progress but I feel like I’m overcoming a lifetime of bad knowledge. My upper body was also over developed compared to low back and core so I’m doing a lot of core work like hollow body holds etc. I always thought my knees were so bad I couldn’t squat so I focused on the upper body and now I’m imbalanced. I made sure to find a coach who’s also a competitor in addition to a trainer. He spotted a lot of that quickly and the rest I researched on my own with guidance. He also re-programmed what I was doing. Overall though, constant cueing of bad form was the biggest help, as well as him pointing out people at the gym who have arthritis or even full replacements that were squatting over 200 kilos. He definitely knew more about proper technique and load than the orthopedist and physical therapist I saw. The ortho and advice was just no squatting, rest, and anti inflammatories.
 
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