JUMP OUT OF KNEE PAIN

Tendons love load and are extremely adaptable! Complete rest is often the worst thing you can do for a tendon. If exercise is avoided, the tendon becomes accustomed to this and it becomes more difficult to reintroduce the activity once more. Instead, the key principle in management of Jumper’s Knee is progressive loading. Once you have modified your training to a level that your tendon can tolerate without flare-ups of pain, you can begin to build slowly from there. Three phases of tendon loading rehabilitation are outlined below.

Low-to-moderate levels of tendon pain are acceptable during the tendon loading program. Research suggests that exercising within <3/10 pain is safe to do, and will still elicit favourable adaptations. Additionally, the tendon’s response for the following 24-48 hours is important to monitor.

A green light analogy is useful for monitoring your response to exercise:

Once your tendon pain is at a more manageable level, it is safe to introduce more challenging exercises to increase muscle strength and capacity. Doing so will allow the muscles and tendons to generate higher forces and tolerate these forces better!

Once there is sufficient muscle/tendon strength we can begin to introduce plyometric exercises. These types of movements subject the tendons to high loads quickly and challenge the energy storage and release function previously described.