Anyone here have experience with popliteus tendinitis? I had this pop up at about Mile 80 during IMLP 3 weeks ago. Was able to work through it without too much pain during the marathon, but 3 weeks later I’m still feeling lingering some discomfort.
Post race I took 1 week completely off. Last 2 weeks I’ve been just doing easy stuff, no runs over 5 miles, nothing too hard on the bike, and it doesn’t bother me swimming.
How long does it take to get rid of this and is it necessary to shut down completely for it to heal? Or can you continue with light/easy workouts? It got progressively better for the 1st week, but has not really gotten much better the last 2 weeks.
I’m becoming the guy to talk to about lower extremity problems. In addition to the thread about peroneal tendonitis, I’m also have a touch of popliteal tendonitis as well. The injury first bore it’s ugly head on April 1st and I’m still having some problems with it.
I had the same issues as you, though. Once injured, it got somewhat better fairly quickly, but was lingering for a long time afterwards and it healed very slowly. Now, I’ll feel a slight tightness in the back of my knee/upper calf area and that’s about it.
I take it that it bothers you while you run and bike? I got to the point that it didn’t bother me on the bike, even though that is what first brought it on, but running definitely bothered it more. Stretch it out, ice up, and get a TP massage ball or something like that to roll out the area some. I believe tendonitis is just one of those things that heals slowly because there isn’t adequate blood flow to a tendon whereas a muscle injury heals much quicker since there is ample blod flow.
I am in the final phase of my rehab from a partially torn popliteus tendon (which was a torn LCL, then ITBS, then a cartilage tear, and after MRI #2 it was finally diagnosed properly). Mine started as ITB like pain after a long hard run and quickly turned into debilitating pain after a bike ride.
It’s best to just shutdown your training for 2-3 weeks and let the tendinitis go away. The swelling and tightness can cause lots of other problems (from personal experience):
ITBS because the knee gets drawn slightly out of line
patellar tendinitis, again because the knee is drawn out of line
tearing or detachment
Two effective stretches for this buried pesky tendon are:
sit down, cross the effected leg over your other leg and slowly lean forward while applying downward pressure to your knee: You want to feel the stretch through the knee and onto the outside of the upper leg.
this stretch is the ITBS stretch with a modification, roll the ankle inwards and stick out your hip, you’ll feel the tension on the popliteal tendon if you’re hitting the spot:
As for long term fixes, spend the money on seeing a biomechanics specialist (who will most likely also be an A.R.T. practitioner) and find out what the underlying flaw is that is causing your problem. Have them work with you to correct the issue and you should be okay.
But most importantly, take some time off and heal. Once tendinitis has set-in the tendon is tight and a tear can develop by doing too much, even with low intensity. Then you’ll be on the shelf for a few months.
!!NO ICE!! Keep the knee and tendon warm. A good trick is to damp a towel and heat it in the microwave. With the towel still very warm but not hot, wrap a dry towel around your knee, then the very warm towel, then a BIG dry bath towel. Lie down and relax for 20min and you’ll feel great afterwards.
I had that as well. Let’s put it this way. At one point, in my left leg alone, I had plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, a tight soleus, a tight gastroc, an inflammed popliteal/popliteal tendonitis, and inflammed lower hamstring. At the same fucking time!
Achilles tendonitis is usually caused by the same things that cause plantar fasciitis, so make sure to stretch out your soleus really well. I highly rrecommend a Trigger Point Massage Ball because those things work wonders if you use them frequently enough.
Also, in general, if you sleep with your feet on the bed, it tends to shorten your calves at night. I had to get used to sleeping with my feet hanging off the end of the bed to make sure that my lower legs stay stretched out all night long. This helped a lot of my problems as well.
Once again, ask rroof about most of these things since he’s a pro and I’m only working towards being a pro.
Thanks for the input everyone. I’m going to go to a swim only schedule for a week and see how that works out, maybe an easy spin here or there, since it’s not so bad on the bike. Truthfully it’s not too bad during the run, but I definitely feel it afterwards.
It sucks watching all this IM fitness that I’ve built up just melt away. I was hoping to do a 1/2 IM in September, now it’s not looking so good. Next time I do an IM I’m going to make sure it’s at the end of the season, so I can just shut it down for a month and not feel like I have to rush back. This sucks.
You want to feel the stretch through the knee and onto the outside of the upper leg.