Hi, I have been training on a off with runners knee, Patella Femoral Tendonitis. Wow this injury sucks. I have tried a steriod injections, eccentric exercises, rest etc but so far no luck. I was wondering as I am sure a lot of you have had experience with this injury- what worked? Just been back to a sports med doctor and x-ray was normal, so now its no running, cycling at around 80RPM and more eccentric squats and hip stabilizer exercisies.
I guess the plus is at this stage I can still cycle and swim, but for a person who got into Ironman from a running background this is pretty depressing.
Here’s a thread I started about a month ago. In that month I’ve run nada and I think doing some of these exercises (ones that involved bending my leg) actually made my knee worse. Runner’s knee sucks.
i had something similar. Tendonitis can take MOTHS to resolve. I did a bike focus for a year and it finally came around. You might try a week of advil 4x4times a day or alleve 1xtwice a day.
the trick often is being willing to rest it long enough though. it isn’t easy!
Haha, very true! Not my website. I take their joint health and it has done wonders for my knee. I’ve had bad knees from High School and College wrestling. I’ve been running pain free for the last 6 months (except for when I forget to take the pills). Just my 2 cents.
I’m going to get totally flamed for saying this on ST, but do you know if you over-pronate, and if you do have you investigated using orthotics?
I have always used orthotics (20+ years) following 2x high school runner’s knee injuries. I’ve tried running without them a few times but always get sore knees and have gone back to using the orthotics. For me, it’s been the best way way to avoid sore knees.
Don’t give up! I posted something similar in a previous thread.
After a knee injury in football 35 years ago and being told running would be difficult I am entering my 30th year of triathlons. Knee tracking/Chondromalacia was sort of the result on the injury. 19 IMs ago I was told not to run over 5 miles or so due to the problem. My answer was to attack the VMO.
I have a very simple VMO routine that I do daily. While in my office I slide up to the front of my desk chair and stick the affected leg straight out front resting it on the heel and turn the toe out. Now, do a very hard isometric contraction trying to just fire the VMO - put your 1st two fingers on the VMO and work on muscle control until you can isolate the VMO. Now, hold that contraction hard for a 10 count, then while still holding that do 10 leg lifts in the position - just 10 - 12 inches or so.
Got it? OK, now figure out how to do that a lot of times (100) all day, every day. For me, I just do the routine every time my phone rings, which is a lot. I am no more sophisticated than Pavlov’s dog! It will take 6 - 8 weeks of this to get it under control, then you have to keep doing it, forever!!
Best wishes,
I had a similar issue, X-ray and MRI were clean, no degeneration, PT put me on a stretching regiment, turns out my legs muscles were tight and knees needed strength. Used surgical bands and lateral movements to build knee “muscles”. Still a work in progress, but much better then before.
I’ve been dealing with this for a few weeks. It’s not dibilitating to me, just somewhat bothersome. I have St. George in a few weeks so stopping training isn’t really an option. It seems to go away completely after 2 hrs or so on the bike …
I just saw a PT this morning. She made me promise to do my stretching and gave me some VMO stengthening exercises and did the ultasound anti-inflamatory treatment. But she also taped it with a very strong tape (stronger than kenesio tape) to force it to track properly in the groove. Granted I haven’t had much time to test it, but I just got back from a run and never felt that dull ache that I’ve been experiencing over the last few weeks. So for me taping seems to be a short term fix while I work on the long term fix through stengthening the VMO and stretching.
So I’d encourage you to give taping a try to keep your training going while strengthing / stretching to get your biomechanics back in order.