I always look forward to Mondays when Dr. Sean sends us his blog post. Its always full of useful and interesting information and is extremely helpful for us both as athletes and trainers. So here is this weeks post....enjoy
“Patello-Femoral” Knee Pain
A few weeks ago I talked about a how it is important to keep active to help combat the pain from wear and tear of the joints that results in arthritis. However, a very common type of condition called “chondromalacia” of the patella (knee cap) can affect those of us who have been active in sports such as running or other high impact sports. Despite our attempts to stay active it can still be quite debilitating. In these cases, it is good to get investigated by a professional and get some advice.
Chondromalacia is a fancy term for “cartilage breakdown”. This can be painful if the cartilage on the back of your knee-cap (patella) wears away and there is increased contact between the bones of your leg and your patella. This is really an end-stage process of a condition than can affect certain individuals for a long time whereby poor mechanics of your foot, knee and hip result in increased stress on this cartilage.
The good news is that there are many things that can be done to help those suffering from this condition.
For starters, have someone do a simple biomechanical analysis. Most qualified sports physiotherapists or sports chiropractors can help you with this. Simple movement screens like a: 1 leg squat, 1 leg balance, hip flexibility, and hip muscle firing patterns can give a therapist a lot of information about how to improve your biomechanics.
Secondly, have someone take a look at the type of footwear you are wearing. Different types of feet require different levels of support. You need an expert such as a chiropodist, or sports specialist therapist to help you with this. Many people have the wrong shoe or even have improperly prescribed orthotics that may be making your biomechanics worse.
Finally, this condition requires some common sense. As a rule of thumb, pain from this problem is due to inflammation and if your knee is sore 6-24 hours after you are active then you are doing TOO much and need to scale back a bit. However, you must stay active somewhat. Find a balance and use the 6-24 hour rule as your guide. When you DO NOT experience knee pain 6-24 hours after your activity you have found an acceptable level of activity. Finding this balance will allow your inflamed knee to heal and keep your conditioning up. Slowly add minutes to your activities as long as you do not experience pain. Activities such as spinning, rowing and water-running are lower impact activities you may do to stay conditioned while you find this balance and allow your leg to heal. Also, supports like kinesiotape and neoprene braces can decrease pain and allow you to increase your window of activity.
In summary, this condition doesn’t need to stop you but perhaps just slow you down and cause you to make some important changes to keep you active for a long time.
WOD
20 Overhead Squats (50/75lbs)
25 Pull ups
30 Box Jumps
35 KB swings
3 rounds for time
Whew.....its good to be back from holidays..... a nice break but I sure missed the gym and everyone who comes to work out!
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