So… You Have Jumper’s Knee
Did you know that jumper’s knee, aka patellar tendinitis or quadriceps tendinitis, is among the most frequent injuries in sports. According to a 2009 Biomed study, if you are a volleyball or basketball player, your chances of having had it are 30 - 51% and 25 - 32%, respectively.
This leads one to wonder… why? And more importantly, how can we prevent it?
THE WHY & WHAT
Though Jumper’s Knee can happen due to repetitive jumping, particularly on hard surfaces, it is a slightly misleading term as it can also occur from other repetitive motions at the knees like stair climbing, kicking, or running.
These activities place a high load on the patellar tendon, which can increase the risk of developing Jumper’s Knee. A sudden uptick in training volume during training phases such as preseason conditioning, starting a new squat cycle, or incorporating more plyometrics into your training, can easily trigger this overuse injury, and many others.
Symptoms typically include pain, tenderness and inflammation at the patellar tendon, pain with bending, and pain with activity.
PREVENTION
Warm Up: on a day to day basis, do the work early by warming up appropriately! Though your ego may tell you that you don’t need to, you do, especially in colder temperatures. Ever try to stretch a rubber band that came straight from the freezer? Yeah… doesn’t result in shooting it across the room at your friend, results in it snapping. Don’t let that happen to your muscle.
Build Your Posterior Chain & Good Movement Patterns: make sure you have good body mechanics as they apply to your sport. Example used in video: defensive slide. Are you dumping into your quads? Or preferrably using your glutes and hamstrings.This is where getting into the weight room is ultra important because you train your body to know what to do without having to think about it when practicing or competing in your sport.
Do the Work Early: similar to the previous tip, your training should be well in advance of when your actual competition schedule starts. The off-season is a great time to work on making your muscles strong and pliable - quadriceps, hamstrings, anterior tibialis, soleus, gastrocnemius. Furthermore, improving the mobility of joints up and down stream from the knee - ankle and hip - make it less likely to incur unwanted pressure in the knee joint because the overall system that is your leg knows how to absorb and transfer force appropriately.
You Have It, Now What
Sorry to hear that! The encouraging news is that youu can absolutely rehab yourself though. Start with mobilizations shown in the video, complete each for 1 - 2 minutes per side:
Quad smashing
Quad scrubbing
Pin and stretch
Then, incorporate the following specific strengthening exercises (also shown in the video) into your strength training routine as a warm up. These are also a good idea for before hitting the court, or whatever surface your sport or activity is played on.
2 x 10 Bodyweight Tempo Slant Board Squats @ 4 seconds on the eccentric
2 x 6 - 12 Reps: Light weight Tempo Slant Board Squats @ 4 seconds on the eccentric
