Jumpers knee?

[yuri]

I'm pretty sure that I currently have a minor case of jumpers knee.I'm very active in sports and when this started to hurt me right under my knee cap only after I played sports I stopped for a while. I would ice it and it's feeling almost healed up now after a few months of doing stretches and minor excercising for my knee. I just wanted to know what causes this? If your hamstrings are weaker than they should be can this cause it, or if one side of your quads is weaker, does your calfs being weak cause this? I just want to know what causes it and the strengthing excersices I can do to continue to become 100%. Thanks!

[Heidi]

Hi,

There are a number of biomechanical and muscle imbalance scenarios which may have contributed to your development of jumpers knee. These include:

Decreased ankle flexibility
Inflexibility of the hamstrings
Tight IT band
Weakness in the quadriceps, glutes and calfs

These four are the most common causes of jumpers knee, which can all act to place additional stress on the patella tenson, especially in running, jumping and change of direction movements.

[yuri]

What kind of excercises can I do to strengthen my knee? I currently workout trying to do lunges, leg curls, and some bodyweight squats. Is there any others I can do? Thanks for the help!

I'm also starting this strength training program with strength shoes. The program is 13 weeks doing it every other day per week. I'm doing sprints, cariocas, knee to butt, around the world etc. I want to start it in a couple weeks, but will this be bad for my knee? I'm doing it in hopes of strengthning my entire legs especially my calfs to hopefully get rid of this sore knee. Do you think this is a good idea?

[Heidi]

Hi

Lunges and squats are among the best exercises you can do to strengthen the knee and surrounding muscles. Before you progress on to the more dynamic exercises you mention, ensure you can perform the squats and lunges pain free and start to increase the dynamic element of these exercises. For example, perform walking lunges, progressing to add in a small jump from one foot to another.