What is Patella Tendinitis?
Patella tendonitis is an overuse injury to the tendon which attaches your kneecap to your shin. This occurs by causing small tears in the tendon, which are not given the chance to heal over time and begins to worsen. This can cause inflammation around the area and pain with physical exertion or movement. Pain can be rather localised to the tendon itself or to the point in which the tendon attaches into the shin.
Patella Tendinitis
How is Patella Tendinitis commonly treated?
To begin, patella tendonitis is treated with rest from higher levels of physical activity, to give any inflammation the chance to settle. From here, load is slowly reintroduced to the tendon over time, to ensure both the muscles and tendon are given a chance to strengthen without flaring up the tendon, as this can set back rehabilitation. As tendons do not receive much blood flow, treating patella tendonitis can unfortunately be a lengthy process, depending on the severity of symptoms.
How can an Exercise Physiologist help?
As Exercise Physiologists, we are able to help by teaching you how to correctly manage patella tendonitis, through rest, mobility and progressively re-strengthening the muscles and tendon. As tendonitis typically occurs from overuse, we can instruct you on how to reload the tendon correctly to avoid flare ups and re-injury, as having tendonitis in the past makes you more susceptible to it in the future. We can also help in identifying any underlying causes to this overuse, help in correcting movement and providing strategies to help in avoiding re-injury.
