Knee tendinitis, also called patellar tendinitis or jumper's knee, is an injury to the tendon that connects the kneecap to the shinbone. The patellar, or knee, tendon works with your leg muscles to control action in your lower leg. If icing the knee and rest does not improve the condition, your doctor may recommend a period of conservative treatment, including strengthening the tendon, before resorting to surgery.
Symptoms
Knee tendinitis causes pain in the area of patellar tendon located between your kneecap and your shinbone. You may experience a sharp pain when jumping or running; the pain often continues after physical activity, or your may feel a dull ache. As the condition progresses, you may have knee pain before exercise and pain that worsens as you continue the activity. A worsening knee tendinitis condition can cause a constant ache that makes sleep difficult, redness and swelling.
Causes
Although frequent jumping and running is the most common cause of knee tendinitis, being overweight can increase the stress on your patellar tendon and result in injury. Other causes are inflexible leg muscles, misaligned leg bones, a kneecap located too high on the knee joint and imbalance in muscle strength.
Stretching
Increased flexibility of the thigh muscles, or quadriceps, decreases the strain on the knee tendon. According to University of Missouri-Columbia Sports Medicine, flexibility in your lower legs is important to proper healing of an injured knee tendon. The university recommends stretches of the hamstring, the muscle located in the back of your upper leg.
Perform the hamstring stretch by lying on the floor near the outer corner of a door frame or wall. Raise the injured leg and rest the heel against the wall with your knee slightly bent. Slowly straighten your leg until you feel the muscle stretch along the back of your thigh. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds; repeat five to 10 times.
Eccentric Strengthening
Physical therapists use eccentric strengthening exercises to treat knee tendinitis. Eccentric strengthening, which involves raising your injured leg and lowering it slowly to strengthen your hamstring muscle, can also prevent knee tendinitis. Perform the eccentric knee extension by sitting in a chair with your knees flexed at a 90-degree angle. Place the foot of the uninjured leg behind the injured leg and use it to raise the injured leg to fully extend your knee. Remove the uninjured leg and slowly lower the injured leg to the original 90-degree flex. As your injury improves, increase the difficulty of the leg extension by adding an ankle weight and increasing lowering speed. Other eccentric strengthening exercises include the eccentric small knee bend and the eccentric leg press.
