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One of the most common knee injuries people experience all around the world is runner’s knee (also known as patello-femoral knee pain). A physio Wembley or where you are will observe stiffness and minor swelling around the kneecap. Patients will notice that the symptoms get worse when they move after sitting for a long time or after certain motions like squatting, running and going up and/or downstairs. So here is some information on runner’s knee and how a physio would treat it.

There is not something out of place

Runner’s knee is not about the kneecap moving out of place. The area between your lower thigh bone and knee cap gets temporarily irritated because of an overload. Sudden heavy or repetitive loading can cause such irritation. Examples that cause this are when a person increases how far they run by a very large amount, or suddenly start an exercise intensity that their body is not used to.

If this happens it does not mean you have to stop what you were doing completely. In fact, your physio West Leederville may tell you that is the worst thing to do. Stopping completely can actually lead to more deconditioning of your body and stiffness in the joint. You can often find a better balance. People who continue to train at a modified level while rehabilitating the injury will often quickly recover from symptoms. After this, you can build up your training gradually.

Physios should not just focus on VMO

The vastus medialis obliquus or VMO is on the inside of your knee and is a small portion of one of the four muscles in the quadriceps group. Once it was thought that these muscles were key to avoiding knee pain, but now a good physio will not just focus there but on strengthening all of the muscle groups. When the leg is stronger elsewhere it helps to support the spread the load throughout the entire lower limb to offload the knee.

The tightness in the muscle is not the cause it is a symptom

That tightness when it releases might feel good and leave you better able to work out and move again, but it is not the underlying problem. Part of your treatment and recovery with a physio Wembley will mean strengthening work, prioritising the management of load you place on the knee and fairly quickly you will see improvement. You might also want to think about your running style. Things that affect your gait include experience, size, genetics and strength. Drastic changes in running gait are risky and might cause more problems but smaller changes often help. For example, if you increase your steps per minute (cadence) by just 7.5% you can reduce the force on the knee by as much as 15 to 20 percent.

Conclusion

A physio West Leederville will treat every person with runner’s knee as unique as there is no one exercise or treatment that fits everyone. Part of that program involves first assessing the relevant contributing factors before prescribing exercises for control, endurance, and strength/power. A running assessment can help with small technical flaws and running cadence issues.

 

2021-04-07 19:00:38, views: 1337, Comments: 0