The knee of a jumper is a known injury among athletes. It most often affects people training sports that require frequent jumps and landings. Jumper's knee symptoms are very painful and don't arise without reason. Jumper's knee requires treatment and in some situations even rehabilitation. When an injury is noticed quickly, exercise and taping can heal a jumper's knee. Find out what a jumper's knee is and learn about the methods and exercises that are helpful in treating it.

Jumper's kneeis a kneecap ligament injury. If thesymptoms ofare showing signs of an injury, the jumper's knee requires treatment and rehabilitation. Athletes are most at risk of this painful injury, but it can also happen to someone who is not involved in sports.

The symptoms of the jumper's kneemake themselves felt quickly with a shooting pain below the kneecap. The kneecap proper ligament is the final part of the quadriceps muscle - the most important extensor of the knee joint. Its damage is associated with severe pain, and taping often helps to relieve it. Proper exercises may also be useful.

Find out what a jumper's knee is and learn about treatments and exercises to help heal it.

Contents:

  1. What is a jumper's knee?
  2. Jumper's knee - symptoms
  3. Jumper's knee - reasons
  4. Jumper's knee - treatment and rehabilitation
  5. Taping to treat jumper's knee
  6. Exercises for the jumper's knee

What is a jumper's knee?

Jumper's knee , or enthesopathy, is a degeneration of the ligament of the patella. The trauma occurs where the knee meets the kneecap. In the damaged area of ​​the body, microtrauma is formed and the tissues degenerate gradually. Injury is caused by severe overload, usually during jumps and turns. The knee of a jumper is usually found in professional athletes or people who do sports as a recreational and hobbyist.

In a knee injury, known as a jumper's knee, there are 4 degrees of damage:

  1. Pain occurs after exercise
  2. Pain occurs before and after exercise, it disappears after warming up
  3. Pain occurs during exercise, e.g. during training.
  4. Pain is present all the time, it can lead toligament ruptures.

Jumper's knee - symptoms

The symptom of a jumper's knee is primarily pain in the kneecap. In addition, the most characteristic ailments include:

  • pain under the kneecap when touched,
  • pain under the kneecap during exercise,
  • pain when straightening the knee,
  • pain when descending stairs,
  • feeling of blocked knee,
  • patellar asymmetry.

Jumper's knee - reasons

The cause of the jumper's knee is overload of the knee joint, especially the patellar ligament. This happens most often during prolonged pressure caused by frequent jumps and landings. This puts athletes in the highest risk group. Volleyball players, basketball players and high jumpers are the most vulnerable to this knee injury due to the high frequency of jumps, leg landings and changes in running directions. A jumper's knee can also be caused by a wrong choice of training load.

However, not only athletes are exposed to this injury. Other reasons for the formation of a jumper's knee are:

  • bad biomechanics of the lower limb: valgus, foot pronation, excessive pelvic tilt, ankle and hip disorders;
  • muscle imbalance in the lower limb: increased tension in the sciatio-shin muscles, adductors, quadriceps muscles, shank muscles, gluteal muscles;
  • hard surface during exercise, e.g. running on concrete;
  • poor central stabilization of the body, mainly abdominal muscles.

The biggest problem arises when the injury becomes a chronic condition and the jumper's knee requires surgery. Often a jumper's knee is the reason for ending an athlete's career and requires long and hard rehabilitation.

Jumper's knee - treatment and rehabilitation

Treatment and rehabilitation of a jumper's knee depends on the severity of the injury. However, it must be remembered that the fight against a jumper's knee must always be started with non-surgical treatment, and surgery is the last resort. Pain relief tablets or local pain relievers and patches will help relieve symptoms, although they will not correct the injury.

The first step to getting rid of a jumper's knee is conservative treatment that prevents the further development of the injury. The most important thing is to avoid jumps, landings, squats, and other activities that cause pain and worsen your injury. It is part of the so-called the PRICE principle, which is used to treat a jumper's knee:

  1. P( Protection )- protection - against further stress on the ligament, abandonment of activities that cause pain (jumps, squats, landings);
  2. R( Rest ) - rest - limiting activities to those that do not burden the knees;
  3. I( Ice ) - ice - 5 x a day for 15 minutes;
  4. C( Compression ) - compression - with a bandage or tourniquet to prevent swelling;
  5. E( Elevation ) - elevation - limb elevation.

See also: Exercises and workouts that do not burden the knees

This will be useful to you

Taping to treat jumper's knee

Taping (taping) turns out to be very helpful in treating the jumper's knee. It is stabilization of the knee with special physiotherapeutic tapes. The tapes are very flexible, air permeable and do not cause abrasions because they are free of any chemicals. A properly tightened patch lifts the skin upwards, accelerating regenerative processes and increasing the supply of oxygen to the tissues. Taping also acts as a massage for a sore spot.

Taping of the jumper's knee involves sticking tapes to the slightly bent leg around the kneecap. A ready-made Y-shaped tape is best, which should be glued so that the tapes surround the kneecap. The top ends of the patch should be cut diagonally. This will make the diseased knee supported by the tape on each side.

The next steps in the treatment of the jumper's knee are gymnastics and stretching the leg muscles: introducing exercises in a painless range of motion, proprireception exercises, central stabilization exercises in combination with functional training.

The most important part of a jumper's knee rehabilitation is eccentric (strength) training. It consists in the patient performing a squat on the diseased leg on a platform in the form of an oblique step. A load that makes it difficult to perform the exercise is added successively. Initially, rehabilitation exercises for the jumper's knee begin with smooth movements in a closed chain, then move on to typical functional exercises, such as skips and jumps. The training is very intense and lasts about 12 weeks. Well conducted, it results in a complete regression of symptoms.

Important

When is an operation needed?

Surgery on a jumper's knee is needed when none of the nonsurgical treatments will help or when the pain worsens, interfering with basic life. Surgical treatment includes arthroscopic drilling of the ligament, cutting the patella straps and removal of necrotic elements. If the operation is successful, the attending physician orders rehabilitationpostoperative care under the supervision of a physiotherapist.

Exercises for the jumper's knee that you can do yourself

Before you move on to the jumper's knee exercises, try relaxing your leg muscles with the rolling. Also add stretching exercises to your strength exercises.

1. Do hip thrust on one leg .Place your shoulder blades against a training bench (this could also be a couch or table). Lift one leg freely and lift your hips upward, tightening the leg on which you are resting the weight. Do 10 repetitions for each leg, over 3 series.

2. Sit on the floor with straight legs. Place a training mat under your knees. Roll up your toes. Then start stretching one of the legs. Try to keep the front and back of the leg equally tense. Do not straighten your knee at the joint. Hold the tension for a few seconds and repeat the same with the other leg. Do the exercise in 3 series of 15 repetitions.

3. Lie on your side and bend one leg at the knee. Grasp the ankle with your hand and, leading it slightly back, stretch the front muscle of your thigh. Hold for a minimum of 15 seconds and repeat the exercise for the other leg. Do 3 sets.

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