For the past 2 weeks I have been experiencing different types of pain in both knees and I am not sure how should I approach them.
They both started after Volume squat workouts.
In my right knee the pain is mostly in the patella itself (It is sensitive to touch a bit to the left of where the quad tendon attaches and particularly hurts at a knee angle of 90 degrees)
In my left knee the pain is on the tibial tuberosity area and started 1 week ago
It hasn’t seemed to have gotten better these past 2 weeks and doesn’t get much better with warmups
I have been using Texas method style programming for probably longer than I should have and combined with 3 Intense Volleyball practices a week and Knee slide at the bottom of my squat I’m assuming I got myself a case of patellar tendonitis.
I’ve had worse patellar tendonitis in both knees which I managed to successfully rehab by reducing loads on the squat and jumping volume on Volleyball practice and gradually progressing back up as symptoms regressed or remained constant without getting worse (Whole process took about 8-12 weeks)
My Questions are:
Should I rehab this the same way I rehabbed my knees last time ? The pain is different in both knees this time but it’s not as bad so it makes me wonder how much load should be reduced and how much time should I assume it’ll take this time?
Should I change the way I squat ? I like squatting this way but sometimes I feel like it just causes my knees issues and I’m tired of these setbacks each time
Any kind of help would be very appreciated!
Thank you in advance!
I’m sorry to hear about the knee issues you’ve been dealing with. To your questions:
I think a reduction in loading makes sense here given your success with that approach in the past. Based on the information you’ve provided here, it sounds like you may have been pushing the intensity a bit too much between your resistance training and volleyball practices. We have some general strategies on how to manage loads in this article. As far as how much load needs to be reduced, we would need some additional background information on your current training to provide more individualized recommendations. We would be happy to do that via consultation.
I think your squat looks just fine in the video. I think the main thing is finding a tolerable entry point and slowly building up from there. For example, instead of working up to a 5 rep max or a set of 5 at RPE 10, maybe try implementing a tempo (3s on the way down, 1s pause in the bottom) and working up to a set of 6-8 reps at RPE 7. The combination of using a tempo, higher rep range, and lower RPE would all help with lowering loads and should make it easier to find a starting point to build back up from.
I’m glad to hear my squat is okay and isn’t the cause of the problem
I’ve significantly reduced the weight and added the exact tempo you recommended for the past 2 weeks, doing 5x5 of ascending sets 3 times a week while increasing the weight after each non consecutive session, I really hope the symptoms get better or resolve soon since they’ve been constant so far. I’ve been through worse so I’m just going to embrace the process and believe it’ll go away after a while.
The weird thing is that this time Volleyball practice doesn’t seem to exacerbate the symptoms ( I thought dynamic loading would aggrevate it more) so I don’t feel a need to remove that.
Double knee pain is so awful and unthinkable. We might face trouble in walking and lifting weights. You need to find the right treatment as soon as possible. Getting late makes your pain worse.
