I noticed some swelling, cracking and mild pain in my left knee last year. A doctor diagnosed me with patellar tendonitis/runner’s knee in January. I stopped lifting and started doing exercises on my own to strengthen my VMO and gluteus medius, as he recommended. After a few months, the swelling didn’t go down, so I went to a PT who specialized in “Postural Restoration.” That didn’t help more than resting did, so I stopped doing the exercises.
A couple weeks ago, I got sick of doing nothing for my lower body, so I decided to purchase the BBM knee rehab template. I didn’t notice any pain during the biofeedback test, so I went right to week 2 and did the exercises for three days. I had only mild pain during the single leg exercise (I chose split squats). But after the workouts, my knee was swollen and there was much more cracking. I also noticed some pain when bending my knee and rotating my leg outward, like while sitting crosslegged or stretching my glutes. This got progressively worse each day, so I decided to do the week one exercises. I did that for four days, but in the end, my knee was so irritated and symptoms kept getting worse, so I had to stop. I took some ibuprofen and iced my knee and have not done the template for four days.
During this break from the template, I took an aerial silks class (something I have been doing for a few months) and further irritated my knee while climbing the silks (it requires sort of a pistol squat to get your body up the silks). I’ve continued resting and that has helped. Should I continue with the knee rehab template? My legs do feel stronger, but I’m not sure if it’s worth irritating my left knee further, especially if it might be bad enough that it requires more rest from my aerial training.
Hey @sanfrancisco - sorry to hear about the patellar tendinopathy. Thanks for purchasing our knee template.
Did you have a chance to read through the template regarding symptoms, expectations, and exercise?
How old are you?
Can you outline what you did most recently for exercise (include from the template and the aerial classes)?
For tendinopaties - the biggest question is finding a starting point for tolerable loading (meaning symptoms will be a part of the process but shouldn’t leave you feeling debilitated i.e. unable to go do other life activities or constantly occupying your thoughts). Once a tolerable starting point is found then it’s slowly titrating up towards your goals with the understanding symptoms will be a part of the process and sometimes may even increase but no need to panic or worry. If a setback does occur, we just have to regroup and find a tolerable load/activity level again.
Thanks for the response. I did read through the template, but I wasn’t sure what to do if even the isometric exercises resulted in pain. I’m 26 years old.
Before my last post, I did the isometric week one exercises for four days in a row: wall sits with a 25 lb plate and split squats with no weight. As far as my silks classes go, the moves that involve lower body include standard climbs, Russian climbs and split rollups. The classes also include some warmup and conditioning exercises like jumping jacks, clamshells and bodyweight squats which I can do with no pain. Other than that, it’s basically just grip, core and pullups.
Other than two aerial classes and some short walking, I haven’t done any training for my lower body since then. I do have a weightlifting routine and some bodyweight exercises I do for my upper body and core that involve minimal lower body movement.
What do you think the pain you are experiencing during activity means?
Recall - symptoms will be a part of the process and isn’t inherently indicative you are making matters worse at the knee level. However, if symptoms are severely increasing above your tolerance level then this is likely difficult to cope with as an individual. So we need to find tolerable loading with the understanding symptoms will be a part of the process and that’s ok. How many sets and reps (time held) of isometrics did you complete?
I still recommend a consult with us to help adapt the template to your situation given your other activity endeavors with aerial classes.
I don’t know what the pain means. I’m assuming I’m irritating my knee somehow, especially because my knee is still more swollen than it was before I attempted the template more than two weeks ago.
I did the phase one exercises exactly as the template instructed: 5 sets of 45 seconds with 2 minutes of rest between each set. I understand that there is supposed to be an increase in symptoms, but I found the increase to be alarming, especially because I couldn’t do things that I had previous done without pain (silks and some stretches) and because the symptoms didn’t go away after 24 hours, as the template said they should.
How much does a consult cost? And what would be the benefit of doing one vs. seeing another doctor or PT in person?