healer

Here's the problem:

I'm a basketball player. I practice on the court twice a week and play matches on a Sunday as well as my gym workout's 2-3 times a week. I suffer from patellar tendonitis (Jumper's knee) - a direct result of the sport I play, the knee in question being the one i take off from.

As far as my lower body workout's are concerned, I'm looking to tone more than build muscle. I have pretty big legs as it is. What I'm looking for are exercises that'll help in the toning and fat loss process, without putting too much pressure on my knee. I can't do sqauts at all anymore (the pain is more severe when going down than when coming back up).

Any advice or comment will be greatly appreciated.
Thanx

TopRamen66

Swimming. Hands down THE BEST low impact workout, and a great one for summer too. Does your knee hurt more from the pressure or the motion? You also might want to check out stair stepers and eliptical trainers, depending on how your knee reacts to the motion.

Rodney

Cycling can be good. When done in the correct position and stance, most of the strain can be diverted to the glutes, the thigh and the calf, with the knee just along for the ride. It's a no-impact exercise, too.

healer

The pain is from the pressure - day-to-day walking is fine but any excessive stair-climbing or movements where the angle between the upper and lower leg is smaller than 90 degrees.

Thanx for the advice.

almostaugust

Hello Healer,
Ive got some great advice for you. I too have Patellar Tendonitis. Its one of the most frustrating injuries ive ever had. I have made posts on this board in the past about it annoying me. Well, up until 2 weeks ago i was at wits end! I have had this bloody condition for 6 months, and nothing has helped too much. Physio was made some progress, but my week to week training and competing (soccer and martial arts) just reversed whatever progress i made. I even got a cho-pat sports strap specially designed for our condition. It didnt help much either.
Two weeks ago i started doing very gentle squats, reps of 10. I did them throughout the day wherever i was at different times. So maybe 100 squats a day. Then i started integrating doing very gentle ones on one leg. My jumper's knee leg was a bitch, i could only go down a little. Anyway, i kept this up everyday, and noticed DRAMATIC improvement. I can hardly feel my Jumpers Knee pain at all, though the tendon is still not that strong. It does take a little while to rehab it cause the colagen has to rebuild around there, but you must make it heal itself. Its the kind of degenerative condition that wont really get better on its own. I can do a single squat on that leg pretty much pain free all the way down!
I cant tell you how happy i am this week with hardly any pain at all, and looking foward to my game tomorrow, without that psycological knowledge that im injured. Over the last 6 months ive tried swimming, walking and push up situp, dips, routines to keep fit and to not exacerbate the condition. Now though, i feel so much better.
PM me if youve got any more questions. August.

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McDuffie

Indeed. Start out light. Squatting is a closed chain kinetic movement that does not put sheering force on the knees.

What this means to you is: it's natural, as opposed to something like leg extensions which are unnatural and ironically far more bad for your knees than squatting.

thingstodo

I don't understand the advice on not doing leg extension. An orthopedic surgeon gave me that advice - to do extensions - and it worked. I also take glucosamine.

Here's a pretty good site with an assortment of things you can do....

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_jumpersk_rex.htm

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McDuffie

Orthopedic surgeons are not good sources of training information. In fact, aside from high school football coaches and fitness magazines, Orthopedic surgeons are probably the worst source of training information.

Leg extensions are an open-chain kinetic exercise. At personal training seminars I have seen diagrams and pictures of people doing leg extensions vs. people doing squats with a PhD kinesiologist explaining what is going on in the knee. Leg extensions puts shearing forces on your knees. Shearing force is when your tibia is pushed forward and the fibula is pushed backwards. This is what happens in open-chain kinetic exercises such as leg extensions and it is very, very bad.

Having said all of that, I must admit that improper squatting is far more dangerous to the knees than proper leg extensions.

healer

Thanx for allt he tips guys - I'll definitely try the squats this week.

Strangley enough, I was doing sqauts last week in a squat machine, not free weight - just coz i wanted to see how the knee would handle it. The first few were a bit painful but then i changed my stance a bit and the other 7 reps were all painless.

Thanx again for all the great advice.