This is a nasty chronic injury that has bothered a girl in high school that I coach. She has seing Dr.s and they bascially tell her to suck it up. She is a very tough girl, so if she tells me she is in pain, I know it really bothers her.
I have been researching this problem and find some different ideas. So I figure I would ask you guys who might know of ways or exercises to help her out. Any help would be greatly appreciatd.
Thank you!
Don’t let her “work through the pain” as it will only get worse and lead to compensation problems (overuse of the other side, pelvic shifts, etc.).
Light stretching of the quads, manual therapy on the quads to lengthen them and loosen them up (even some fascial stretching), stretch and perform releases on the ITB and rub out and stretch the glutes (especially medius).
Lighten her workload and perform the necessary therapy and it shouldn’t continue to be a problem.
PFS is caused by a tracking problem with the patella through the femoral groove. Strengthen the VMO and check for a valgus moment during running and/or land and load activities. Check the Q angle as well. The valgus moment needs immediate attention as this will predispose her (along with hormonal factors and hamstring firing rates) to ACL injury. For this, you must strengthen the gluteus medius and the external rotators of the hip.
Hope this helps.
The above gentlemen our both correct; however, this has been discussed at length on a different thread. If you do a search I’m sure you will find what you are looking for.
Here are a few to get you started,
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showpost.php?p=65578&postcount=4
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=6986&highlight=knee+pain
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=6397&highlight=knee+pain
Great threads SVS. It’s too bad that I missed those (wasn’t a member then), there are a couple points that where missed on the ACL thread.
Thanks guys- Links are great too SVSman!
I will start to do some of the exercises with her. It bumbs me out to see this girl in so much pain and her just wanting to run. She does listen and sit out when we do some tempo/ extended warm ups. We have done pool workouts and that flaring of the knee is to much to control and hurts her also.
What would you reccomend for keeping her in good shape? She runs the 300 hurdles.