Patellar Tendinopathy Rehab For Capoeira
I have been training HARD in capoeira here in NYC over the past 5 years–seemingly nonstop! Though not directly associated with my training, I’ve been managing a right knee injury for just over 2 years now. If you can picture a knee, it’s just above my patella (kneecap) and appears to be right on the tendon (technically, this is the quadriceps tendon, but better known as patellar, FYI).
I’ve had periods of it feeling better and worse in capoeira. It certainly bothers me to do repeated floreios since jumping and landing doesn’t feel great after a period of time. Also, sitting into ‘negativa’ or ‘esquiva de frente’ doesn't feel great. However, a capoeirista must know their limits! Aside from being more cognizant of how I perform those movements, I’ve been addressing them (and appear to be improving) since November via the following:
Hip Stretching: My friend helped me realize that, though my hip isn’t tight, it’s more limited than my left side is. I’ve been performing stretches like ‘pigeon stretch’, ‘spiderman stretch’ and other low-load, long duration (holding for at least 1 minute) stretches. I couple these with end range hip abduction exercises in prone and OOOF. THOSE BURN!
Open-Chain Knee Extension: What does that mean? Well, I tried various lunges, isometric holds, etc. They tend to work well for others, but in capoeira, I already do about 300 per class! Do I really need more? I think not! Since “closed-chain” exercises tended to bother my knee, I shifted gears to open-chain. A physical therapy colleague of mine took a measurement of my quadriceps size about a year and a half ago to find a small difference in my right compared to my left. As a result of the aforementioned failure to progress with lunges, I’ve been performing loaded knee extensions on the machine that every gym has. Each week, I try to increase 10 pounds and keep the reps to failure the same; NOT total reps. For example, let’s say that I perform 10 reps at 75 pounds in the first week. If I can perform 15 the next week before the same amount of fatigue, I know it’s time to increase. Note, this is not a gold standard, but how I’m progressing based on how I feel. Fast forward 2 months later after performing knee extensions 4-5/week and I’m up to 110 pounds for 3x10 reps on just my right leg, feeling less pain and, because I love to push myself, add in 3 isometric holds for 10 seconds at 95 pounds at the end of my session.
TL;DR- progressive, loaded single leg knee extensions have worked well for me. When in doubt with tendon injuries, just load them! Physical therapists have known for years that resistance training is the remedy! Sometimes, it’s just about figuring out which exercises will work best for you.
If you’re struggling with patellar tendon pain or any tendon injury, find a physical therapist that can help!