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I have had indoor practices these past two Saturdays. The first was a good practice and near what was going to be the end, I had a minor injury in my right knee. That made it the end for me. I didn’t do anything for it nor did I do any hard exercise during the following week and I went to practice last Saturday a little apprehensive. It started out just fine and again after about an hour I experienced a similar situation with the same knee. So I’m going to describe the problem now and hopefully some of you intelligent athletes will have an explanation as to what is happening and more importantly, what I should do about it.

Both times the problem happened sometime during the last 4 strides of a 10 or 12 stride approach. I experience pain near the top of the patella, but maybe just under it. It is not deep in the knee joint. I tried to diagnose it by doing some light running after I stopped vaulting, and the pain is felt during the knee extension (bringing the foot forward) of the stride. I believe the quads attach to the patella on the top by a tendon and then the patella is attached to the tibia by a ligament. I am guessing I might have done some minor damage to the quad tendon. I say minor because I can walk without any problem and the tenderness has gone a way each time after about 3 days.

What should I do to help it recover, and what should I do to "strengthen" it so it won't happen any more? Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

- master

master wrote:I have had indoor practices these past two Saturdays. The first was a good practice and near what was going to be the end, I had a minor injury in my right knee. That made it the end for me. I didn’t do anything for it nor did I do any hard exercise during the following week and I went to practice last Saturday a little apprehensive. It started out just fine and again after about an hour I experienced a similar situation with the same knee. So I’m going to describe the problem now and hopefully some of you intelligent athletes will have an explanation as to what is happening and more importantly, what I should do about it.

Both times the problem happened sometime during the last 4 strides of a 10 or 12 stride approach. I experience pain near the top of the patella, but maybe just under it. It is not deep in the knee joint. I tried to diagnose it by doing some light running after I stopped vaulting, and the pain is felt during the knee extension (bringing the foot forward) of the stride. I believe the quads attach to the patella on the top by a tendon and then the patella is attached to the tibia by a ligament. I am guessing I might have done some minor damage to the quad tendon. I say minor because I can walk without any problem and the tenderness has gone a way each time after about 3 days.

What should I do to help it recover, and what should I do to "strengthen" it so it won't happen any more? Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

- master

It sounds pretty minor to me, but as masters, we need to jump all over minor injuries and make sure they don't become chronic. I would rest it and ice it a couple times a day for a few days. After 2-3 days if it's pain free, I would start heat treatment after each icing, and a heat treatment before a light running workout. If that works out fine, continue the ice & heat and every other day workouts for a week or so.

If your still pain free for 2-3 weeks, try a vault session but keep it down to about 40 minute. 20 minutes shy of when you felt the pain before. Warm the tendon up before, ice it after and make a conscious effort not to stride out on your last few steps. If this is working, add 5 to 10 minutes to your vault sessions each week. Good luck!

OUCH!! Sorry to hear about that but I agree with jumpbackin. Good advice. It's very minor so be careful and ramp back up slowly. You have the time to be patient now and later you won't want to take it. I have a little flare on my left knee but it's gone away again before I jump.

BTW - it's not like you had an easy year last year. Besides that, how can us mortals relate to the pain of a world recordholder and hero!!! LOL!! You're amazing John!! Be careful and have fun. Bubba