Patellas are your knee caps. A common type of injury that you will know is your knee and the back of your lower leg. It is a common injury, a painful and a difficult one to recover from completely – it’s a shame when you’re in pain as you can’t train to your full capacity. The knee joint has to support the most bodyweight, thus making it the most vulnerable to any injury sustained through training. Because of the movement and weight of your body, as well as the impact of training – especially when running – it’s critical that you know the most common ways you can injure you knee and the most common ways to repair it. The most common injury is called patellar tendonitis, an inflammation of the knee tendon that is caused by overuse.

Patellar tendonitis is common in sports that involve jumping or changing direction quickly and regularly like football and running. It can be painful in itself but has wider implications because it places additional strain on the hip and knee joints, which could lead to further injuries and more time on the sidelines. Follow this three step series of wall squat exercise to treat the problem and strengthen your knees.

Phase One

Aim: Improved elasticity
Duration: Two weeks

Start by standing on your injured leg and leaning your back against a wall – keep your foot about 60cm from the wall. Keeping your foot in line with your knee and hip, slide down the wall until your knee is bent at around 30°. Hold for 30 seconds before putting your other foot down and using both legs to return to the start position. Perform three to five reps.

Phase Two

Aim: Improved strength
Duration: One week

Exactly the same as phase one – except one change. Increase the angle progressively to a 45° then 60° of flexion at the knee.

Phase Three

Aim: Improved Speed
Duration: One two to three weeks

Starting in the same position, lower your knee down to 45° before returning up with both legs. Do three sets of ten reps slowly, taking three seconds to go down and three up. Increase the speed of the return in the second week and go as fast as you can in the final week, as long as the knee is pain-free.

People often think that the cause of injury is due to lack of experience or over experience. We all know it does vary but as a pilot would describe the way to get a perfect plane landing, they would describe “a perfect approach”. A perfect approach is aligning the plane with the runway from a great distance and getting a low speed to slowly descend to the run way, as if your walking down a long hill with no steepness. I think warming up by stretching for ten minutes at least before you start training; then when you finish, a full complete cool down by walking and stretching out too. Taking it easy at first and building up.

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