[Closed] recovery time for patella femoral syndrome

Hi Rob,

I had this and it took a while to sort out. My problems started in November 2008 - the slightest bit of exercise caused acute knee pain. Once I found a good physio and started stretches & exercises it was about 4 months until I could exercise without pain. I have been fine since.

Chin up old boy, persist with it and you will be back riding before you know it and won't miss all the good weather.

I started playing football after an 8yr break last year. All of a sudden i ended up with tendonitus in both patella's And Patellafemoral syndrome in both knees.

I actually can handle the pain during matches but every so often the knee cap would 'pop' out of the channel and the pain ould be like nothing else i have felt. Light headed for 10mins and struggling to walk.

I had physio from a division 1 football physio and also went to my gp's physio. Both basically confirmed that the tendonitus wouldnt really go away whilst i was playing. Although it hurts, it would take a car crash to do any real damage to the tendon as its about 1" thick so if i could handle the pain, i wouldnt be doing any real long term damage. I just take nurofen before and after matches which helps.

I also got a few exercises from the physios. Basically, when she was checking both my legs out, my mediallis doesnt even remotely pull the knee cap untill it was practically at full extension, and even then it was minimal. She gave me instructins to put a tube of some ilk under the knee whilst laid on a bed. Staighten the leg to just before full extension then do loads of reps of just tweeking/straightening the leg to try to remind the muscle to actually do something. Its not as if the muscle is underdeveloped, it just isnt pulling the kneecap straight. I tried this for a while but tbh it felt like to little to actually make any difference.

I tried the Mconnel taping but i didnt feel comfortable with it. It works for some people though.

I then went online and checked out every site i could. On which i cant remember the address for (Just keep looking) had some clips of exercises for specific complaints (I think it can be caused by the laterallis muscle to) and the one that has helped was basically a backwards step up. I do gym/circuits twice per week and as everyone else is doing front step ups, i do backwards ones. I havent had an incident in weeks and the knees dont 'wobble' anymore so are building up i hope. The backwards step basically back to the bench. Step backwards with the leg/knee you want to train and step up smoothly till both feet are on the bench. Then step down with the same leg 1s (If that makes sense). I dont do loads, about 4 mins in total as part of 1hrs + circuits but it is making a difference.

The football phsio basically told me it could be linked to a number of things. My biking (Even though i dont get it when cycling), my running style (Pronation etc) or even the length of my legs being imbalanced etc etc. There are places that can asses these things for you but to get it right is big bucks. I went down the route of trying to exercise the knees more specifically.

Hope some of this helps

Actually that reverse step up is wrong. You come down on the opposit leg.
I dont because i find it hurts my other knee which also has the problem (If that makes sense)

Cheers guys.

Mine pretty much started in the middle of 08. I was training for a cycling event with a bike that was probably set up wrong. I did no stretches before or after either. Seems a bit dumb now, but at the time had no problems so just got on with it.

Fortunately my wife is a gp so I got to have a mri scan pretty sharpish. They found nothing wrong so I was relieved.

Been in NZ for nearly 18 months now and the tracks here are not forgiving on the climbs. Ended up going to see a physio who said I had a tight itb band and said I could do with strengthening my glute and inner quad. Problem was that I was walking for about an hour and a half each day to work so if I did any exercise the knee would get painful a couple of days afterwards 🙁 Soooooooooooooooooo many hills in Wellington. Thankfully work in nz is done now so I can take a bit of a brake.

I seem to get a little pain when I first start to ride my bike, but after that I can go on for miles with no pain doing hill climbs and everything. It's the day or two after the knee starts throwing it's teddy out of the cot 🙁 I get pain under the bottom of the knee cap and up the inside of the knee. Not sure the knee was best pleased with the 70 miler over the weekend, but it's not too bad considering. I guess it's more of the impact on the knee that sets it off.

Guess I will just have to keep pushing with the exercise and hope the pain (ache) gets less and less. Wouldn't mind a go at the taping so might see a physio in the motherland when I'm back next month.

It's just sooooooooooo frustrating when you just wanna get out there and ride without the pain a couple of days later 🙁