One of my patients today appeared to have jumpers’ knee, he was a 22-year-old who did weights regularly in the gym. Recently he started doing CrossFit and a lot of the work outs of the day (WODs) involve explosive box jumps and burpees. He said that the pain was worse 24 hours after doing a WOD. On the assessment the only significant findings were pain on the patella tendon and a slight muscle wastage on the left quads. A review by Visnes, H., & Bahr, R. (2007) conclude that jumpers knee rehabilitation should involve eccentric strength programme as support by the research.
He was given isometric rehab exercises which involve Spanish squat with a strength band, leg extension holds and quad stretches. The important thing was to manage the patients load and gradually build it up when the pain had decreased.
The plan has been made to progress onto high load eccentric loading when the patient is ready and to advise him to reduce the burpees and the box jumps and replace them with exercise that do not put explosive load on the patella tendon.
Visnes, H., & Bahr, R. (2007). The evolution of eccentric training as treatment for patellar tendinopathy (jumper’s knee): a critical review of exercise programmes. British journal of sports medicine, 41(4), 217-223.