Youth Athletes and Knee Pain: Treating and Preventing Jumper’s Knee
Kids in a variety of sports can suffer knee pain. It’s fairly common in any sport where there is running, jumping, or even contact. We attribute the pain to many factors including growth, a contusion, or overuse. Jumper’s Knee or patellar tendonitisis an inflammation or injury of the patellar tendon.
What we tell our patients is that this tendon acts kind of like a bungee cord that connects the kneecap to the shinbone. Youth athletes who jump a lot may experience this type of pain after a string of games or a year-round of practice. Basketball players, volleyball players, gymnasts and many other types of child athletes who spend a lot of time hopping up and down, will more likely experience this due to the repetitive stress placed on the patellar tendon or quadriceps. The more intense the impact is, the higher the chance is that your child could injure this area. The good news is that it is easily preventable with the right combinations of stretching.
Stretch
Everybody needs to do some good stretching on a regular basis, especially athletes, and even more so youth athletes. Our Next Level Wellness team in Irvine has many different stretches you can do to focus on jumper’s knee if you are experiencing the pain associated with it.
Roll
Have your child lie on his or her back and put one leg crossed (to form the shape of a box between the legs) over the other. Have them keep the opposite leg bent and elevated and then have them put their hands under the leg at the bend with fingers laced.
In one motion, your child can pull the elevated and bent leg towards them while keeping the other resting on top. Repeat this on the other side and then repeat the set 5-10 times.
Get Fit
With your child on his or her side, position a foam roller under the middle thigh area. In a forward and backward motion, have them roll from this area down towards the knee and back up again.
As with sport your child plays, playing with tight muscles that have not been stretched out properly or frequently is a surefire way for them to injure themselves. Don’t have your child limit stretches to a certain part of their body. Every part of the body connected to another part in some way.
Here’s a more in-depth look at this injury, as well as other stretches and exercises in this video on our Facebook page.
If you are your child are suffering from ‘Jumper’s Knee,’ and these daily stretches are not helping ease the pain, we encourage you to take advantage of our Stay F.I.T. Student Athlete special.
Fascial Integrative Treatment, or F.I.T., is an innovative and advanced soft-tissue system. It is a manual hands-on therapy that corrects the dysfunctions that these soft-tissues can undergo. During the F.I.T. process, we will evaluate the problematic area, properly diagnose the condition, treat it and evaluate the surrounding muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, nerves, and joints.
Our Stay F.I.T. special for athletes covers all of the treatment above for just $79 ($250 value). Don’t let your young athlete or yourself suffer from nagging injuries caused by being active in sports.
Our chiropractic team of wellness doctors – chiropractors and sports medicine specialists, Vasili Gatsinaris, DC, QME, James Kim, DC, Adam Abulghualya, DC, BS, ART and Caprice Leonard, MA, ATC specialize in chiropractic and health and wellness care. Our Irvine chiropractic office is located near
John Wayne Airport, convenient for people living in Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Santa Ana and other surrounding Orange County communities. To learn more about our variety of services or to schedule an appointment, take advantage of our Stay F.I.T. special and contact usor call 949-263-9003 today.