Can You Exercise with Patellar Tendonitis?
The tendency or ability to exercise after developing patellar tendonitis depends on the severity of your injury. The level of activities you can engage in depends on how much you irritate the tendon. If you discover the tendinitis early, adequate rest combined with other treatment, like icing, using patellar tendon strap and using over-the counter anti-inflammatory drugs [3] will help relieve symptoms.
If you are a runner, you can walk for a few days to see if the pain goes away. You can then gradually ease back into your normal training. Start at about 50% and increase by 10% each following week if it all works out.
If you are feeling consistent pain or weakness in your joint tendon anytime you go through your day, you can stop any knee-stressing workouts for a few weeks. This would involve certain activities, like jumping and running.
If you are finding it difficult to go up or down stairs, you need to significantly change your workouts and stick to less strenuous ones. During recovery from a patellar tendonitis injury, your return to workouts should be gradual to avoid worsening the injury or causing severe complications.
Stretches and exercises that help manage patellar tendonitis usually focus on creating load tolerance to handle the demands on the knee. This is generally referred to as building strength around the joint. Stretches help improve flexibility.
Stretches give the tendon a break and helps address any problem that can cause abnormal strain on the tendon. Tight muscles in your calves, hips, or hamstrings can cause flare-up of patellar tendonitis by exerting excess stress on your knee. Stretches and exercises that work on your lower body can prevent or treat the problem.