Fix Patellar Tendinitis for Olympic Weightlifting

Let me preface this by reminding you that I’m not a medical professional—I’m just a guy with well-used knees who’s coached a lot of athletes with well-used knees. If you have a serious injury or severe tendinopathy, go see a professional.

Don’t sit around and wait for your tendinitis to get worse—start taking care of it the day you notice it. Prevention is always best, but immediate correction will save you a lot of time, pain and lost training.

The first step when you start feeling patellar tendinitis is to figure out what changed—did you jump into way too much training volume and/or intensity too quickly? Did you add unfamiliar exercises you’re not conditioned for, especially jump training? Did you change the way you’re squatting or switch shoes?

Temporarily eliminate or reduce the cause, and once healed, reintroduce it at a more gradual rate that prevents recurrence.

As part of your warm-up, spend a few minutes on a bike, do plenty of leg swings, knee circles and unloaded squats, and foam roll the quads, especially along the midline. Get and keep the joint warmer with knee sleeves.

Stretch the quads and hip flexors, especially together, before, during and after training.

Strengthen and heal the tissue with 3 sets of 10 unilateral leg extensions with a 5-6 second eccentric, on a machine or with a band, 3 days/week. Add in 3 sets of 10-15 hamstring curls 2-3 days/week.

Do some cross-friction massage daily for 3-5 minutes using moderate pressure at the painful area of the tendon.

Do contrast daily with hot and cold water, or ice and heat packs, for a few courses of 1-2 minutes of cold and 2-4 minutes of heat.

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[charlieclements]

Just want to say a huge thank you to the creator of this video. I'd suffered from patellar tendinitis in my right knee and a small meniscus tear in my left knee for 5 months, until about a month ago i stumbled upon this video after my last powerlifting competition in July. I'd tried almost everything to fix my knees including seeing a number of physios and reading a number of articles, but nothing seemed to work. I've been using the exercises from this video for a month now, and I can now squat pain free which only a few months ago, I thought I'd never do again. I'm also starting to deadlift pain free again now too. Anyone who is suffering from patellar tendinitis needs to watch this video and use these exercises. I can't thank you enough

[dan]

This is the best video on the subject I've seen. Amazing work.

[bobbyfischer]

Dude... I have no words to describe how valuable this video is to me. Straight to the point, exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[ivantirado]

You explained all of this so straight forward no shirt off whiteboard hour lecture

[mountainlife]

I'm 38 years old, and just getting into this sport. I truly appreciate your videos. Probably still going to take a trip or two to snap city though. Nothing but love yo!

[vcwocqv]

So helpful! I just started the All Legs All Day program and started getting the knee pain around week 4. Apparently due to the increase in heavy squat frequency. Laid off the heavy squats for a couple weeks and it’s subsided. This video is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

[markoschie]

I want to add from my experience:
- If your pain is severe, start with isometric Wall Sits and Spanish Squats 5x45sec. (1-2 weeks)
- If you are able to tolerate more stress, do slow eccentric squats 3sec down/1sec pause/3sec up (3-4 weeks, from 4x12 and slowly progress to 4x6rm, you can also switch to box squats if necessary before introducing deep squat, use a metronome!)
- If you can tolerate squatting well, switch to jumps from 4x6 progressively to 6x10, introduce landings the same way afterwards

- Document your pain daily, try to not go over the threshold of 3/10 on a pain scale
- If your pain is more 3-4/10 the day after training you should take a step back and progress more slowly
- Work of blocks or power variations can help to keep training during rehab
- Analyze imbalances of your kinetic chain (tight calves, hamstrings, hip flexors, quads)
- Do unilateral work on both sides if issues occur only on one leg
- Patellar issues are often connected to limited dorsiflexion and hip mobility
- only about 15% are fully recovered in there first three months, it is more likely to take 6 or more months
- PROGRESS SLOWLY IT TAKES TIME

[Acumenathletics]

Good stuff! Just started To add jumps into my training and the extra volume is adding up. Perfect timing on this video.

[Justus_Justice]

Straightforward, no bullshit. Really dig your videos!

[jaymccormick]

Tight quad and not tracking my knee correctly (too much "knees out") were my issues. Tight quad from sitting all day but also muscles tighten as they grow, so more squatting meant more tightness for me. Also my ankle mobility was changing how my knee tracked forward. Worked the quad with lots of stretching from a bench with my foot elevated, and also ankle mobility and general knee tracking improvement. All from your content (videos and books). Thanks, Greg!

[AnthonyGarcia-syyk]

The foam roller one is gold, my knee was getting still as sooner I incorporated that works for me I guess that was my specific problem...

[SmallersCY]

timely! not squatting heavy (and specifically front squatting) heavy every day fixes it for me, but these tips are invaluable.

[painnck]

Great advice. If only I had someone to force feed me this a year

[adam]

Thank you so much for this. Can't believe I hadn't subbed before. You have a new fan. 💪🏻

[howtosnatch]

Great video...I guess I know what I'm doing for active recovery day.

[mme]

My physio recommended this protocol almost to the T. And yeah, works absolutely amazing

[peterdaly]

Thank you for this video mate, been going to physio therapy for months and no joy.

[FairfieldCliff]

YES! Everything I've been doing just set up nicely and organized

[stuarttaylor]

Got it!...
Stimulate healing, not create a limp. Great video!

[sweetcheex]

Viewing this in 2021 - thank you for the quick concise vid; this is the stuff I've read and programmed myself but good to have someone else say the same thing and reassert my own rehab protocol who's had similar issue - patellar tendonitis on left knee and quad tendonitis on right knee - introduced Lunges and could easily handle the weight muscle wise but the tendon clearly wasn't ready even though I've lifted far more in other lifts - the range of motion is just different