Sudden tibial tuberosity pain

[SS2016]

Age = 21
Weight = 103kg
Height = 6ft 6

I had to stop training due to illness, lost a bunch of weight, detrained and decided to start SS from scratch again.

I went twice (Dec 15th and 17th) stopped for a while then went back on Jan 14th.

Injury:
- No pain in my tibial tuberosity on Dec 15th + 17th nor any tibial tuberosity pain from lifting ever. I may have had a few bumps + bruises from rugby, but nothing significant.
- On Jan 14th, on my second warm up set of squats (40kg x 1 x 5 HBBS), I felt a sharp pain in my left tibial tuberosity. The pain slightly decreased as I continued squatting.
-The pain comes on during my warm ups and slightly goes away during my squat workout. It's painful walking up the stairs 2 steps at a time. It's painful to touch. There's no added heat. I don't think there's a bump or any swelling.
-There's no pain in the patellar tendon, no pain going down my shin nor in my knee. The pain is just localised to the tibial tuberosity.
-There's no pain when my leg is extended nor flexed. However, I get pain when I try to extend the knee against resistance eg when trying to stand from a seated position, walking up stairs. No pain when walking on flat ground.
-The pain after squatting would be a 5/10. When resting and walking normally, there's no pain.
-I haven't iced it nor taking any NSAIDs.

Any ideas on what it is and how to treat it?

Thanks.

[Jeff Illingworth]

Post a form check.

[GammaFlat]

Age = 21
- On Jan 14th, on my second warm up set of squats (40kg x 1 x 5 HBBS), I felt a sharp pain in my left tibial tuberosity. The pain slightly decreased as I continued squatting.
-The pain comes on during my warm ups and slightly goes away during my squat workout. It's painful walking up the stairs 2 steps at a time. It's painful to touch. There's no added heat.

The link below talks about Apophysitis of the Tibial Tuberosity, Osgood-Schlatter. Interesting read. I hope this isn't your issue - Here's a couple excerpts:

It is a well-known condition in late childhood characterized by pain and a bony prominence over the tibial tuberosity.
The primary goal in the treatment of OSD is the reduction of pain and swelling over the tibial tuberosity. The patient should limit physical activities until the symptoms are resolved. In some cases, the patient should restrict physical activities for several months.

From my personal experience - don't kneel... ever. I've racked up my knees badly from kneeling on concrete. 1 hour kneeling while working on a project on concrete took 1 year to fully recover from. It is encouraging that squats reduce the pain. I've found that squats can help with lots of things . Good luck!

Apophysitis of the Tibial Tuberosity (Osgood-Schlatter Disease): A Review

[SS2016]

Thanks for the responses.

I squatted on Tuesday. The pain was worse and didn't subside during squatting.

Since there was no trauma nor any form breakdown, there must be something weird going on.

I'm going to lay off squats until the pain goes away

[Jeff Illingworth]

Since there was no trauma nor any form breakdown,

Are you sure about this?

[SS2016]

Yeah, 100%.

I didn't hurt my knee outside of the gym - no bumps and bruises, didn't hit it off of a chair, no car crashes etc.

My technique was very similar to previous squatting sessions (same cues but I was a bit out of the groove due to time out of the gym). I squatted 140kg 3x5 where my technique wasn't perfect but had no knee/shin pain at all. I squatted 40kg with better technique but had knee pain.

I don't have any recent videos of me squatting. I'll upload one when the pain subsides.