Quadricep Femoris Tendon OR Rectus Femoris Muscle

[silachoo]

Good Morning Ladies and Gentleman,

Often times, even with a week off my "quadriceps" feel sore warming up for squats. The pain/tightness is between 1'' - 2'' above the knee cap on both legs. It occurred to me yesterday that there isn't really muscle where I experience pain, probably just tendons. Possibly a muscle/tendon juncture. Long story short - I'm very suspicious now that I have some Tendonopathy/Tendonosis as this has been much too chronic in nature to be Tendonitis at this point. Has anyone had chronic Tendonopathy in their Quadricep Femoris Tendon? I foam roll and warm up adequately but I always have this dull pain in the area described above. Any ideas or solutions? I really would like to avoid tearing a tendon with 300-400lbs on my back.

Thanks!

[marcf]

That happens to me every once in a while when I get on my toes and the bar gets forward of midfoot. Feels like my knees take the stress of the squat rather than the hips.

[silachoo]

Yeah when I get forward of the midfoot I definitely feel the stress even worse. The thing is I feel it all the time, warming up, good sets, bad sets..... It's just a chronic tenderness in a place where I don't have much muscle.

[perman]

Isn't this the exact type of thing you would use box squats for? Reducing weight from normal squats, being slow and controlled, keeping your hips as far back as possible, that may help.

[silachoo]

Cool Perman, thanks. I have heard that eccentric loading is beneficial for tendon pathology. I think after this training block I will incorporate box squats. For now I will do voodoo floss, aggressive rolling, and daily stretching.

[manveer]

I have no idea if this will actually work, but speaking of slow eccentrics, you might try tempo squats. I have a bit of pain on the outside of my knee sometimes (vastus lateralis tendon area) and I've had 6-0-0 tempo squats written in (maybe not the only reason they were programmed). Not fun, but might help.

In Rip's video on knee wraps he talks about using light wraps to help train around this sort of thing.

Other than that, maybe you can try some kind of rehab with knee extensions - use two legs on the concentric, one leg for a slow eccentric.

Dr. Petrizzo might have some ideas.

[silachoo]

Awesome ideas Manveer. Thanks alot!

[silachoo]

Update - Those who posted. I obviously haven't had time to make a difference by using the techniques suggest but I did wrap my knees for my heavy single yesterday. Boy was I leaving strength on the table. Good suggestion Manveer and also to anyone who reads this with quadricep tendonitis. Wrap those babies, I could squat at about 95% pain free.