Continued Activity During Rehabilitation in Patients With Patellar Tendinopathy

Exercise treatment will consist of squatting and knee extension exercises, designed to progressively load the patellar tendon (Heavy-Slow Resistance protocol). A pain-monitoring model is used to guide exercise loads. As the protocol progresses, exercise load is increased while repetitions are decreased.

Participants sports participation and physical activity will be guided by the Pain-Monitoring Model. Using the Pain-Monitoring Model, patients may participate in activities that cause patellar tendon pain, as long as pain does not exceed 5/10 on the numeric pain rating scale (NPRS) (0 = No pain, 10 = Worst pain imaginable) during or immediately after activity. Additionally, pain should return to pre-activity levels by the following morning and pain should not increase from week-to-week.