Can Your Knees Hit the Brakes? Training Deceleration in Your Rehab
It’s easy to skip a few steps when rehabbing a painful knee back into handling impact. Maybe pain is down, you’ve worked on loading up the knee extensors with single leg knee extensions, even resumed squatting, and now you’re thinking about jumping and running more.But once you start a few weeks, that familiar ache and sharp pain come back in. What happened?
What usually gets skipped is building the capacity to absorb force, also known as deceleration. Before working on producing high forces with powerful jumps, it makes sense to ensure you can tolerate landing and the eccentric forces that accompany it.
Here’s a series of knee deceleration drills we use in the clinic once pain is down and your strength numbers are trending up.
Ideally these are programmed 1-2x weekly for 2-3 sets of 3-5 repetitions each side. Monitor for symptoms to stay quiet without worsening pains or aches over the days following these exercises.
Focus on quickly hitting the brakes and checking that the shin moves forward as your knee bends.
Start without the dumbbell and then you can add it in as tolerated.
Start without the dumbbell and then you can add it in as tolerated.
Seeing some changes but still want a more individualized approach to your rehab? Looking for physical therapists in Long Beach who understand what it takes to make fitness a daily part of your life? If you want to learn how to take control with some expert guidance and treatments to optimize your performance and longevity, then that’s exactly what we provide at Zenith Performance Physical Therapy. Call or text us at 562-502-1767 to schedule a free phone consultation and come in for an evaluation!
Thomas Bilodeau, PT DPT, USAW-L1
Zenith Performance Physical Therapy
ICE Certified Specialist: Orthopedics, Fitness Athlete, Older Adult
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