Yesterday, one of the physios I follow on Twitter shared a link to an excellent presentation from Dr. Christian Barton at the Danish Sports Medicine Congress 2013, featured in the video below.
I thought I’d share the video here on our blog, as I’m a big advocate of the biomechanical approach to rehabilitating runners with Patellofemoral Pain (aka Runner’s Knee).
Dr. Barton (check out his patellofemoral blog here) discusses current research surrounding the various common biomechanical deficits we see when treating and rehabilitating individuals suffering with patellofemoral pain.
- Multifactorial Nature of Patellofemoral Pain
- Patella Mal-tracking
- Delayed VMO Activation
- Quadriceps Strength Deficits
- Trunk and Pelvic Movement Patterns and Strength
- Hip Motion and Muscle Function
- Role of The Foot
Loved the video… I have a clinic with 70% of the patient population being runners (beginner to Olympic qualifiers) and there seems to be an overwhelming majority of those with weak hip stability and/or inhibition of those muscles.
Curious to see how long it takes your runners to develop adequate activation and strength of the hip stabilizers, more specifically the Glut Med?
Glad you enjoyed the video Jonny. Dealing with PFP in the clinic really gets the problem solving brain ticking over.
In terms of how long it takes to rehab hip stabilisers, this depends on a number of factors:
1. Chronicity of the problem and baseline deficits
2. Neuromotor awareness of the patient
3. Compliance of the patient/skill of clinician in obtaining compliance
4. Potential soft tissue restriction (TFL, rec fem, anterior hip) which may restrict normal gluteal function.
So can be a matter of a couple of weeks or many months – need to consider/address all of the above