Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease
Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease is defined as inflammation of the area just below the knee where the patellar tendon attaches to the tibia. The easiest way of spotting this is from the bump that will appear just below the knee cap. This condition most exhibits itself to children and teens during a time of major growth. This can be a very uncomfortable and sometimes very painful condition.
When working with individuals with Osgood-Schlatter’s here are some ideas to help them get out of pain.
You will want to ice the area just under the knee caps where they might be starting to form a small bump. You may want to also use an analgesic such as Biofreeze to help with pain relief as well.
Psoas Stretch
You will want to work to open up the Psoas and hip flexor muscles. You will first perform the kneeling psoas stretch. This will allow the hip to begin to open up on the front side and prepare the body to stretch the Quadriceps muscles.
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Knee Flexion: Bent Knee
After opening up the Psoas you will move on to the Quadriceps muscles. This will be done with two different stretches. First, you will open up the distal end of the Quadriceps performing the Bent Knee Flexion Stretch. This will allow the distal end of the rectus femoris.
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Bent Knee Hip Extension Stretch
After you open up the distal end of the rectus femoris you will work to stretch the proximal end of the muscle to the belly. This will be done using the Bent-Knee Hip Extension Stretch.
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Using this method you may achieve some relief from the pain of the Osgood-Schlatter’s Disease. The main thing is to work to stretch these muscles out on the front of the leg so that you do not have the constant pressure put upon the attachment of the patellar tendon to the insertion of the tibia.