4 Problems That Happen When Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome Is Not Treated Correctly

When patellofemoral pain syndrome is not treated correctly, there’s a bunch of problems that can happen. I’m going to tell you about four major problems today. patellofemoral pain syndrome happens to people in their 20s and 30s.

It can happen to teenagers as well, especially those that are very active in running or running sports. And it eventually sets them up for worse, chronic injuries that might involve surgery at a later time in life.

Number one cartilage in the knee joint can get very worn down if the problem isn’t treated correctly. So with patellofemoral pain syndrome, the cartilage in the back of the kneecap right here rubs inappropriately against the thigh bone. And if it continues to rub because it’s not treated properly, the cartilage there can eventually get worn down so much that you can have a little hole in the cartilage on the back of the kneecap or a hole in the cartilage on the end of the thigh bone right here.

The beginning signs of it are seeking an x ray, if you go to the doctor for your patella problem, your patella patellofemoral pain syndrome, they’ll do an x ray trying to get the right camera angle, or they’re looking at the gap between your kneecap and your thigh bone right here. So you can see that space right there, your extra will look something like this.

And if it’s squished down, and there’s a lot less space or they’re touching, then they’ll begin to say that you have patella, which means that the cartilage in there is thinning out and potentially worn down to where it’s bone on bone.

Now that happens only in extreme cases, and after you’ve had patellofemoral pain syndrome for years or longer. So if this is your first go around with patellofemoral pain syndrome, not to worry, your cartilage might still be okay.

Number two is that other joints can be affected in the short term. I mean, think about it if your knee is hurting it just at rest, because that’s how usually happens at aches or begins to hurt worse after you’re moving around and being active.

If you’re limping or you’re just babying the knee, it’s just a matter of time before your hip might have a problem. Your ankle and foot might run into issues, your low back or the other side of the body, the other leg, the other hip, the other knee, ankle and foot as well might become affected. So you need to make sure that you manage the patellofemoral pain syndrome properly. So that doesn’t turn into problems in other joints of your body.

Number three is that muscle imbalances get worse. And what you need to know about patellofemoral pain syndrome is that the root cause of it is that there’s a muscle imbalance what that means if you look at the leg here, there’s muscles on the front of the thigh here, the quad muscles and they attach to the kneecap. And then on the back of the hip, you have the glute muscles, you need to have a proper balance between those two muscles.

If you use your quads mostly and you don’t really get much glute activation for your running sports, or if you go lift weights and you tend to use your quads quite a bit or you have very big, overdeveloped quads. And you really don’t ever get sore in your glutes when you do exercise, then chances are that you probably have a muscle imbalance that has been causing too much pressure of the patella against the thigh bone, it’s compressing the kneecap against the thigh bone.

And that’s what’s irritating the back of the patella right there, when you go through treatment that strengthens the quads, because that’s what most therapists that’s what most healthcare professionals will guide their patients to is they’ll say: Well, your kneecap is not tracking right on your thigh bone. And it might be a little over this way over this way. So we need to work the quad muscles on the other side to pull it over.

That’s incorrect, you don’t want to be doing that. Because what they’re missing is that there’s already excessive compression of that kneecap against the thigh bone. And so you don’t want to work out the quads. The reason why it’s pulled over like that is because there’s weakness up in the hip, and it’s rotating the thigh bone, causing the apparent shift in the pelvis and the patella against the thigh bone here.

But really, if you just strengthen the glutes up here, sometimes you have to look at the foot to there’s muscles in the feet that influence this, that can align the kneecap better on the thigh bone. And so you might need to really work on fixing that imbalance way up here in the hip and the glutes are down here in the foot, the arch support muscles.

Just to give you a bit more about the muscle imbalances. Those are not common concepts that are taught in physical therapy schools and that are known by physical therapist, I am a specialist physical therapist. And so I look at the body a little bit differently because I’ve gone through specialized training and advancement.

So if you’re going to a physical therapist, or you’re thinking about going to one just do your research and see if that therapist specializes in helping people avoid surgery. If you’re if you go into the clinic, and you see a bunch of people that have just had surgery or you talk to them and they say yeah, we see a lot of people that have just had a knee surgery or hip surgery.

Then you probably don’t want to hang out there because they’re going to specialize in whatever they tend to see the most of if it happens to be a lot of surgical patients, then they’re thinking in terms of that treatment approach of helping somebody’s recovered from surgery, which is not a good place for you to work workout as a patient.

If you have not had surgery, and you’re looking at recovering naturally from your patellofemoral pain problem, however, if you do have a surgery, that’s probably the right clinic for you to go to go see them.

Problem number four is that if this problem is left untreated, if that root muscle imbalance is not treated properly, because sometimes you will go through treatment, like I mentioned, you might end up in a therapy clinic, or you might do exercises on your own, or you got it from some other healthcare professional that’s trying to help you out with their with your patellofemoral pain problem.

But if your problem has gotten worse and worse, and or maybe it’s gotten better for a time for a short time, but then you get back to your activity, and it still bothers you, when that activity comes back. That means it is not resolved that muscle imbalance is still there, it’s festering, you’re getting worse as time goes on, and you’re just going to be irritating it more.

If that’s the situation, then problem number four comes into play where you eventually once you hit your 40s, late 40s, especially 50s and 60s, especially, you begin to get osteo arthritis in the knee joint, they can get arthritis here between the kneecap and the thigh bone are on the end of the thigh bone here where we’re that that bone connects to the shin bone right here.

And that’s, you know, a tough situation that you’re closer towards getting a knee replacement or having some other surgical procedure plus all the life altering changes, you’re going to have to go through, you know, you’re not going to be able to function the same way, and then be able to stand as long as you like and do all the things that you love to do. So you want to take care of this patellofemoral pain syndrome, before it turns into something severe like knee arthritis.

The other condition that that really slows people down is a meniscus injury. A meniscus is a big chunk of cartilage do you have to in each side of the knee, that helps to cushion the thigh bone on the shin bone. And that can get damaged as well to the point where it’s not providing you the stability and the cushion that it’s supposed to, for you to do your normal daily activities, both arthritis, knee arthritis and a meniscus problem.

They stem from a muscle imbalance that has progressed for years and decades, and it just hasn’t been handled properly. And if you have patellofemoral pain syndrome, that’s like the first step towards knee osteoarthritis and cartilage problems like, like a meniscus problem.

So most people are asking me at this point, well, what’s the best treatment for patellofemoral pain syndrome, the you’ve got to get a treatment that’s focused on getting the glutes stronger, does not work the quads out because chances are I’m willing to bet money 99% of people that I’ve seen with truth patellofemoral pain syndrome, they have over dominant quads. And oftentimes their arch support muscles down in their foot are not strong enough.

And in the short-term using things like an insole, using a knee brace might help but it is just short term pain relief, you’ve got to get stronger in the right muscles. And then you get to learn how to use those muscles when you go run. When you do your sport when you do your activity. Or if you’re just a person that doesn’t do sports or exercise, you’re just doing stuff around the house, chores work that kind of thing.

You need to learn how to move in those environments, using your glutes and using your foot muscles correctly. So that it’s consistently taking pressure off your kneecap here and not irritating the cartilage. So just not letting you get closer and closer to cartilage problems, meniscus problems and our osteoarthritis problems. If you’re looking for a structured organized program at fixing the root problem of the glute strength appear in the foot muscle strength.

To help your patellofemoral pain syndrome problem in your knee joints, you need to go check out our 28 Day Knee Health And Wellness Boost Program. There’s a link in the description below. That program is 100% Online is designed to get you to strengthen the right muscles, while avoiding strengthening the wrong muscles. So that you can take the pressure off that kneecap and have true long-lasting results where your knee is feeling fantastic.

You do it in a safe way that doesn’t put you in a dangerous situation where you’re going to aggravate your knee joints. The program is designed for you to be able to scale the exercises so you can make them harder or make them easier. You need to adjust them to your level so that you’re not making anything worse.

So you’re safe the whole way through the program. And I say it’s a 28-day program, but really you have access to it even beyond the 28 days. So you can go through it again. And again. That’s what I recommend. We get people emailing us contacting us all the time and I tell them; you got 10% Better 20% Better 50% Better go into the program the first time go through it again until you maximize your benefits because the sky’s the limit on your potential if this has worked for you even just 10%

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