Are you experiencing a Quadriceps Injury (Tendinopathy)?
There are a few different types of injuries that the quadriceps can be exposed to.
Contusion
This is the result of some sort of blunt force trauma, getting kicked in the thigh, helmet to the thigh, hit by a baseball, collision.
Basically the muscle is damaged and initially bleeds from the impact and damage causing a bruise. The body slowly repairs itself and sews the injury back together with adhesion/scar tissue.
Best to have this treated after the initial swelling and healing phase is complete about 7-14 days after initial injury onset.
Tendonitis
This injury is do to the overuse of the muscle and tendon itself. It can be the result of an abnormal amount of use or from an imbalance in the body that leads the quadricep muscle to work harder causing more stress to the quadriceps tendon.
The result is an inflamed tendon. NO, DON’T RUN TO TAKE ANTI-INFLAMMATORIES. Rest the injury, let it heal and find out why the tendinitis happened in the first place.
Tendinosis
This type of injury is when the quadriceps tendon has been overloaded for a long period of time, we’re talking months or even years at a time. Most likely this person ignored the previously stated advice, popped their Advil or Aleve so they could continue participating in their activity. You know, cause they would have died if they couldn’t go running for a week or two. (shaking my head)
The result is a degenerated tendon that is on the verge of rupturing. Yes, if you continue to load this injury it will eventually fail and they only fix is a very serious surgery and you will not get your entire range of motion back and will likely have limitation and pain the rest of your life.
Rupture
You got it, you have pushed yourself and ignored all advice from health professionals to the point where you tendon finally said “I QUIT!”. And there you lie on the ground in agony thinking, “Why me????” You know why, I’m not going to state it, enjoy your ride to the hospital and ensuing surgery and 6 months of rehab.
Yes we can still help you to an extent get back to your activity post-surgery. We won’t hold a grudge, we’re still here to help no matter how many times you ignore our advice. That’s who we are and what we do.