As patella femoral pain is typically caused by sensitivity or irritation of soft tissue, not damage to the structure of the knee, patella femoral pain syndrome treatment is relatively simple. Symptoms can often be alleviated by reducing your exercise load and then building it back up again. 

 

For example, a runner who develops patella femoral pain after doing approximately 7km of running, could drop their training back to 5km runs which do not provoke pain. Once they have trained comfortably for a week or two, they then can gradually build back up to a pain-free 7km run. In other types of exercise like HIIT or exercise classes, exercise load can be measured by rating your perceived exertion out of 10 and multiplying this by the number of minutes you spent exercising. The total of these two variables can be used to obtain a measure of exercise load which provokes patella femoral pain and then once this threshold is known you can drop down to an exercise load below this. 

 

Research has shown that often a reduction in exercise load followed by a graduated increase is all that is required to overcome patella femoral syndrome and get you back to the level of training you desire. 

 

If patella femoral pain remains persistent, assessment by a physiotherapist of your strength, flexibility and control of movement will be beneficial and allow for more bespoke management which can lead to faster resolution of your symptoms. All our physios at Colchester Physiotherapy and Sports injury Clinic are highly experienced when it comes to patella femoral pain syndrome treatment and would be happy to help.