Stretches for Osgood Schlatters or Jumpers Knee as it’s more commonly known can be started after a period of rest to reduce any inflammation.
Osgood Schlatters is a repetitive strain injury. The condition is caused either through a shortening of the quadriceps muscle or excessive load that’s been placed on the muscle because of a growth spurt.
Young boys in particular around the ages of 12 or 13 often experience a growth spurt. The femur bone lengthens and it puts the quadriceps under a lot of tension which causes irritation at the tibial tuberosity.
When to start treatment
It makes sense to start stretches for Osgood Schlatters after a period of rest and the initial inflammation has died down. Now there’s a right way and a wrong way to do these stretches. So before you or your children start any rehabilitation, I wanted to first show you how to get children motivated to stretch and secondly, how to do them properly so they have the most effect.
The secret to effective stretching is firstly not to have too many of them. Children generally find stretching boring. It’s not an exciting prospect to stretch every day which is effectively what you need to do in order to treat the condition effectively. So, the rules for stretching are keep them simple, easy to follow and effective.
Single best stretch for Osgood Schlatters
Muscles work in pairs, there’s an agonist and an antagonist. So, what we want to do in order to make stretching effective is use the agonist and the antagonist in reciprocal ways to optimise the stretch. By stretching the hamstrings first we can get a more effective stretch through the quadricep muscles.
By stretching two muscles at the same time, rather than one, you can keep things quick and simple meaning you or your children are more likely to complete the stretches. Watch the video below on the best stretches for Osgood Schlatters.
Treating Osgood Schlatters effectively
If you want more information on stretches for Osgood Schlatters then get your symptoms assessed first with our pain assessment tool.
Once you’ve identified the likely cause you’ll be able to download a treatment guide. It will tell you everything you need to know about Osgood Schlatters and it will help you to manage the pain effectively.