With the help of isokinetics and other exercises, she regained her former performance. First short distances, then longer and longer. Even before that, her knee had started to bother her. The pain at the front of her kneecap grew worse and eventually forced her to take a break from running. In July , the runner finally found a doctor who could tell her what was wrong: patellar tendinitis, was the diagnosis. Her left patellar tendon was chronically inflamed and was already damaged.
She would have to be prepared for a long healing process that would take at least six months, predicted Martin Narozny, head of medicine at the Sports Medical Center in Zurich. Instead of the usual training, she now used autohemotherapy, shock wave treatments, stretching and physical exercises at home, and massage or physical therapy once a week.
The heart of her therapy was three series of isokinetic training. The Isokinetics machine ensures that you can train at your individual max at every point during the movement.
This can identify coordinative deficits, maximum strength deficits in lateral comparison and muscular imbalances within the leg. Targeted training can then be performed on the deficit, tissue loading capacity can be increased, and progress can be measured. Physiotherapy guidance is a must, Steinemann says. Little by little, the runner was allowed to exert more and more force in a controlled manner during the isokinetic training.
The strength curve is visible to the therapist and the runner on the screen and can be checked at any time. In principle, isokinetic training can also be used for shoulder or Achilles tendon problems. The most common use, however, is on the knee. It needs additional exercises for stability, for example.
