Hi, I have self-diagnosed Chondromalacia (Runner's Knee: http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/patelladisorders/a/chondromalacia.htm ) on and off for over a year now. It mostly comes back after high impact activities like jogging/sprinting/basketball etc. Even low pace activity like shooting around with on the basketball court, catching rebounds would bring it up.

The symptoms would be knee pain getting out of seat after sittng for a while, walking down the first few steps down a flight of stairs, walking up stairs, basically, anything that would involve putting most of my body weight on one leg in a slightly bent position.

Here are some of the things I'm going to try to rehab this injury. IT band foam rolling. IT Band tightness can cause patellar tracking issues. This guy explains it better:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t32xJspx50o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t32xJspx50o</a>

Peterson stepups , this is to strengthen the VMO, because VMO weakness can cause patellar tracking issues.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK29l_3RYP4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK29l_3RYP4</a>

More peterson stepups. Watch all 5 parts of these

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZYIMSpZNZo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZYIMSpZNZo</a>

Also, I might get one of these:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.amazon.com/Cho-Pat-Dual-Action-Knee-Strap/dp/B000QRG970&usg=AFQjCNH6Hnjm0Yjwmsa_XZzC8OcvMeZvoQ

It's called a cho-pat strap (chomomalacia patellar strap)

6/6/2010
still suffering from runner's knee on my left knee, and for the first time, im feeling tendinitis on the inner side of my right knee  (bottom of patellae) for some weird reason. I didn't even work out yesterday. This pain feels different than what I have on my left side. It's very easy to tell its below the patellae in the front part of the knee, whereas the left side feels like it could actually be 'inside' the knee, so now I'm wondering if I even have runner's knee on my left side, if my right side is runner's knee.  

I didn't get a chance to get that PVC pipe for foam rolling... I'll get that tomorrow, but I did a bunch of Peterson step ups, and they hurt every single rep now on my left knee. It feels fine on my right knee. Right knee only bugs when I walk... so weird.

Rehab/prehab
Peterson step ups, did like 3x20 on like a 6-8 inch platform. Leftside hurts every rep at a certain point of the ROM. Rightside feels fine during stepups, but bugs me when I walk.

Perform static Stretches groins/hamstrings/glutes for like 30 seconds each side

I also did lunges, and it feels fine... it's just walking up/downstairs, and doing peterson stepups where it hurts. Right side hurts from walking now.

really dig into that left it band hard, hold the spots until the muscle turns into mush (you'll feel it relax).. give it 45 seconds or so, just try and relax/calm breaths etc.

peace

sounded pretty good until the bike ride stuff.. try what you were doing again, no bike riding.. if you were to bike ride, stand up more and pedal, i imagine you didn't ?

pc

I'm not even close to an expert on rehab, so take this with a grain of salt, but I don't think that's a good idea. You should never encourage an imbalance. Let your left leg be the limiting factor but do the same thing for each. So if your left leg can do 3x5x70# (for example), and your right could do 3x5x90#, do the former for each leg. You may not be progressing on your right but once you've brought the left leg to the point where it can do 3x5x90, you can start working evenly on both.

7/12/2010

Since the last post, my knee has been feeling a lot better. Ive been doing more hikes/outdoor activities/basketball, etc. Lifting high rep (slow negatives) lunges, and more hamstring curls. Its been helping a lot. Also got a cho-pat strap (helps a lot).

So I went on a really long hike yesterday-- 8-10 hours. I could barely walk at the end. I still feel tired today after like 10 hours of sleep. Mostly shin/ankle/feet fatigue. It may have been crappy shoes, but my knees definitely feel like shit (the worse its been in a long time). I didn't stretch after/before the hike, but I stretched like 2 hours afterwards when I went to the gym.

3.5/10 knee pain - i can still walk, but going down/upstairs definately hurts