Osgood Schatters, height change, and knee pain

Get a foam roller to loosen up your quads.

You need structured shoes for recovery runs, a well padded pair in the forefoot for tempos & fartlek.

Avoid running on roads, concrete, asphalt. Run grass or soft sandy forrest trails.

Avoid running under acorn & chestnut trees.

Overstepping and weak hamstrings can make it worse.

Google: Bryan Mann bulletproof knees. He has an excellent knee pain article.

Lunge matrices have kept my knees healthy for years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf-_qiyAkwQ

The suggestions here are good, but you'll likely be dealing with at least some pain until you just grow out of it. I had this and while it was super annoying, I believe it only lasted 6 months or so. Run on soft surfaces and make cross training your friend.

I dealt with it for awhile and what really helped me was getting a knee strap. You can get them at CVS type stores. They'll be sold as a patella tendonitis strap but if you put it over where the pain is it helped me keep running through it.

I'm no doctor but what mine told me was that there was no harm in running through that pain as long as it didnt alter your stride and cause other injuries. Long Term I now just have a constant lump at the top of my shin were the pain used to be but it's not that noticeable and idgaf but I'm also a guy

A friend of mine (male) had this all through high school. He had to do a lot of cross training. By the time he got to to college he seemed to be done growing, and the problem went away. He just barely made it onto his D1 college team, but with the knee problems gone he improved a lot and became one of their best runners. So there can be a happy ending, but it might take a few years.

Yes, I had Osgood Schlatter's issues during high school cross country. After all that growing I'm 6'2" now. Icing when the pain flared up is about all I did. No long term issues. Run about a marathon a year now and no knee problems....sometimes my IT band gets tight but I think that's my hip's fault. It'll pass once you stop growing so fast, do what you can to relieve the pain now.

Guys, I think he meant "Is a good shatter".

Congrats on that buddy. Way to keep it regular.

Frustrated Sophmore wrote:

I'm a high school sophomore girl who has been dealing with waves of osgood schlatters for just under two years now. I try to run and race when I can, but when it really flares up I have to stop running completely and rely on swimming, pool running, strength, and biking. Has anyone dealt with this before? Did it last this long for you? Once it went away did you have lasting knee problems? Any advice or insight would be very appreciated. (I am also still getting taller, about a half inch in the last 2 months, so I know my growth spurt isn't over yet)

Unfortunately Osgood Schlatters is common and there is very little you can do other than wait for your growth spurts to end. Your doctor should have recommended the following:

Activity limitation

Ice

Anti-inflammatories

Protective padding

Quadriceps/hamstring strengthening

Time

I am assuming you are 15 now. Osgood usually occurs in girls at a younger age(11-12) when they have their growth spurts not 15. You mentioned a recent growth spurt but 2 years of pain would cause some concerns. You may have some other knee issues. Has your doctor recommended an X-ray or MRI? An X-ray will probably be inconclusive so an MRI might be the ultimate diagnostic tool.

I had an x-ray taken last fall and was told at that time, that the growth plates were pretty far from closing. They planned to take another one if the pain doesn't go away by this summer. I also go to physical thearapy where they do iontophoresis treatments to make the pain go away temporarily so that I can run in the importantant end of the season meets pain free. That has worked well for me in the past, but after taking some time off when the season ended I started to run again, and the pain came back. If the pain resurfaces again after treatments this season, I will definitely look into an MRI.

Thanks everyone for your help! I had never posted in the forums before, but I am so glad that I did.

sprinthard wrote:

Google: Bryan Mann bulletproof knees. He has an excellent knee pain article.

Actually those are not good, for the reasons shown in this video.

Reverse lunges are much better.