Your feet and arches make up the base of your entire kinetic chain. If you have flat feet, it means you have a decrease in the medial arch of the foot and that will cause your foot to lean inward also known as overpronation.
This starts a whole chain of biomechanical events that affect how your knee moves and it can also affect yours hips.
As your foot overpronates, it forces the tibia (lower leg bone) to turn and rotate inward and this forces your patella off-axis, increasing the amount of tension it receives.
Additionally, this puts A LOT of stress on the inside of your knees predisposing your MCL (medial collateral ligament) and ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) to injuries.
Overtime this can also lead to premature degeneration of the knees, ligament injuries, and of course, patellar tendonitis.
Therefore, flat feet and fallen medial arches can contribute directly to many issues in the kinetic chain.
Orthotics may help to support a fallen arch but you don’t want to solely rely on them for correction.
That’s why it’s important to work on the muscles of the feet to strengthen your arches and work on the tibialis posterior muscle.
The tibialis posterior muscle is responsible for inversion (the opposite of pronation) and has a major role in supporting the medial arch of the foot.
To treat patellar tendinitis correctly, you have to take into consideration other contributing factors above and below the knee joint.
Below the knee joint, you have to look at the arches on your feet, the mobility in your ankles, the flexibility in the calves.
Above the knee joint, you have to look at the flexibility in the hamstrings, mobility of the hips, the tightness in the quads, and weaknesses in the gluteus muscles.
Even the best knee brace or patellar tendonitis strap will not fix your patellar tendonitis. If you need a brace or strap on a regular basis just to get by, you are better off getting to the underlying root of the problem.
This is why it’s important to incorporate a complete treatment plan that shows you the correct patellar tendonitis exercises and stretches if you want to heal your jumper’s knee and patellar tendon pain.
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