Pain just below the kneecap
A sharp, pinpoint pain on the tendon between the kneecap and the shin bone, provoked by jumping and deep loaded squatting. Unlike a diffuse kneecap ache, you can usually put one finger on the exact spot.
This is general training information, not medical advice, and nothing here is a diagnosis. The same pain can have very different causes, and only a qualified professional who can assess you in person can tell which one is yours. If pain is severe, getting worse, or not settling, get it looked at.
- · Pinpoint tenderness on the tendon just below the kneecap that you can find with a fingertip.
- · Often warms up during a session and then feels worse several hours later or the next morning.
- · Sharpest on landing from a jump and out of the bottom of a deep squat.
- · Stiff and sore for the first steps in the morning, easing as you move.
- · A spike in jumping volume: burpee broad jumps, box jumps and double-unders stacked in one block.
- · Heavy squatting layered on top of a lot of plyometric work without a build-up.
- · Landing stiff-legged and absorbing repeatedly through the knee rather than the hips.
- · Long spells of deconditioning followed by a fast return to full training volume.
- · Box jumps and burpee broad jumps, especially the landing.
- · Double-unders in long unbroken sets.
- · Deep front squats and heavy cleans caught low.
- · Downhill running.
- · Slow, heavy, controlled strength work is usually well tolerated even when jumping is not: tendons generally like load, they dislike speed and rebound.
- · All upper-body training.
- · Rowing and ski erg, often the bike too.
- · Isometric holds, which many people find actually reduce the pain for a few hours.
Like-for-like substitutions that keep the training stimulus while the niggle settles. A swap, not a rest day.
- · Heavy, slow tendon loading. This is the one niggle where doing less almost never fixes it and progressive load usually does.
- · Calf and quad capacity, so the tendon isn't the tissue absorbing every landing.
- · A staged return to jumping: volume first, then height, then rebound speed last.
- · Patience measured in months rather than weeks: tendons rebuild slowly and relapse when rushed.
None of the advice above applies if any of these are true. These are the signs that this is not an ordinary training niggle. Stop managing it yourself and get assessed.
- · You felt a pop or a sudden give and struggle to straighten the leg or bear weight.
- · Pain is constant, at rest, or wakes you at night.
- · There is visible swelling over the tendon.
- · Months of sensible loading have changed nothing.
Sweatlas is not a medical provider. Everything in the niggle index is general information about training, written for healthy adults, and it is not medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Do not use it to self-diagnose or to delay getting care. If you have pain that is severe, worsening, or not settling, or you have any of the warning signs listed on the page, see a doctor or a qualified physiotherapist.