A Few Quick Movements to Help with Osgood-Schlatter in Female Athletes

06 Apr A Few Quick Movements to Help with Osgood-Schlatter in Female Athletes

Let me get this out of the way first: today’s blog post is not going to be a verbose piece.

Nor will it win a Nobel Prize.

It will be just enough to read as you’re sitting in the waiting room at the dentist office, or meandering around at halftime during a youth sports game.

So let’s dive in: Osgood-Schlatter aka “growing pains” can keep a young, growing female athlete crippled for some time. During her most rapid period of growth, her muscles, bones and tendons are growing at rapidly different rates, causing the quadriceps muscle to pull on the patella tendon that covers the knee cap.

The pain can be a dull pain at first, but then progress to a more severe ache that nags for several months.

Here are some drills I have my remote and in-person clients do several times a week for some relief:

Quadriceps Foam Roll

Hip Flexor Wall Stretch:

Hamstring Strengthening:

Gluteus Medius Strengthening:

Other things to consider:

Nutrition – make sure the growing female athletes gets collagen and protein in her diet to help with joint pain and build muscles properly.

Sleep – make sure she is sleeping a quality 8+ hours a night, as lack of sleep can increase perception of soreness.

Patience – make sure she is patient. The pain is going to hang out for quite some time, but as long as you do these drills, dial in with sleep and nutrition, there will be relief along the way, but you have to be consistent with all of these.

Load monitoring – make sure she is aware of when the knee pain flares up. Is it after a soccer match? Is it due to four practices a week? Is it due to more depth in squatting movements?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all of these, it’s time to change her environment. Can she take off an extra day from what makes it sore? Can she regress an exercise so the pain in more tolerable, but she is still strengthening her quadriceps?

Sample regression to Squat:

If you need more resources and have more detailed questions, as well as need sample speed and strength programs on training the female athlete, join my amazing Female Athlete Fitness Course and Community HERE

To work with me in-person for private and small group soccer speed, strength, and agility training in Tampa, Florida, CONTACT ME HERE.