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This week introduces a new workout routine, to be completed three times per week, and some new stretches are added to your daily routing. The other big change is that the knee isometrics have moved to be part of the workouts and not the daily routine.
Tasks for this week
The daily routine is still to be done every day. It now contains:
Foam rolling, 10 rolls each position
The Crouching Three stretches, 30 seconds per position each leg
Glute activation routine, five reps each leg for each variation
Keep logging your pain levels before and after the days program
A new workout routine. Completed 3x a week with at least 48 hours rest between each workout. It contains:
Knee isometrics, four sets of 30 seconds each leg (continue slowly increasing load if these are easy)
Glute bridges, three sets. (See workbook for reps)
*The workout routine can be done separately or immediately after the daily routine.
Read on for the detailed instructions.
Basic stretches and glute activation
Welcome to Week Three!
This week, we are introducing two new elements into the daily routine. A basic stretching routine and a short glute activation series.
Week three also brings a change to the structure of the program. You will continue with the daily routine, but from now onwards you will add a strength training and movement skill workout three times a week. We suggest you have at least 48 hours rest between each of these workouts to allow for recovery.
NB: From this week you will now complete the Knee Isometric holds only during the workout three times per week. You do not need to do these with the daily routine any longer. The daily routine will now consist of the foam rolling, basic stretches and glute activation.
Let’s get started!
Stretches: the Crouching Three
This static stretching routine helps loosen off tight muscles and deload the tendons and their attachments into the bones.
Static stretching is a secret weapon, but is often overlooked because it’s painful, boring and it's hard to "see" any positive results.
Despite this, consistently stretching is one of the most high-value things you can do for your durability, recovery and long term knee health. For Osgood, it’s a brilliant way to help relax tight muscles and take pressure off the patella tendon.
To maximise your results, each position should be held for a gentle 30-second stretch. You should feel a light stretching sensation in the muscle but never any joint or back pain.
WARNING: Make sure you use a soft, thick cushion to protect your knees. These stretches should always be comfortable. Always do this stretching routine after your foam rolling and prior to any strength training exercises. This routine takes approximately three minutes to complete.
A couch cushion, folded up yoga-mat or thick pillow are typically more than adequate to protect your knees when kneeling on the ground. If this still give you some pain, try a higher density foam cushion. We recommend this cushion as it is quite thick and has a handle to be easily taken with you to sporting events/practice.
Stretches instructional video
This short video below explains how to perform the stretches. Our free interval timing app has a pre-built timer for this routine to help guide you. You can also time these stretches with the Core Advantage interval timing app.
Exercise: glute activation
In a perfect world, every muscle would do its job all the time. Unfortunately, not all of us are biomechanically perfect, and most people have some degree of faulty muscle activation.
When it comes to Osgood, inactive and weak glutes will alter movement patterns and can lead to an overload of the knees and quads during sport or every day life activities. By improving the activation of the glutes you will create an active deload whereby the loads we experience in every day life will be diverted away from the knees and distributed evenly through the lower body musculature.
You should perform this glute activation routine directly after your stretching.
Glute activation instructional video
The video below shows instructions for how to perform the glute activation routine. You only need to perform one set of each exercise in the series.
Exercise: the glute bridge
Glute bridges are a great exercise for building up hip and core strength without much loading or stress on the knees. They are also a building block into the squatting you will start doign next week.
Glute bridges will be a big emphasis for the next few weeks of the program. Not only will you do 10 reps of them every day with your daily glute activation routine, but three times a week, you will need to do extra glute bridges as part of your strength workout.
Glute bridge instructional video
Check out the video below for some form pointers, and pay attention to the reps on each day of the workbook, as these will progressively increase. Take your time with these and do not rush the movement.
Closing Week Three
Continue foam rolling routine, performing the knee isometric holds and now add in the glute activation, bridges and stretches. You can find the exact sets and reps to complete in your workbook.
My knee pain hasn’t improved very much yet, am I doing something wrong?
By this stage, your knee pain should be significantly lower. It’s not uncommon for athletes to have seen a 50% reduction in average pain numbers.
If that’s the case for you, congratulations!
If it’s not however, don’t despair, every Osgood case is unique and recovers at its own rate. If your knees are still as sore now as when you started (check your workbook), we recommend you repeat week two of the program and start foam rolling twice a day while continuing to do knee isometrics once per day.
**It’s worth mentioning that you should be looking for the general trend in your pain numbers in the workbook, an occasional random low or high number is pretty typical, but try to use the numbers as a trend. Is the pain gradually going up, staying the same, or going down?
Up next
After successfully completing a full week of your daily routine and new workouts, it is time to progress!
