patella pain

There are many different exercises out there for different types of knee ailment. The appropriate action seems to be rather different for different types of problem, and even after accurate diagnosis it seems to be a bit of a black art. So a first step would be to get somebody who really knows knees to check you out, so that you can narrow your options.

I tried a bunch of the quad strengthening exercises that help some people a lot. It's often recommended to target the vastus medialis muscle by doing leg raises with feet pointed outwards. The muscle got a lot stronger, but in my case it didn't seem to do much for the knees. Eccentric exercises are often recommended for patellar tendinosis, but not for other types of knee problems. A general battery of exercises to stretch and strengthen the muscles above and below the knees could help to protect you against further damage. But don't hold off on getting a more accurate diagnosis, or on taking some rest. By failing to follow that advice, I've been out from running for the past 10 weeks, and wishing I had heeded the warnings earlier.

Thanks for the advice.  I've been to the Dr. and she took an x-ray and sent me on to both a physical therapist and since getting the x-ray back Rhuematology.  Still waiting to see the Rhuematologist.  Hopefully it's not too bad.  Still not running or biking... going to try swimming tomorrow.

I've found that elliptical training is good for strengthening the muscles around the knee.