It no longer takes months to recover from Osgood
Young active teenagers and children diagnosed with Osgood Schlatters are commonly told they can’t play any sport for months (or even years!) while they wait for their growth spurt to slow down and their pain to go away in it’s own time.
While this is the most common diagnosis, to have 12+ months off sport while your growth spurt stops, it doesn't have to be the case. Osgood is highly treatable, with the right exercises and a progressive, age-appropriate plan, it is possible to treat Osgood Schlatter Disease and recover from pain in a matter of weeks with just a few minutes of training per day. All while continuing to play sport
Treat your Osgood while still playing sport
The key to rehabilitating from most injuries, and particularly for overload injuries like Osgood, is to take a short period of time in what is known as relative rest, spending a period of time with a reduced activity level to allow the knees a little extra time to recover and strengthen.
For some young athletes this could simply be a 48 hours period of absolutely no running, jumping or sport, followed by a few weeks of gradually increasing training loads.
For others it might be 1-2 weeks of light activities (below a 6/10 intensity level) with no sessions longer than 45 minutes to minimise fatigue. After that they may gradually increase the duration of the activity sessions, before dialling up the intensity a few weeks later.
This is the individualised part of Curing Osgood Schlatters and is tricky to answer for every case in a short blog post. But there are two simple tests you can use to determine if you got your loading correct.
- How did your knees feel during and immediately after the activity? Ideally they should not be causing you to limp, and not be above a 3/10 rating for pain.
- How do your knees feel the next morning when you get out of bed?
These two tests are a great way of determining if your joints are recovering and adapting to the stress of your training schedule.
If you perform poorly on either of these tests you must dial your training back further until you find a level where you are answering both of the above questions with confidence.
In our seven week Osgood training program we provide resources to help you or your child better understand their training and activity levels so you have the best chance of staying pain free once you cure your Osgood Schlatters.
Check out the program via this link, we have helped thousands of young athletes return to sport pain-free in a matter of weeks.