Saturday, December 15, 2007

Equipment Required for Eccentric Exercises

To do eccentric exercises for patellar tendinopathy, certain equipment is required. These include a 1) "slant board" also known as a "decline board," 2) a backpack; 3) weights in 1/2 pound increments.

The slant board can be purchased over the internet.

Typically, the board is sold for stretching of the achilles tendon and calf muscles. (It is NOT the slant board used in weight-lifting.) A slant board with a 20-25 degree slant is appropriate. They typically sell for less than $100. Three websites I found that sell slant boards are:
http://www.flex-n-go.com
http://www. allegromedical.com
http://www.protherapysupplies.com

For the backpack, a daypack type is fine.


Weights in 1/2 pound increments are not easy to find. I purchased ankle-weights with removable 1/2 pound weights in order to get my 1/2 pound weights. I do NOT advise 1 pound weight increments. Weights needs to be added slowly and incrementally. Adding too much weight too quickly can lead to a relapse and increase symptoms.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you could fill plastic bottles with water, in half pound increments. 1 lb = 453.592g so 0.5lb would be about 225ml of water.

Sigfús Víkþörðson said...

Someone who planned to travel with a slant board was curious whether a metal slant board was heavy. It is. It weighs around 7 kilograms or approximately 15.5 pounds.