Patella Baja (Facts and Help)
Author: Mike McClellan
Constant pain in the front and center of your knee. The inability to bend your knee into a crouched position. Not enough leg strength to stand up from a crouched position. Does this sound familiar? If so, there’s a chance you may have Patella Baja.
Patella Baja
Patella Baja is a condition where the knee cap is positioned too low. It can make bending your leg past 90 degrees difficult to impossible. As if this lack of mobility isn’t bad enough, it will also usually lead to weak leg muscles. More specifically, weak quadriceps muscles.
Quadriceps Weakness
With your knee cap sitting so low, the tendon above your knee is constantly being stretched more than it should, just to reach your knee cap. When you bend your leg farther and farther, it continues to stretch that tendon even more, and eventually, it just refuses to stretch anymore, usually around 90 degrees. If your leg can’t bend past 90 degrees, then any leg exercise you might do is only going to be strengthening over a limited range of motion. This may allow you to fairly comfortably sit up from a high-seated chair, but crouching down to pick something up isn’t an activity you would attempt in your wildest dreams.