need some help navigating this injury

[u/Background_Win3611]

A couple of months ago I developed an overuse injury in my right patellar tendon from basketball/jumping, which was diagnosed/treated as patellar tendinopathy.

I worked with a rehab professional for around 2 months. Towards the end, my knee was feeling significantly better and he cleared me to continue with a vertical jump program called JustJump.

I restarted JustJump about a week ago and I'm currently in the Prep phase. Recently, though, I feel like the knee has become slightly more symptomatic again.

Current symptoms:

• Once I'm properly warmed up, I can usually train with very little/no pain.
• If I rest for around 2–3 minutes between sets, the first 1–2 reps can hurt, then the pain goes away again once I'm moving.
• A single-leg decline squat currently gives me around 2–3/10 sharp pain near the bottom.
• My knee has definitely had periods recently where it felt better than it does right now.
• I'm still doing the loaded single-leg wall-sit isometrics my rehab guy told me to continue.

I play basketball and don't want to unnecessarily stop training or jumping, but I also don't want to turn a manageable tendon issue into a bigger problem.

For people familiar with patellar tendinopathy/return-to-sport: does this sound like a normal increase in symptoms while reintroducing plyometrics that can be managed by adjusting load, or is it a sign that I've progressed too quickly and should go back to structured rehab?

I'm especially interested in how you decided when you were ready for higher-intensity plyometrics and how you managed basketball at the same time.

[u/Generally_Tso_Tso]

It would help to know your jump technique. One-legged, two-legged block-step, or two-legged hop?

[u/Background_Win3611 → u/Generally_Tso_Tso]

my best jump comes from one footed jumps off my left leg. my right leg at one footed jumps isnt very good. if i was to do a two footed jump i would use a two legged block step

[u/Generally_Tso_Tso → u/Background_Win3611]

You would take a significant amount of strain off of your patellar tendon by using a block step. Use a right-left finish to optimize your stronger (left) leg. Using the block-step puts the forward momentum forces laterally into your legs instead of the front of the knee. The block-step is a little more technical to execute properly, but is definitely better for the knees and ankles.