Anyone else had "runner's knee"?

Agree with landing of your foot. Even if you can land midfoot to toe rather than heel to toe. How old are your shoes? I just replaced mine and the pain in my knee is gone.

Squats are one of the best Quad exercise. Also, jump rope, this will help with the calves and also your form. I jump rope at least 3 times a week, not only because I LOVE IT, but also because it enhances my running.

Surprisingly many cases of runners knee are a result of weak hips / glutes

triathlete.com/2015/08/training/runners-knee-treatment-recovery-and-exercises_72793


runnersworld.com/newswire/to-relieve-runners-knee-strengthen-your-hips

...and forget the machines, do squats and lunges. Machines limit your range of motion and don't strengthen smaller stabilizer muscles. As to running form, shorten your stride but employ a natural gait, running does not put undue stress on otherwise healthy knees (I can only assume the above poster doesn't actually run....)

Get an ortho to look at it..

CDXJade wrote: »

Care to share your experience with this injury?

disclaimer: i'm absolutely not a runner. but i've tried a few times and usually felt like i'd ruined my knees.

if your quads are strong enough to be hurting your knees, doesn't sound to me like they need more strengthening. that's just been my experience the few times that i tried to run [and it's assuming your stuff is caused by the same stuff as mine. which may not be true].

vicious amounts of hip flexor stretching especially to rector femoris seemed like it helped me the most with getting mine back to normal. and glute/hamstring work. mostly when my knees freak out it's because that rf muscle is too tight over the kneecap, which causes the pressure and pain.

Just be careful when changing your stride. It's going to take a little time to get used to it. Devote some attention to how you land, and make sure it feels stable. Try to stay light on your feet, and buckle if you roll your ankle to reduce injury.

I got runners knee last year from upping my mileage to quickly. It sucked, finally went to get PT from a MD. He did some laser treatment for the pain but the rehab mostly consisted of 2 exercises. 1. eccentric decline squats for the affected leg (I did not buy a board, I just used some 2x4's laying around) 2. Leg raises but with the toes facing out. I did these everyday and made a conscious effort to stretch more and I saw improvements within a couple weeks. A year later its all good. I've done several events this year with zero knee pain and even just did my first marathon (50k ultra) pain free although undertrained (everything else hurt though, haha) And I also tried to become more conscious of my stride as in having my feet strike under me as opposed to in front of me.

CDXJade wrote: »

mgalovic01 wrote: »

Yeah I read an interesting blog post on 'smash run', she said you should practice 'creeping runs' as if you're chasing someone in front of you with light steps so they can't hear.

Stealthy. It reminds me of how Jim Carey walked as the Grinch. It would be funny seeing someone running down the street like that.

I developed severe knee pain when I first started running, and occasionally still have trouble with that knee if I don't take care of it properly. Your symptoms sound pretty similar. Here's what I did, which is all basically RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation):

- Went to my GP, who sent me to an ortho, who did an MRI on the knee. My kneecap was tracking incorrectly and rubbing on a tendon, which was causing the pain.
- Physical therapy, which was mostly exercises to strengthen my quads and hips, pretty much everything on this page: https://runnersconnect.net/running-injury-prevention/the-top-5-hip-strengthening-exercises-for-runners-to-prevent-injury-and-improve-hip-drive/
- Ice to bring down the swelling. I now preemptively ice the knee if I have even the slightest sense that there's something wrong.
- KT tape; I use an application for patellar tracking, but of course you want one that targets your particular injury/area of pain.
- New running shoes, because I was a newbie runner who hadn't gotten fitted properly for shoes.
- I stopped running for a long time, probably longer than I really needed to, because I was afraid of getting reinjured. However, you probably do need time to rest and heal.
- Compression tights that help support the knee. There are mixed opinions on whether these help or not, but my knee hurts when I don't run in them and doesn't hurt when I do, so I'm a believer. I also have a compression sleeve that I wear if the knee starts giving me problems.
- Foam rolling the quad/IT band. Odds are good that if my knee starts hurting now, it means I'm overdue for a date with my foam roller. But I needed to do all of those other things--getting it checked out by an ortho, doing strengthening exercises, etc.--before I got to this point.