Runner's Knee

go to a pt or a coach. get some exercises to strengthen your inner quad muscles and some stretching exercises for your outside itb. also, learn how to tape your knee and you may be able to run with it as it heals. takes about 12 weeks.

winoneforjohn wrote:

Anyone have experience with "Runner's Knee"....pain under the kneecap. Any good treatments other than complete rest? Do any of those knee-strap things work?{/quote]

Yes - Yes - No.

R.i.c.e. and Ibu are bad, designed to make more money for quacks.

Use M.I.C.E and fresh ginger root.

You need to heal the injury before doing more training. Knee injuries are quite serious. Once healed you can doo all the mileage, hills and speedwork that you like. But don't run through knee pain, as you could cause the damage to get worse.

[quote]Can you train and do rehab exercises at the same time?

No. You must stop at the first sign of any pain in your knee.

However, as long as there's no pain then you can run easily.

Look up my other responses about knee pain and these will show you what to do.

I have heard that doing strengthening exercises can help with this, especially things that strengthen the quadriceps. Straight leg lifts are supposed to be particularly helpful.

Do some straight leg raises to strengthen the quad area which supports that part of your knee. That fixed mine.

strengthening quads has never helped my runners knee.

Get new shoes and run through it.

Runner's knee is improper tracking of the knee usually caused by running on crowned roads. It can also be caused by motion contorl shoes that lock the knees so they are not able to rotate with each stride.

The crowned road causes the, usually higher foot, to turn inward, which affects the tracking of the knee. Over time this causes wear, pain, and can severly injure the knees.

Strengthening exercises do not help. Runner's knee is a tracking issue, not an issue of strength. In fact, strengthening exercises will make the injury worse. Avoid cycling for that reason, as it puts pressure on the injury.

You must avoid the causes, stop running on crowned roads, make sure your shoes allow mobility of your knees and do not force your feet in one direction or another.

Soak your knees in cold water and ice cubes for 3 to 5 minutes at a time, several times a day including before and after running, until they are completely healed. Rubbing with ice cubes is not enough. You need to get on your hands and knees and submerge your knees one at a time in a shallow bucket of ice water. It will take a week or two for the inflammation to reduce to where you can run with no pain, provided you have first removed the cause of the injury.

do some knee raises

also ive found aleve helps more, different anti-inflam.

When I had a case of runners knee several years back, I switched from neutral (Mizumo Wave Riders) to pronation- control (Mizuno Wave Inspires)shoes. The symptoms quickly disappeared.

Good luck!

Maybe the responders to this thread or someone else can help me out. I suddenly developed pain under my right kneecap (literally felt fine on my morning run and was limping around after my evening workout) about a month ago. I had runner's knee / patellofemoral syndrome / chondromalacia / whatever you want to call it 10-15 years ago a couple of times, so I recognized the same pain immediately.

Took 4 days off and iced it a lot, then went for an easy run and it was no better. Took 4 WEEKS off, iced 1-3X per day, did single-leg squats, leg press, etc. a couple times per week, ran in the pool (no pain) and biked (occasional minor pain) and went for a nice easy 3-miler yesterday. Knee started throbbing immediately, went away after a few minutes, but was more sore today walking around than it's been in weeks.

So basically, taking almost a full month off and regular icing seemed to NOTHING for the injury. What else can I do to make this thing heal?? I know the cause behind it (adding too many miles too soon when getting back into training) and I've been working on strength and balance in my quads and hamstrings. How can I get back to pain-free running?

The knee pain occurs for me when my quads get overused and tighten up. Why do they tighten up? Because my brain is trying to tell me to not do what I have been doing. Adding a bunch of exercises to further aggravate the tight muscles is no way to help. Rest and some massage therapy may help a muscle that is staying in spasms.

A lot of times these injuries are really caused by tight hip flexors or even upper back muscles that put a strain on other muscles and the pain is felt in the weakest area at that time. That is why they are sometimes hard to get over.

The knee straps work. They keep the knee cap in line.

Mike in HC wrote:

When I had a case of runners knee several years back, I switched from neutral (Mizumo Wave Riders) to pronation- control (Mizuno Wave Inspires)shoes. The symptoms quickly disappeared.

Good luck!

Do this.

I've had these issues for the past 4 years, but especially in the last 1.5 years. the pain is no better after the time off because large amounts of time off makes the injury worse--your muscles get weaker, and the knee is then less supported. you have to do as much as you can without extreme pain at a time, and alternate between higher and lower days (even once the pain has stopped or gradually subsided).

lately I've been seeing a guy who seems to really know his stuff, and he's had me doing the following things (among others): one thing is 2x10 pederson step ups twice a day on a stair. the idea is not building your VMO muscle but improving damaged tendons, which are supposed to usually be to blame. I am also doing 2x10 squats and 2x10 lunges every other day after runs, dynamic drills prior to runs (A-skip, B-skip, ankling, butt kicks), and incorporating some light speed work to keep my form efficient and thus legs working a little more properly (I'm only at about half of peak mileage, but it can be introduced no matter how low you are, even in the form of striders). also using shoes with a low heel-to-toe drop and knee straps have been staples for me.

Well, I just went out and bought some "Sole" orthotics -- the kind you put in the oven and stand on them to mold them to your feet -- and a PT strap. Rest and ice didn't work, so we will see if running with the strap and orthotics + icing does.

Easy plyometric exercises will do you some good. 3x a week