ran the day before, got to about 10 miles before it started to hurt. i think its more of a itbs issue than runners knee. its definitely just above and below the joint (lateral side). starts out as pressure or numbness after about 40-60 mins then it will turn into a throbbing pain if i don't stop.
P.Whelan wrote:
This is an issue I admit I do not fully understand, and searching has been a bit of a mess.
Anyway I have had runner's knee for a while, and it is manageable but annoying. I've reach the point where I'm going to take some time off for it, but I'm like to continue to cross train while doing that, so I don't come back to running a fat turd. I was thinking that since Runner's Knee is a tracking issue, and strengthening the quad is (supposedly) a good way to address that issue, cycling would be a good type of cross training to do.
Is there any solid logic there, or does cycling for a week or two not really make a difference in quad strength enough to help out? I've never really done any cross training at all so I figure cycling will kill my quads a bit, and I might get straightened out.
Steady-state activities do not improve muscle strength; resistance training does. While cycling does fatigue the quads, the resistance is not sufficient to produce a significant strengthening effect.
"Runner's knee" is not necessarily a tracking issue; it's merely an informal term that is generally understood to mean anterior knee pain associated with running. However, that pain can be caused by any number of different problems. The worst case scenerio, and unfortunately a common one, is that you have arthrosis (degenerative joint disease) of the patellofemoral joint, in which case the injury is permanent and you should stop running. I have no idea whether this is true in your case, but there are a lot of truly ignorant people on this board who think they have some simple cure, when in fact this particualr problem is sometimes incurable.
i had runner's knee last year. i stopped doing things like steeple jumps, plyo type things, etc. i continued to run on it for multiple months, i really felt recovered after two weeks of really low mileage
You, sir, need to learn to respect the marathon.
If it is a tracking issue the bike sounds like a bad idea due to the stress placed on the joint. Much different than the running motion.
Quad strengthening leg lifts are what helped me.
trigger point and strengthen whole leg especially quad and glutes. For runners knee the quad muscle vastus medialis could be a key. Do an internet search for trigger point on the quad muscles especially vastus medialis.
I have had runners knee for over 7 months now. Initially i rested it for 2 months but nothing got better, then continued to rest into 3 months.
I started doing some squats, raises etc with just bodyweight no weights. 3-4 times a week for 12 weeks. It got slightly better but still continued with the pain and struggled to get to sleep a night as if I was not lying correctly.
In the last month I have started cycling. I did one spinning session as a trial with a gym. It instantly felt better. Since then I have rented and borrowed a bike twice and I feel 10 times better!
I think it definately helps and just gutted that i did not try it earlier!
Agree with the people saying to address the root cause of the injury. I had runner's knee once and I just back tracked to figure out what caused it. Soft shoes and aggressive downhills led to muscle imbalances in my quads. Time off didn't help at all.
I dumped the shoes and downhills. Stuck to firm shoes, flat, and uphills. I walked all the downhills. I got into an aggressive heating and stretching routine for my quads before and after running. After a couple weeks of that it went away and has stayed away.
Always address the root cause.