Knee injury running

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Discussion

Raymond Reddington

Original Poster:

2,982 posts

117 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
Sorry if there is a better place to ask this,

I started couch to 5k a while back. I'm overweight but not disgustingly, 5ft10 and 13st4lbs.

I hurt my knee on week 3, I've rested for around 4 to 5 weeks now, bought some better shoes, and just been out to try again.

Sharp knee pain back again so I stopped to wall before making it any worse.

Does anyone have any tips for recovery and how to get back to it?

gavsdavs

1,210 posts

133 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
Raymond Reddington said:
Sorry if there is a better place to ask this,

I started couch to 5k a while back. I'm overweight but not disgustingly, 5ft10 and 13st4lbs.

I hurt my knee on week 3, I've rested for around 4 to 5 weeks now, bought some better shoes, and just been out to try again.

Sharp knee pain back again so I stopped to wall before making it any worse.

Does anyone have any tips for recovery and how to get back to it?
Swim, maintain low levels of low impact movement. The body will get used to the idea you want to use it, it just takes time to adapt.
Do non impact stuff until it's had chance to recover

Edited by gavsdavs on Friday 15th December 13:59

irc

8,200 posts

143 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
Try running on grass. Less impact. Build up slowly. Don't run two days in a row.

If all else fails do something else. I ran for decades. Up to marathons. In my 50s aI started getting knee problems. Eventually I stopped. No point wrecking my knees. I'm still swimming, Hill walking, and doing a fair amount of cycling up to a 1 month long tour this year.

Pete102

2,130 posts

193 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
Firstly, stop running for now, as others have said.

If you want to restart I would recommend visiting a physio who specializes in knees / running to do a full analysis on your gait, running style and any imbalances or movements which are likely to contribute to your knee pain.

ATG (knees over toes) guy on youtube is also worth a watch to help build up the necessary supporting muscles for strong and healthy knees.

What footwear are you using? Was this selected based on a fitting / review?

Once you have this dialed in, take a look at your running plan, allowing for sufficient rest and building up the distance on friendly surfaces in a slow and controlled manner.

Best of luck!

bangerhoarder

563 posts

75 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
Just resting and hoping to return once it stops hurting will generally not be enough. You need to strengthen and rehab the knee too. The good news is, it doesn't need the gym, just a bit of time at home set aside (you can move on to the gym if you wish).

Start with bodyweight squats, lunges (carefully), anything where you can load your knees under control without impact. You don't need to drop super deep. Don't work through pain, but it's okay to feel the injury. Ten minutes a day would be more than enough, over 6-8 weeks.

This will take time, but can be a very useful part of your recovery and get you back to running sooner.

biggbn

24,973 posts

227 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
Is it knee or shin bone. I have a similar injury and physio diagnosed (over the phone) 'bone stress' due to impact perhaps worsening an existing condition.. it's bloody painful still

MC Bodge

22,624 posts

182 months

Saturday 16th December 2023
quotequote all
Do not rely solely on running for training or exercise. Get fit to run to allow you to get fitter.

For recovery and before resuming your running, skipping with a rope is good. The more you do it, the better you get.


As above, work on your whole body strength. Few people in the developed world have good body conditioning.

Bodyweight circuit training a couole of times a week will do and you can then take it further if you want to.



Edited by MC Bodge on Saturday 16th December 10:44

grumbledoak

31,847 posts

240 months

Saturday 16th December 2023
quotequote all
bangerhoarder said:
Just resting and hoping to return once it stops hurting will generally not be enough. You need to strengthen and rehab the knee too. The good news is, it doesn't need the gym, just a bit of time at home set aside (you can move on to the gym if you wish).
^^^ that. I've had a knee injury all year. Rest did nothing. Swimming has been keeping me sane but it did nothing for my knee either.

What I have found that seems to be making a difference is walking backwards on an inclined treadmill.

dieselgrunt

697 posts

171 months

Saturday 16th December 2023
quotequote all
What helped me after a year off from knee pain is hard leg training. Leg press for moderate to high reps and Bulgarian split squats in particular have strengthened my quads and I am now running again. I make sure to train legs twice a week.

MC Bodge

22,624 posts

182 months

Saturday 16th December 2023
quotequote all
dieselgrunt said:
What helped me after a year off from knee pain is hard leg training. Leg press for moderate to high reps and Bulgarian split squats in particular have strengthened my quads and I am now running again. I make sure to train legs twice a week.
I'm not sure I'd bother with the leg press myself, but Bulgarian split squats, lunges, squats, jumping lunges and jumping squats are very good

biggbn

24,973 posts

227 months

Saturday 16th December 2023
quotequote all
I'm returning to squats and deads tomorrow, see how they feel after three weeks off them. Had been making great progress as my 'cardio' weights workout.

Jefferson Steelflex

1,496 posts

106 months

Tuesday 19th December 2023
quotequote all
OP needs to understand the mechanics of running and a couple of key principles:

- Where it hurts is almost never the cause
- Unilateral leg pain is a biomechanical stress issue from an imbalance/weakness

In other words, your knee is possibly taking a battering because it's being asked to compensate for something. Likely weak glutes (specifically glute med and min) but could be hamstrings or calf (gastroc) as they connect behind the knee and partially assist with knee rotation. Any weakness there will mean your knee is perhaps rotating slightly on impact - only needs to be minute to cause issues. You may be overstriding instead, but this normally hurts the shins.

Sometimes there's a clue - lower back tightness, outside of feet/heel developing excess skin (from pronation issues) as examples. Just don't do what I did and ignore it as rest/wishful thinking won't work.

For gym work, lunges/split squats are good but they are only one plane of motion and you need to also look at things that work external and internal rotation of the femur, with and without adduction. Corexcel on YouTube has some great funky videos on this, I think it is under hamstring/hip injury recovery.

dandarez

13,449 posts

290 months

Tuesday 19th December 2023
quotequote all
Answer
see the Doc comments on this thread below

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

N88

1,306 posts

186 months

Tuesday 19th December 2023
quotequote all
Jefferson Steelflex said:
OP needs to understand the mechanics of running and a couple of key principles:

- Where it hurts is almost never the cause
- Unilateral leg pain is a biomechanical stress issue from an imbalance/weakness

In other words, your knee is possibly taking a battering because it's being asked to compensate for something. Likely weak glutes (specifically glute med and min) but could be hamstrings or calf (gastroc) as they connect behind the knee and partially assist with knee rotation. Any weakness there will mean your knee is perhaps rotating slightly on impact - only needs to be minute to cause issues. You may be overstriding instead, but this normally hurts the shins.

Sometimes there's a clue - lower back tightness, outside of feet/heel developing excess skin (from pronation issues) as examples. Just don't do what I did and ignore it as rest/wishful thinking won't work.

For gym work, lunges/split squats are good but they are only one plane of motion and you need to also look at things that work external and internal rotation of the femur, with and without adduction. Corexcel on YouTube has some great funky videos on this, I think it is under hamstring/hip injury recovery.
Great post.

OP, I’d recommend going to see a good sports therapist for a diagnosis.

In my case, weak glutes was the cause of my knee pain.

MOBB

3,812 posts

134 months

Tuesday 19th December 2023
quotequote all
Glutes was my issue too

The_Doc

5,124 posts

227 months

Wednesday 20th December 2023
quotequote all
dandarez said:
Answer
see the Doc comments on this thread below

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
ta.

Remember:
Sharp onset of new pain, with often clicking, well located with 2 fingers over a spot - likely you've damaged something structural, meniscus or similar.
Slow onset and delayed pain, diffuse and comes and goes - likely muscle imbalance, stress response etc. As stated and explained well above.


Raymond Reddington

Original Poster:

2,982 posts

117 months

Saturday 23rd December 2023
quotequote all
Thank you for the replies everyone, much appreciated.

JapanRed

1,570 posts

118 months

Monday 25th December 2023
quotequote all
Raymond Reddington said:
Sorry if there is a better place to ask this,

I started couch to 5k a while back. I'm overweight but not disgustingly, 5ft10 and 13st4lbs.

I hurt my knee on week 3, I've rested for around 4 to 5 weeks now, bought some better shoes, and just been out to try again.

Sharp knee pain back again so I stopped to wall before making it any worse.

Does anyone have any tips for recovery and how to get back to it?
Stopping running completely is unlikely to be of benefit if it’s a soft tissue injury. You would be better continuing to run as long as pain is 2-3 out of 10 or less. A little pain isn’t a bad thing. If pain goes 4 or above, either during the run, afterwards, or the following day, you’ve done too much. Some strengthening exercises would help too.