Knee injuries are possibly the most common injury that runners experience. In fact, it is one of the most likely reasons to keep you from running.
Knee pain can be a warning signal that you need to change something in your running regimen. For instance, your posture or the rate at which you are increasing your weekly mileage.
Getting the right shoes is imperative to injury prevention.
Injuries and Running
A main cause of injury, especially among beginning runners, is a sudden increase in mileage. This can lead to a very common injury called Runner’s Knee.
Symptoms include a dull pain behind or around the kneecap, pain when you bend the knee, pain that is worse when you walk downstairs or downhill, swelling, and popping or grinding sensations in the knee.
The knee relies on a balance of thigh muscles to move up and down properly, and overrunning can accentuate any muscular imbalance and loading the soft tissues, causing soreness.
This imbalance is often caused by overpronating (running with your feet turned outward) or supinating (not pronating at all on ground contact). Also, if you hit the ground with your heels while running, the shock travels farther up your legs than if you hit at the middle of your step.
Another type of injury affects the iliotibial band (aka the IT Band). The IT Band is a band of tissues running down the outside of your thigh that helps stabilize the leg.
As you run, this band can rub against the outside of the knees, causing a pain just above the joint. This condition can also result from overtraining and from not stretching enough after exercise.
Knee Injuries? No More!
To rectify muscular imbalance, you might shorten your running distance and make sure your feet hit the ground properly. Running stores stock shoes specially geared for overpronators or supinators.
Sometimes, runners will need custom orthotics to help control foot function.
The proper shoes, especially those with shock-absorbing soles, can reduce the impact on your knees.
In addition to proper footwear, always start with a slow warm-up and finish with stretching to loosen up the leg muscles.
For further relief, an individualized series of exercises might be in order. We can design a program that will keep you running and make your regimen more effective.
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