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Running is an incredible form of exercise and provides numerous health benefits for our body. Unfortunately, many of the knee pain patients that visit our physical therapist, come in as a result of knee pain while running. As a physical
therapist, I understand the importance of knowing how to prevent knee pain. In
fact, it is the second most commonly injured joint, over 50 million people deal with knee pain. Why don't we dive right into it!
Here are some very commonly known injuries causing pain while running:
Patellofemoral pain
Meniscus tears
Shin splints
Hamstring pulls
Achilles tendonitis
Even ligament sprains (ACL, LCL, MCL, LCL)
So what can lead to so many of the common injuries above?
Poor biomechanics
Lack of flexibility
Postural Stresses
Poor muscular strength
Imbalance of muscular strength (with certain muscles stronger and others weaker)
Impaired proprioception and balance
Now, let's look at 5 Ways to Prevent Knee Injury and Pain:
A Solid Warm-up
Warming up your muscles and joints create lubrication from natural fluids to improve function and elasticity... thus reducing injury risk. And not that old school warmup where you try to touch your toes, the warmup needs to be active:
Click the video below to learn this Dynamic Warm-Up
Increase your all around leg strength
This includes muscles of the hips, knees, and ankles. A few great exercises are bodyweight squats, heel raises, and wall sits.
Watch the video below to see how our knee pain specialist does a proper wall sit!
Maintain and improve flexibility
With running, it is common that your muscles become tighter, so it is necessary to stretch after you exercise, this includes hip flexors, quads, calves, and hamstrings.
Check out this simple hamstring stretch!
Improve your balance and coordination.
Balance exercises such as standing on one leg to build up the communication between your hip, knee, and ankle thus reducing the risk of injury!
This is a great one, click to watch!
Improve your agility
Agility is the ability to move quickly and easily, specifically when needing to change direction. Agility exercises are a little more complex, but if you're interested, we can definitely recommend the right ones for you. We would need to learn a little more about your goals first, to do that, you can set up a phone consultation by clicking below:
Are you already in a lot of pain?
The main piece of advice we give to our Wyckoff, NJ patients is for them to not push through sharp knee pain. While running, it is normal to feel a muscle burn or stretching feeling, while sharp pain is NOT normal. If you do feel this, FIRST, go with the old fashioned RICE.
R: Rest
I: Ice
C: Compression (wrap with ace bandage)
E: Elevate your leg
NEXT, our patients give us a call at our Bergen County, NJ clinic 201-485-6114 and we set them up with a 7-day strategy to properly address the issue.
The tips in this article are generally ones for the cases we have seen in our clinic, if any of these tips do not prevent or relieve your knee pain is it advised to apply for a phone consult or a free discovery session.
👉🏽If you are experiencing any knee pain due to running (or something else) and want answers NOW, I recommend a Free 30-Min Discovery Session (virtual or in-person). Our knee pain specialist will listen to your concerns and give you an opportunity to ask any questions you have. You will receive all the information you need from a physical therapist to make the BEST decision for YOUR health.
👉🏽Or, Get our Knee Specialists FREE Guide with Tips for Quick Knee Pain Relief:
If you have further questions regarding this blog post or other tips that can help you Contact Us at Skyline Physical Therapy located in Wyckoff, NJ. or Call (201) 485-6114