If you’ve been running for any period of time, it’s likely you will have heard of the condition called Runner’s Knee. Perhaps you have heard the term Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome or Iliotibial Band Syndrome. Each of these terms actually refers to the same condition and they can all come under the umbrella term of Runner's Knee.
Today, we want to share with you some tips on how to reduce the risk of developing this common running injury.
What is Runner’s Knee
Runner’s Knee is often described as a dull pain developing around the kneecap. It is caused by the overuse and overload to that knee joint. It is often due to the nature of running or other impact activities where you're stressing the knee joints. It can be because of the repetitive impact or flexion of the knee. So even other activities that aren’t running but include flexion of the knee or high impact can affect the knee joint and cause Runner's Knee.
How can I reduce my risk of Runner’s Knee?
Whether you run 50 miles a week, run as part of your team sport, or do a lot of walking, many people can be susceptible to developing this common injury. So, what can you do to reduce your risk of developing it?
Sheffield Sports Medicine’s Top Tips
Make sure that you are including cross-training into your training programme.
You don't want to be doing excessive repetitive running every day of the week.
We recommend breaking it up and including cross-training.
Other activities you might enjoy may include cycling or swimming.
You want to look for low impact activities that you enjoy and where you're not stressing the knee joint as much. Instead, this cross-training can be working the muscles around that knee in different ways.
Don’t make any sudden training changes.
It's important that you're gradually progressing your training load over a few weeks or months.
If you're aiming to compete in a competition and it's getting really close to that competition, make sure that you're leaving enough time to progress and gradually do that.
Do some strength training.
Here at Sheffield Sports Medicine, we have noticed that a lot of runners tend to have weak hip abductors and external rotators.
And this isn’t necessarily because they’re not doing strength work.
When we see runners here at the clinic and find that they have weak hip muscles, we then work on finding the cause of the weakness in their hip muscles.
We look at why that muscle is weak. We might find that the glutes are weak so they're not firing, for example.
We investigate to find out why certain muscles aren’t firing by finding the root cause, treating the patient to get the muscle firing again and once we have that signal firing again, we help runners strengthen the muscles.
By strengthening these muscles, around your hips we reduce that load that puts increased stress onto the knee joints.
If you’ve been struggling with Runner’s Knee or simply want to avoid this common injury, try the tips above. They will help you get on a path to a long, happy running life! If you would like further help to treat your injury then please get in touch here and we’d love to see you in clinic!