Schumacher Chiropractic Clinics

Description:

Pain around and sometimes behind the kneecap. One of the most common injuries among runners, runner's knee most often strikes as runners approach forty miles per week for the first time. Even after taking a few days off, the pain seems to come right back, sometimes even intensifying, after the first few miles of the next run. The pain often feels worst when running downhill or walking down stairs, and the knee is often stiff and sore after sitting down for long periods. You might hear a crunching or clicking sound when you bend or extend your knee.

The sure-fire test for runner's knee: sit down and put your leg out on a chair so that it's stretched out straight. Have a friend squeeze your leg just above the knee while pushing on the kneecap. She should push from the outside of the leg toward the center. At the same time, tighten your thigh muscle. If this is painful, you're looking at runner's knee.

Likely causes:

It's actually not your knee's fault at all. Blame your feet and thighs; for one reason or another they aren't doing
their jobs properly. Your knee moves up and down in a narrow little groove in your thigh bone. It's a nifty design: when your legs and feet are working efficiently, your knee moves smoothly and comfortably with every step. But trouble appears when your kneecap moves out of its track, or rubs up against its sides. That trouble becomes pain when you factor in nearly 1000 steps per cartilage-grinding mile. Over time the cushioning cartilage around the knee becomes worn. That smarts. And that's runner's knee.

How did your knee get off track? Probably because of relatively weak thigh muscles and a lack of foot support. It's your thigh muscles that hold your kneecap in place, preventing it from trying to jump its track. Running tends to develop the back thigh muscles (hamstrings) more than those in the front (the quadriceps), and the imbalance is sometimes enough to allow the kneecap to pull and twist to the side.

Your foot, meanwhile, may not be giving you the stability you need. It's likely that your feet are making a wrong movement every time they hit the ground, and you're feeling the constant pounding and repetition of this mistake in your knee. Maybe you're overpronating (rolling your foot in) or supinating (turning it out too much) when you run.

Runner's knee is further aggravated by simple overuse. If you have steeply increased your mileage recently, you might consider holding back a bit. Likewise, back off on new hill work or speed work. Runner's knee can also be brought on by running on banked surfaces or a curved track. Running on a road that is banked at the sides, for example, effectively gives you one short leg, causing it to pronate and put pressure on the knee. Try as much as possible to run on a level surface, or at the very least give each leg equal time as "the short leg."

Remedy:

This is an easily treatable injury with a little patience. First, relieve the pain by icing your knees immediately after running. You can use commercially available cold packs or simply put a wet towel in the freezer before you run. Wrap the cold packs around each knee for about fifteen minutes to bring down the swelling. Before bed, put heating pads or warm wet towels on your knees for half an hour.

Chiropractic adjustments of the knee, acupuncture and interferential electrical stimulation are also extremely effective in reducing your pain.

The thigh muscle or quadriceps is made up of four different muscles. The vastus medialis is the muscle on the inside of the thigh and holds the knee cap in proper position so it glides through the grove in the femur properly. If this muscle is weak it can allow the knee cap to track improperly causing runner’s knee pain. A simple exercise to strengthen the vastus medialis is shown above. Place a rolled up towel under your knee and try to push your knee down, extending your knee the last 15 degrees of extension. Repeat until you feel the inside of your quadriceps fatigue.

Stabilize your feet. Make sure you have the right kind of shoes for your foot type. Consider buying a custom made foot support like the Foot leveler orthotics we currently have on sale in our office. See our Hopkins products page at  www.schumacherchiropractic.com/Products.html.

If you have additional questions regarding this topic or would like to schedule a free consultation with myself or Dr. Dan to discuss your symptoms, please call 952-931-9867.



This article was originally published by Josh Clark from coolrunning.com