Running knee injuries are the most common types of injuries that runners often get, and are unfortunately the ones that can keep you out of action for a long time. However, these pains are also act as a useful warning that something is wrong with your running, such as your running speed, or posture, which you should change to avoid such injuries in future.
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One the main cause of running knee injuries amongst runners is abrupt increase in the mileage. This often leads to a knee injury known as chondromalacia patella (runner’s knee), where the runner feels a dull pain just behind the knee cap. Most of the running experts are of the opinion that you should not increase the distance that you run by more than ten percent every week, even when you feel that you can do more. Our knees rely on balance of thigh muscles for moving up and down in a proper way, and any overrunning may accentuate the muscular imbalance resulting in the wearing of the knee cartilage thereby causing soreness.
The three body areas where several runners are typically weak are:
- Weakness of upper and mid-back muscles can result in running knee injuries because upper body may slouch especially when the runner becomes fatigued. Their center of gravity will be placed bit more forward resulting in more stress on their knees.
- Any weakness of the abdominal muscles may result in knee injuries, as it is cumbersome for runners to keep their trunk up tall over their hips while running. This results in slouch as discussed above.
- Weakness of the glutes (butt muscles), hamstrings (the muscles at the back of thighs) and hips can cause knee injuries because glutes and hamstrings are meant to extend the hips as runners push off the ground with each of their stride. Due to weakness, the hips of runners will not work and runners may start overusing quadriceps, hamstrings, shin and calf muscles resulting in knee pain.
There are many things that can be done to prevent running knee injuries. We are providing few helpful tips to follow:
- Don’t Over-train-You can easily hurt yourself with overtraining, which occurs when you train excessively and your body fails to recover within the training sessions. When this occurs, your muscles, connective tissues, and joints start suffering cumulative damage and injuries occur. You should take at least a day off from your running per week.
- Wear Proper Shoes-Whether you are running for weight loss, fitness or training for some big event, you should ensure that you are wearing the right shoes. You can seek assistance from specialty running store and discuss this with the experienced staff.
- Mix it Up-Your body may get stressed when you are running for fitness in the same way every time you run. You can develop much stronger joints, muscles, and connective tissues with cross training.
There are many cross training activities such as biking, swimming, hiking and weight training that can elevate your heart rate and exercise your muscles. You can choose any non running activity and add it to your training schedule.
- Stretch-There is a strong evidence, which suggests that runners who stretch on the regular basis may face experience less injuries than those who stretch only occasionally. However, you should stretch only warm muscles, which means that post run stretching is great. In any case, you should avoid overstretching as may injure yourself.
- Watch Your Form-Each runner has his/her own unique running form. Though it is great to have unique running form, but no one would like a running style that leads to injuries.
If you are experiencing a joint or knee problem, you should seek help from an experienced running coach, as he can analyze your running gait and will make appropriate suggestions for improvements. If you cannot afford a coach, then you can get your running videotaped, so that you can analyze it in detail. Even minor adjustments to your leg swing and foot placement can help you in keeping away from all the knee issues.
If all these tips can’t keep you away from the running knee injuries, you should see a physician who has specialization in sports injuries. They are experts in their field and will recommend a course of action that will help you in running happily for years.