Runner’s Knee
After two years of cancelled charity runs, track events and both amateur and professional races we are finally approaching a busy season for runners, both novice and professional.
This time of year also brings with it some better weather and this tends to bring out some motivated new runners, often participating in couch to 5k and park runs.
No matter what level of running you are at, I think we will all agree that there is nothing worse than having an injury stop us in our tracks.
Runners Knee also known as patellofemoral pain, is a very common knee injury for runners.
This pain tends to present itself around the area of your knee cap. You may find you are fine with sitting and light walking, but as activity increases the pain may become sharper.
Runners knee pain can vary person to person but commonly our patients will explain that the pain plateaus after a few minutes of running and then the pain returns more intensely a few hours after they have finished.
So what do we do when this happens?
It important to know that everyone’s rehab will be different depending on your own biomechanics, training intensity, goals and injury history. However, there is one key thing that necessary in all of our patients rehab who have runners knee… cocontractions.
Cocontractions are simultaneous contractions of two or more muscles at the same joint. These types of muscle contractions are used to keep our joints safe and to improve our movement efficiency.
The cocontraction at the knee is often lacking in people with runners knee. This cocontraction takes place between many muscles but mainly our quadriceps, hamstrings and calf.
This knee cocontraction is hugely important for any runner as every time your foot strikes the floor, you need the muscles of your leg to effectively transmit force from your big hip and core muscles.
If you are experiencing runners knee, it is likely that there is a lack of inter-muscular coordination leading to overuse use of the quadriceps around your knee.
Below I have attached our ‘bang for buck’ exercise for developing a better knee cocontraction and
therefore reducing your knee pain:
Give it a go and let us know how you get on.
If you are currently experiencing runners knee and you would like a a plan to get back to running pain-free, book an assessment with one of our physios.
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