Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferumbras
It's weird: I don't have knee pain while running. It's later, when I'm doing an activity like walking down stairs or squatting, that I get the knee pain. Having not run for a few days, that pain has gone (and it came on when I started running). I'll try shortening my stride, though. Thanks!
I was in physical therapy for several months for my right knee a few years ago. What I learned was (in my case) is that even though I was pretty active, the muscles around my knee were not equally developed. My PT said this was not uncommon for women.
When hiking and trail jogging, the knee wasn't being used correctly and as a result, there would be swelling and pain in the joint post-exercise. Ignoring this for many years caused some irreversible damage.
Things that help:
- taking an anti-inflammatory like Advil right before jogging
- icing my knee right after jogging and if not right after, that night, sometimes both
- running shoes that are right for my natural stride
and most importantly:
- leg strengthening exercises. Jogging doesn't really strengthen the muscles that stabilize the knee, so it really helps to do leg work on your off days.
Even if it's just while you're sitting at your desk. A great exercise is extending your leg so it's parallel to the ground, tense your quads and hold it for 60 seconds. Or several times a day just stopping and doing a set of heel lifts, go up on your toes and hold.
Good luck and keep on truckin'!