Inside knee pain
January 12, 2014
Marianne asked The Guru for the following Physiotherapy Advice:
Hi,
I’m training for a marathon and have been having some trouble with my knee, but it doesn’t seem to fit the symptoms for ‘runner’s knee’ which I keep reading about. Runner’s knee pain seems to sit on the outside of the knee, but my pain is on the inside. In other words, the left side of my right knee.
It will sometimes ache a bit even when I haven’t been running, but on long runs after about one hour, it will start to hurt quite a lot (maybe 5/10 or 6/10), but then fade again after 10 minutes or so, only to come back perhaps another hour later if I keep running and so on, fading and returning again. I’ve noticed that if, while I’m running, I start doing butt kicks to bend my knees a lot more for a few strides, this seems to temporarily ease the pain. I make sure to stretch my legs plenty, and sometimes pause to quickly stretch again as I run but the pain isn’t really stopping altogether.
Any advice? The marathon is very soon so a quick reply hugely appreciated!
Thank you in advance
Marianne
Marianne
January 12, 2014
Dear Marianne
Sorry for the delay – runners knee can be lots of different things and this is one of them.
You’re feeling a piece of tissue called your medial retinaculum, being over stretched because your knee cap is sitting to far to the outer side of your knee.
The most common causes are tight ITB (get rolling), tight hip flexors (don’t over stride), poor glut control (lots of good lunges with great control) and poor foot control (too late!)
Taping via a Physio can be really, really helpful.
Ice and anti inflams can also help (if you can take them.)
Good Luck.
The Guru
