I have some stiffness in my knee and a little pain after running 2 x 10 minutes. I will be resting tomorrow and then on Friday should be running for 25 minutes. I don't want to rest and my knee isn't that bad but how do I know if it is aches and pains caused by exercising or an injury??
Julie
I think the aches and pains, you'll trace to the muscles above and below. Sometimes it's in the tendons, which I suppose a careful, gentle stretch might tell you. I think a bit of tendon pain is OK, but if you end up with tendonitis you need to get ready for quite a long recovery period. Had that in the gym earlier in the year, getting too enthusiastic, and lifting according to what the muscles were ready for, and not for what the tendons were ready for. Took ages for it to come right. And only total rest would do.
The bad ones are right in the joint. If your cartilage is getting damaged, or ligaments are tearing, you've got big trouble. I can't think of a definitive way of self-diagnosing those (and of course that's always risky, just in principle). I suppose the clincher would be that if you gave enough time for ordinary muscular aches and pains (and acceptable tendon pain, whatever that may be) and you were still sore, it would be something that heals slowly hurting you, and that's stuff like ligaments, cartilage, and to some extent, tendons.
The doctors will rotate your knee joint, and listen and watch for clicking, when checking for cartilage/ ligament problems, and that's something you can't do yourself. I think if the pain persists "too long", go and see the doctor.
Bear in mind that this is coming from an idiot who today thought, "Oh well, then I'll just go for a bloody limp instead of a walk, won't I?" at warm up time.
Hi Joooolie, I'm so sorry to hear of your poorly knee. Our knees are complex , hard working, and hard to replace- take good care of it 😀😑😕
Listen to your body. Seriously. If your knee is giving you some grief, add an extra rest day or two and ice that knee after a run. You won't regret a few extra rest days, you can do that next run in a couple of days. It might be all you need for it to go away - you can assess on your following run. I had an overuse injury back in June, and I wish i would have taken things a little slower and stretched more. I wasn't even pushing my distances that hard. If in doubt and it persists, ask a doctor or a physiotherapist. You don't want to be out for weeks or months because you did further damage to yourself. It could also be your shoes - are you due for a new pair?
Thanks everyone, I am resting it today, it is a little better so I will run tomorrow and see how it goes. I have some knee strengthening exercises too so will do a little work on this when my knees feel a bit better
Could you pass on your knee strengthening exercises if possible? Thanks 🐞
Do u think knee strengthening is harmful, happy to just keep running and resting if that is a better plan.
Julie
I think knees strengthening is necessary in most cases and I would think you should do them. So if you do have any knees strengthening exercises, I would love to know them so I can use them too to strengthening my knees. Anything to be a better runner and healthy !
nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/...
This is the link I saw and I will be starting these on Saturday after my Friday run! Sorry, I just copied and pasted the link, didn't know how to do anything more impressive for you.
Julie
I would recommend seeing a sports physio. Also quad exercises. Even if a knee is recovered it will not work properly if you have weak quads so definitely do your knee exercises. There is something called 'runners knee' which is very common. Look it up on Google. Also look up ITB syndrome. Another tip, if you haven't already done it, is book yourself in for gait analysis. Like another replier said a change of shoe could make all the difference. Gait analysis is so important. Find a reputable running store and get yourself videoed and analysed. Good luckx
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