So yesterday I felt absolutely fine after W2R1 but this morning I've got a twinge in my knee when I'm walking
absolutely no idea what I've done, or why I didn't notice anything yesterday. Had originally planned to do W2R2 tomorrow after work but I think the sensible thing would be to wait for whatever's gone wrong to heal? Any advice? I can't take any kind of NSAID (Ibuprofen etc) because of a medical prescription I'm currently on.
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Thecko
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Hi Thecko, with knee twinges I automatically think of your footwear first. What running shoes are you using? If they are not giving you enough support when you run this often shows up by knee pain.
If they are old, and you have not done this already, pop into a proper running shop for advice, and gait analysis on their treadmill. They will film how your foot strikes the ground on their treadmill (it's free) and see if you need a more supportive running shoe.
They are new trainers but pretty generic, I did wonder about getting gait analysis done etc before starting but didn't do it, mainly because I'm not sure where in the North West I'll be able to get it done!
I will have a look around to see if I can find anywhere I definitely won't be running with any pain, that'll just make things worse for sure.
Ok good luck. My hubby got knee pain at Wk 3 and so had gait analysis which showed that he overpronates and needed a different running shoe. He was fine after that.
While waiting for your gait analysis, there's a number of simple things you can do at home.
In bare feet, standing on a hard surface, relaxed, can you easily slide a pen or pencil under the arch of your foot? If you can't, then you have fallen arches, meaning your feet don't absorb shock properly and your knees will try to buckle inward with every step.
Another test involves walking across a tiled floor or long sheet of paper (eg a wallpaper off cut) with bare, wet feet. Then look at the footprints you make. Ideally you should see five good toe prints, a good heel print, the ball of the foot, but only a narrow strip for the outside edge of the foot connecting heel to ball of the foot, on each footprint. If you get a big splot of full footprint, again your arches aren't holding up, and you'll get pains.
If you suspect fallen or weak arches, there are lots of exercises to bolster them up, but for running and longer walks, some good arch support may help. You can buy shoes at the better shoe shops that have built in arch support, or you can get special insoles either commercially or from the podiatrist.
But for the immediate issue of your current knee pain, I agree, take it easy. I found out the hard way that once knee pain starts, if you ignore it, it can suddenly progress to very serious without warning. Quite literally, I went from being a bit sore to unable to walk and in need of physio and months of rehabilitation exercises within minutes. I was fine and walking about but with some mild pain, I decided I needed to rest and minute, then found in couldn't easily get back up.
So yes, I agree with the rest plan.
If it is just the most trivial of niggles, I'd keep walking but not running. Maybe consider some knee supports. And look at knee strengthening exercises, as well looking at core strengthening, and some focus on hips and bum, all of which play a role in aligning everything correctly.
Between foot exercises, knees, hips and bum, as well as stretching exercises, it sounds like a lot. But it's just a few minutes each day, and most of the exercises can be done while you're chilling out watching TV.
Excellent advice, thanks. I definitely do have fallen arches (different severity between feet, and funnily enough the 'more collapsed' side is the one that's hurting today) but it's never caused me problems before, I used to play a lot of tennis back in my teenage years (a very long time ago now ).
I'll ring my GP tomorrow to find out if podiatry is a service available in my CCG area, if it isn't I'll then check with my BUPA cover through work.
It's starting to feel better now compared to this morning, so hopefully this isn't going to take too long to recover!
If you already know you have fallen arches, then I think a good place to start would be off the shelf arch supporting insoles or trainers with built in arch support, and a home exercise plan that helps bolster the arches up.
For the exercises, there's loads of good and simple ones on YouTube so I won't try to list them all, but I'll do a couple of my faves.
One is so simple, you can do it sat down watching telly. Put a towel on the floor by your feet, put your feet on the edge, and then using only your feet, try to scrunch the towel up. This serves two purposes. It not only builds the small, often neglected muscles of the feet, it also teaches your brain that they're there, so that your foot will be more efficiently utilised.
My other fave is calf raises. Just simply standing up, and go up and down slowly to lift your heels off the floor. This will build up the calves including the smaller muscles that run down the side to support the arches. A variation on this to incorporate a good stretch is to do it on a step, so as you come back down, your heel can drop lower than your toes, thus stretching the calves.
I agree with gait analysis and good shoes. The other thing that helps me a lot is serious stretching. When my knees were twinging, I would stretch five times a day. It worked!
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