Left knee pain

[Orangecat23]

I began the couch to 5k program 2 weeks ago and have begun experiencing knee pain on the inside left of my left knee. Right knee is fine.

Dialed it back to alternating between fast walking and a slower pace. All of this has been on a treadmill.

Any suggestions for exercises to help strengthen that knee, causes or tips?

[Annieapple Administrator Graduate]

🍏Often these aches and pains in the first few weeks are when we we run too fast! Until your body adjusts to new exercise running should be as slow as possible. Have you read our guide in the pinned posts?

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

Do not run with pain. Rest the knee until the pain subsides then continue on alternate days with slow running. On your rest day try these exercises put together by one of our graduates CBDB

She put this together, a 5-day knee strengthening program which worked for her whilst she was on the injury couch:

healthunlocked.com/strength...

[CBDB Graduate]

I also had knee niggles when I started running. There will be lots of advice from others, I’m sure, including

- doing a gait analysts

- seeing a physio

- running slower

- and treadmills tend to be easier on knees

- and yes, run walking will also help.

As Annieapple said I developed a little daily plan, when I started to have niggles: healthunlocked.com/strength...

And  Oldfloss also penned a post all about knees: healthunlocked.com/strength......

Hope this helps, even if just a little bit.

My knee niggles stopped niggling completely at some point after the first year running. And in the first year I threw in some knee strengthening drills here and there for keeping the niggles at bay.

[AKatieD]

If it is a little niggle, as the others say, rest and strengthen knees.

For me, I kept getting big blow ups that were really painful and kept stopping me running. Had MRI and saw consultant and was told it is osteoarthritis for which they offered little other than continued degeneration until i had knee replacement.

My own research turned up that oestrogen helps repair cartlage and so menopause can be a cause. Started HRT a couple of years ago and no knee pain! So far so good

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate in reply to AKatieD]

This is such a good point!

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate]

The thing with knee niggles is it’s not necessarily a problem with your knee-mine was caused by problems as my hips which I wouldn’t have known without seeing a physio. Strength exercises are really important for anyone who runs and it’s a great plan to get started with them as soon as you can. There are great suggestions above. That will definitely help keep those niggles and injuries away, and it’ll have a brilliant effect on your running too! Be a bit wary of just focusing on the one part that’s grumbling when the issue can be elsewhere. My physio has had me doing loads of core and stability work as well as strength which will also help. If your pain doesn’t settle, I’d see someone sooner rather than later. It’s so important not to run in pain, frustrating as that is!

Just remember that while we can point you to things that have worked for us, nothing can really replace the advice of a real life professional who can have a good poke and prod and work out exactly what’s causing your pain and give you an individual plan to sort it.

Really good luck with getting it sorted.❤️

[Orangecat23]

Thank you for all your advice. When I think about it this knee has always given me problems. Going to work on strengthening both of them and rest🙄which was not part of the plan but must learn to adapt.