What’s the cause of knee pain?

[Marge54]

I am only in week 2 and have been temporarily halted due to pain developed on the very inner side of each knee, not the knee cap itself. I am not over weight and have had no knee trouble ever and although I haven’t really been a runner before, I have never experienced any pain in exercise. This feels different to the usual aching after exercise and has lasted at least 5 days so far, in fact it has just made me stop my sixth run because it was so sore. I am worried that as I am now 54, it may be age related and stop me carrying on! Does anyone have any advice or has anyone had anything similar they have overcome? I’m so upset because I want to get on with it but this has caused a real problem.

[Irishprincess Graduate]

There are a number of possible causes but the important thing is that it’s fairly normal to experience aches and pains when you first start the programme. The muscles need time to get used to the movement and sometimes they complain a bit! Take some days off to rest, ice the knee and then restart the programme when you are pain free. But in the meantime, here are some possibilities.

Did you get a gait analysis done and get proper running shoes? Warming up well before each run and cooling down afterwards is essential and do some stretches afterwards too.

nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/r...

You could also do some strengthening work which is particularly important as you move through the programme.

nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/r...

Regarding your question whether you are too old for this, please take a look at another poster’s same question and the replies. As you can see, no you are not too old. Which is wonderful!

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

Finally, please take heart that many new runners starting the programme experience knee pain but then go on to keep running and do amazing things. It took me six months to graduate because of an old injury (and I had knee pain too!) but I am still here and still running nearly eleven years on. It’s such a wonderful programme that changes your life in so many ways so keep at it.

I hope your knee pain settles down and that you keep us updated on your progress. You’ve got this! 🍀

[Marge54 in reply to Irishprincess]

Thank you, that’s so encouraging. I know I’m not far in but I was so sectretly happy with myself that I was enjoying it and committed to carrying on and it was so disappointing when, for once, it was my body giving up instead of my mind. I’ll defo look at those links and thanks for the advice.

[Irishprincess Graduate in reply to Marge54]

There’s no hurry so just take as much time as you need. It does take our muscles and tendons a wee while to get used to the running motion and get stronger, but every single run and every single exercise helps.

What you do now builds a strong base for all your future running so build it strong 💪

[Tasha99 Graduate]

Very common in week 2 or 3! I had the same. Apparently it’s just strength needing to be built. I took ibuprofen one hour before runs and carried on anyway. But that was a risk I chose to take. It went by week 4.

[Marge54 in reply to Tasha99]

It’s good to know it might go away, for sure. Thank you for the information and help - I feel more positive after reading people’s kind replies!

[Yesletsgo Graduate]

As someone who has had knee pain both before and after doing C25K here's my take.

If you have knee pain, the first step is to rest, elevate the knee, ice it if it's bad and get an elastic support bandage thing. This sorts a lot of aches and pain out, alongside taking painkillers.

By the way, you can buy black support bandages which for me psychologically transformed my poor knee from being 'old lady falling to bits' to 'badass athlete battle scars' (maybe that's just me )

If it doesn't get better after a week or so of resting you need to seek medical attention. I've learned that knees are incredibly complex and there are all sorts of reasons why they can hurt. You need a qualified medical professional to tell you what your particular issue is, they may get x rays done, it's so important to get it right. You may be referred to a physio, they work magic.

Don't try and run through pain, you'll run the risk of a more serious injury which will take longer to recover from.

PS you are definitely not too old, I was 62 when I started and 3 years on am going strong! Get your doctor to make sure there are no underlying knee problems and like Irishprincess said, get a gait analysis and proper shoes. Make sure you warm up before you run, especially when the weather is as cold as it has been (look up 'dynamic stretches'). Read all the links suggested and when you run don't try and go fast. It will all fall into place and you will be absolutely fine!

[Marge54]

Thank you so much for your advice, it’s really encouraging to hear other people have had similar issues and still managed to continue on some way.

[Comte Graduate]

First of all, never run in pain. You say in your post thar that the pain has lasted at least 5 days and yet you then took your 6th run. It seems the knee was still painful and despite that you took another run. Is this right or have I misunderstood you? You should definitely stop running until there is no pain and if while running the knee is painful then stop running immediately. I do not know what the cause is of the kneepain. I had kneepain once while running but I immediately stopped and took an Uber home and rested.This particular pain I have not had again.

[Marge54]

Thank you. The pain had subsided quite a bit and I thought it might be just like muscle soreness - when you push through it it can dissipate. I only got halfway through the first section of running though when I realised this wasn’t the case and not wanting to cause a real issue, I stopped straight away and walked home, miserable! I’m going to wait until I can’t feel it any more (hopefully that’ll actually happen) and then try again after some really good warm ups. Thanks for the reply.

[Yesletsgo Graduate in reply to Marge54]

It really is worth getting your doctor to have a look if it doesn't get better in the next couple of days. I suffered for 5 months over the summer (I was traveling so couldn't get to my GP) with severe pain from hip to knee when I walked. When I finally saw him he diagnosed me, gave me a stretching exercise to do and advice on painkillers and within 3 days I was absolutely fine.

Please don't suffer unnecessarily. I've had several issues and the doctors I've seen have been incredibly supportive of my running even though I'm a little fat granny with arthritis 😁

[JeremiahObadiah Graduate]

Whilst I totally agree with others that age does not prevent one from achieving, it does make active things just a bit more challenging on the body.

In my not very expert but aged opinion, it would be a good idea to do an indoor warm up before you commence. It really does help prevent injury and I have been told by exercise teachers that the older one is the longer the warm up should be. The nhs has a 5min warm up video but there are plenty of others too.

My other suggestion would be to watch the Japanese slow running video. This pace of running is great for c25k, it gets you into the right mindset for gentle timed stamina building rather than speed and distance which makes the process much kinder to knees.

Having said all that, I still gave myself shin splints when doing c25k and my other suggestion following on from my experience is, don’t feel you have to achieve it in 9 weeks. It’s quite a rapid progression if you haven’t run for decades, so maybe cut it down to two runs a week so that each ‘week’ is spread over a week and a half and do a half hour overall body strengthening programme alongside the c25k.

Wishing you pain free knees and your onward training to be fun and motivating … I look forward to hearing how you get on.

[Beachcomber66 Graduate]

Good advice above Marge. This sounds eminently fixable 👍. Hopefully this is just your knee saying “I am not used to doing this”

I found a good sports physio early on in C25k. Calves were my problem, but I got really bad runners knee later on in my running experience (I nearly said life) but my physio fixed it. Some of this is counterintuitive; many of the remedial exercises were for hips and quads, aimed at getting the knee to move smoothly through the joint without touching the sides! Finally she got me to warm up my knees with a hot water bottle for 15 minutes before runs; I still do that.

Your issue might well be just your knee adjusting to the activity. My comments above are just about reinforcing the view that there are lots of things a good sports physio can do to treat this if it persists.

[Madwife60]

I was in lots of pain when I started due to the arthritis in my knee. I felt like giving up but my chiropractor reassured me that so long as I took it easy, did the stretches, warm ups and warm downs and followed the programme it would help build up the muscles supporting my knee and it would improve. He was right and I’m no longer looking at a knee replacement (to be honest shifting 4 stone probably helped too) so I think you should be ok. Just take it slow and steady

[Stillthepotato Graduate]

Hi, in the first weeks I had the same pain in the inner knees. I’ve red a lot to understand what was happening but actually I fixed it just changing my shoes. At the beginning I was running with generic sport shoes , I stopped to have pain when i Bought running shoes! So if you don’t already have it , give it a try!