If it sounds to good to be true, we’re supposed to believe it’s total hogwash. Ok I usually do anyways!
But I swear this time, I think I’ve found a process to help most us of figure out the root cause of our runner’s knee pain and fix it. Of course, there are a million ways to get injured, but if you feel like you’re stuck without answers I hope these moves and my story help you find some relief!
If Knee Drift isn’t your issue, checkout this complete post on preventing runner’s knee pain >>
This is a long post so I can share both my story and the steps to resolve it, but if you’ve ever had knee or IT Band problems, I want to make sure I give you all the details. I know how frustrating it is to try and resolve, so you like me have probably spenty wayyyy too many hours testing our different things to find relief.
We are all different, listen to your body, test, try, repeat.
My Recent Injury Recovery Story
**Post updated from 2014***
Let’s get the backstory, then I’ll share the exact moves I’ve been using for the overnight change!
July of 2014, my knee swelled up like a basketball {ok maybe a grapefruit} right as I was heading to Ireland for the Race to Kinvara. Being that it was a once in a lifetime event, I ran anyways and to my great fortune didn’t appear to do any major damage {plus hey I was the only injury so they had to capture the moment}.
Unfortunately after JULY I continued to battle knee tightness and pain. It felt like I was doing all the right things and yet making no progress. Here’s a timeline for you so you can see the progression…as in none then massive change!
- Hip pain in France in June
- Lots of chiropractic visits, felt better
- July ran Ireland with knee swelling up
- Stopped running for a few weeks, started biking to cross train
- Knee pain actually getting worse
- Playing it smart, I booked an apt with a Sports Medicine Dr
- He said week hips were causing runner’s knee and my biking was making it worse
- Stop biking, start running
- Continue doing daily PT exercises, foam roll, get massages, epsom salt baths
- The sharp pain left and it became an ongoing ache…annoying, but not debilitating
- Three months in saw another PT and got more exercises to add to the others
- Acupuncture, acupressure, meditation
- December ran Honolulu marathon feeling pretty much the same
- Found knee extension video (AH HA no 1)
- Feeling burned out I decided to try taking time off again
- After a week off found IT band pain had appeared and pain for whole run
Everyone kept telling me I just needed to rest my knee; I knew intrinsically that something else was going on, I just couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the heck it was!!!
Until yesterday…Ah ha number one!!
KNEE EXTENSION: Part One
This move from Kelly Starrett worked the first time I tried it.
All these doctors and not a darn one of them recommended or even looked at this, which makes me crazy!!! For months I kept telling David it seemed really bizarre to me that I could move my right leg in to hyper-extension, but had 0 extension with my left leg.
I didn’t know what to call it or why it mattered since when I pointed it out the PT they all just said, hmm that’s weird. The acupuncture guy said tight IT Band, but even I knew that didn’t make sense. So I texted the best doctor on Earth Dr Lorenzo and he said the popliteus muscle needed to be stretched. Here’s another video with moves and an explanation of the muscle.
Which lead me to “terminal knee extension” and immediately I knew I was heading in the right direction because it finally described what I felt.
I recognize that this issue is probably not one most of you have, but in case someone else out there is banging their head against a wall I had to share it.
I have been doing this and a couple others for the last 2 weeks and have regained almost complete range of motion…that’s right 5 months of no answers and it 2 weeks almost back to normal just doing something for free at home!
INWARD KNEE DRIFT: Part Two
After talking with my chiropractor, we agreed that my hips are pretty much always a little off even after adjustment. My right leg is shorter and I’ve heard this from many chiro’s, so we agreed that was probably not an issue since I’ve been running just fine with it for many, many years.
Then he looked down at my foot and said, “look how your foot is falling inward while you simply stand still”. Below is an image of me running to help you understand what falling in means (i.e. pronation).
What’s called knee valgus, is particularly in women runners, which results in runner’s knee, IT Band pain and other issues.
The knee drift could be caused by foot pronation, weak hips or misaligned hips. It’s more common in women due to the angle of our hips, which means we need to often work harder on maintaining good hip strength to prevent any inward motion of the knee.
DOHHHHH — When I switched to the Kinvara’s around 2009 they seemed to resolve my IT Band pain, so I have resolutely stuck to them through thick and thin. But it’s highly logical that after many more years of running some things have changed in my body and my stride..
How to resolve Knee Drift?
What to do when you see pronation or knee drift that strength workouts aren’t fixing:
Get orthotics
This is not my personal favorite as I do think there is something to be said for allowing your body to control it’s own movement. They are a great solution for many though!
Get stability control shoes
My feelings are much the same as above, I want to resolve the underlying issue. Plus my right leg is actually perfect so I don’t want to create an issue there by changing how that foot lands.
Try an insert with a little arch
For $20 I was open to doing this immediately and to only running in my shoes that had more arch support like the Cortana and Zealot.
Physical Therapy
Consider heading to a PT to find the root cause of your knee drift, which they will do by looking at your movement patterns and finding your weaknesses. After that, you’ll see that part three is DO IT ALL THE TIME.
Chiropractor
See a chiro about leg length discrepancy, it’s super common for hips to get out of alignment with all the pounding on the road.
Running Shoe Selection
While the Kinvara’s served me well for a long time at the moment just standing in them you can see my ankle collapse in which means every time I take a stride my hip, knee and ankle are horribly out of alignment. Options include trying a stability shoe or putting in an insert.
Manual Muscle Manipulation
See a physical therapists or masseuse to work a little more manually with muscles.
Consistent Hip Strength Work: Part Three
You don’t have to go to a PT, as I do share tons of moves here on RTTF…but it’s never bad to get someone to evaluate your movement patterns. Once I realized that I needed to first do the knee extension stretch, next was learning to reactivate glute medius and external rotators.
Squats and lunges are going to work the glute maximus, but you need to activate other muscles for complete hip stability.
Following are the best exercises I have found to truly activate these muscles (particularly the way he describes doing the bridge):
Here are more glute activating exercises which I have added since this original post in 2014>>
MY OVERNIGHT CHANGE
I wanted to test the insole theory immediately, so I stopped to purchase them on the walk home from the chiro. After 6 months of trying to resolve a knee that went from sharp pain to achy:
Day 1
Popping them in, right away my foot was no longer falling in which meant my body was in alignment…step one in relieving pressure on that knee. Tried running, it hurt, I stopped and then started doing the glute exercise video linked above.
Day 2
The next morning I got up and put on my running shoes with the insert and started running. No pain until mile 2.75, which was a 2.75 mile improvement! I stopped and walked, not wanting to push my luck.
I came home and did the above video again.
Then in the afternoon I ran another 2.5 miles without so much as a twinge of pain anywhere and probably could have kept going if I had time {that’s why I like morning runs!}
Day 3 and beyond, I kept focusing on all the PT, knee extension and choosing the appropriate shoes. The pain was completely gone until I managed to screw things up on the trails 2 years later!
I hope this was helpful to anyone having issues, I know how frustrating it can be to try and find answers! Please do share with your running friends, I want us all to figure out what works for us individually to stay running as long and healthy as we can.
The rest of my forever maintenance plan:
My IT Band routine
My hip strength workouts
Anti-inflammatory eating
Moral of the story, you know your body…keep looking for answers.
Have you ever realized your favorite shoe might not be best for you anymore?
How often do you work those hips??
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Original article and pictures take www.runtothefinish.com site
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