Knee pain from running is the number one problem that keeps people from training. It’s no fun at all to watch all your hard earned conditioning fall by the wayside as you sit and wait for your knee pain to go away. Understanding the what causes knee pain from running is the first step in finding the solution.
The Obvious Cause Of Knee Pain From Running
One of the obvious causes of knee pain from running is the impact. The impact each time you land can be up to 2.5 times your body weight. If you weigh 150 pounds, that’s 375 pounds of force coming up from the ground with each step. But that’s not the whole story.
What Most People Don’t Know About Knee Pain and Running
As much as 375 pounds of force through your leg might appear to be the cause of any pain, most people don’t see the other causes that can really make a big difference. The great news is that if you know these secrets, most likely you can continue running without pain!
Have you ever noticed that most novice runners bounce when they run or jog? Compare their form to elite runners who run more smoothly. Addressing your running form to decrease the amount of jarring will decrease the ground reaction forces to your joints.
Another common running form issue is when the knee often moves toward the other knee after landing. putting stress on the knee in a way it wasn’t meant to handle. Some of the most common causes of this problem is tightness in the muscles of the leg and/or weakness of the quadriceps or gluts. This problem can be solved with specific strengthening or stretching exercises, allowing runners to return to their workouts without pain.
Te key to solving knee pain from running, or other pains from running, is to catch things early. Think of pain as the dummy light in your car. If the engine light goes on, do you just keep driving it until it stops working all together? Most likely not. Looking for solutions to pain early helps prevent additional injuries and improve your odds of resolving your pain quickly.
