Runners Knee

Hi all, i was wandering if anybody could help me get back running again. I have been having a lot of probs with my left knee for about 3 months now.

I have went to 3 diff physios who all think i have got runners knee. 1 of the physios felt my knee was not tracking correctly!

Could anybody tell me if they had the same prob and if they cured it how, coz this cracking me up.

I have been doing squats and icing the knee also taping but nothing seems to work. Help please!


Cross country starting soon and i dont what to miss that.

Thanks Jonny :-(

Hi Jonny,

I'm not a physio, but last year I had some chronic knee problems, which I eventually got sorted.

I have some useful sites that you might want to take a look at. Copy and paste these lot into you browser.


http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/patelladisorders/a/chondromalacia.htm

http://www.mckinley.uiuc.edu/Handouts/overusekneeinjuries/overusekneeinjuries.htm

http://www.kneeguru.co.uk/

http://www.knee1.com/care/condition20.cfm/98

All I will say, is I hope your physio is good. I had some shocking advice last year, until I saw sense and went back to my tried and trusted physio, who I worked with for a while and got my problem dealt with.

If it is runners knee or Chondromalacia Patella as it's also known, then it can be sorted, mainly through corrective exercises that involve strengthening the quad region.

In the end I wasn't suffering from this, but I remember my physio telling me all sorts about knee injuries during my treatment, and he mentioned runners knee.

Give some of these sites a go first, and go back to your physio, and work with them to get the correct diagnosis. It's unlikely to be an overnight fix though.

Best of luck!

I've been suffering from this for quite a while. I saw a physio a few times who said it was a tight ITB pulling my kneecap out of track, thus roughening up the cartilage. They massaged it, ultrasounded it, irradiated it with shortwave radiowaves and gave me a set of strengthening and stretching exercises. It was getting better but then I cycled Lands End to John O Groats and that seemed to make it worse again. Nevertheless, my physio told me it was rebuilt and to just ice it if I felt pain, but it seemed to start getting worse again, so I decided to rest it for a month. I tried to keep up some fitness by swimming. I also started doing Yoga once a week to improve core stability and to stretch out any muscles that have tightened up too much. I started running again last week and it's still not quite right. I've started taking glucosamine and chondroitin capsules. Hopefully these will do the trick.

Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but the glucosamine+chondroitin tablets, or something, seem to be taking effect.

Jonathan

I've just boinged this previous thread which I started in September when I had a similar sounding problem with my knee.

The key for me was trusting my physio, doing the exercises he gave me, and taking my introduction back into running slowly.

I've just done a 10mile race this weekend, and although my knee feels a little tender, it's a lot better than it was, and is not bad enough to stop me from training.

Hope this helps

I chipped the top of my knee cap 2.5 year ago and since recovering etc all is fine (I just ran the London Marathon in April) which gave me no pain what so ever. Since then, my knee has been playing up (the one I broke) and I wonder if it is runner knee or if its the accident I had flaring up? Either way, I have a half marathon coming up and I miss my running sessions.. I hate not being able to do anything

Any advice?

 Thank you!

I've had a similar problem with my left knee that set in about 2 miles into my runs but I found these exercises on Youtube really helped me (I try to do them at least one a day) and my knee is now back to normal when running.

Have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDhKVtkfnsg

They are the sort of exercises you can do anywhere and don't take up much time. I didn't think they would work but I've since stopped wearing my knee support and am running a 10k on Saturday without it (hopefully!)

 

A meta analysis (10 trials on just shy of 4000 patients)  of  glucosamine+chondroitin by the bmj

http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c4675.full

Conclusions:

Compared with placebo, glucosamine, chondroitin, and their combination do not reduce joint pain or have an impact on narrowing of joint space. Health authorities and health insurers should not cover the costs of these preparations, and new prescriptions to patients who have not received treatment should be discouraged.