Aggrevating knees - any words of wisdom? (Read 729 times)

I've got that knee tracking disorder... patellar femoral syndrome, I think it's called? I went to an orthopaedic doctor, who suggested lots of knee strengthening exercises and failing that, knee braces to wear while running and hiking (I went hiking a couple months ago and had to crab walk down the hills because it hurt my knees so much!! ). I never had that problem while hiking until I took up running last fall. So I went home, and did the exercises religiously 3x a day. I do have a patellar knee brace, and tried wearing them on a run but can only stand to wear one at a time, but I don't think they do anything. Here's the weird part: my knees don't hurt when I run, it's the rest of the time I'm awake. They hurt when I sit for long periods of time, they hurt going up & down stairs, sometimes they just ache, even if I'm sitting with them straight out in front of me. I had to take 3 weeks off recently due to a nasty chest cold, and my knees felt totally fine the entire time. No problems with stairs, nothing. I am better now, and started running again this week, and I'm right back where I was with the knee pain. It's frustrating. I don't run that far either - I'm only at 3 miles, a few times a week. I run slowly. I stretch lots, I drink lots of water, most of the time I ice my knees after a run... I think I'm doing everything right. I know concrete is hard on the knees... but I don't own a treadmill and besides, I do love to run outside, even in the pouring rain. The x-rays showed a bone spur on one knee but it doesn't give me any problems. And no signs of arthritis. ??? Any of you knee experts out there know of anything else I can try?

I had this problem after a few weeks of running in a pair of Kayano 13s. Went back to the NBs I had been wearing and the problem went away. I think the Kayanos were maybe too stable. I seem to have knee issues whenever I am in a shoe that is too stable or too neutral for my needs.

I went to an ortho guy last month because me and a 18 wheeler almost bumped heads and after that I had pain in the outside of my left knee. He sent me for an MRI and told me that I have ITBS and patellar femoral syndrome. He said that most likely I already had the pain but the situation made me notice it. I now have to wear a brace when I run, cross train, whatever. Doesn't make me happy. The thing is that the DR keeps referencing 'pain' and I'm not really in pain. Every now and then it is what I would call discomfort but not true pain. I figure I'll do the exercises he gave me and wear the brace for awhile and then re-evaluate. Stinks. *oh and he is a sports ortho guy with a great reputation for working with runners.

Try ibuprofen 1/2 hour before your runs/exercises. That really helped me through the worst part of my knee/ankle injuries during university track/xc. Also, make sure you are getting enough sleep, protein, vitamins, water, etc. I think the exercises should be good though, as long as you are keeping everything balanced. Sometimes if you overtrain one leg muscle without keeping up with the rest, it can put tension on your tendons when you run. A good exercise I do to keep knee pain at bay is a reverse calf raise. Basically, stand with one foot on the edge of a step with about 2/3 of your foot hanging off. Use your other foot (completely on the step) to lift your body so the first foot is now parallel to the ground (still 2/3 hanging off). Shift your weight to the first foot and (with that leg straightened), slowly descend *almost* as far as you can (don't overstrain, it can hurt your ankle). Use the other leg to bring you back up. Basically, you only want to start by having the calf *lowering* you down, not raising you up. It can be good to start with 3 sets of 10-12 for each leg. Also, I always do another nearly identical exercise before/after I run. Basically do the same exercise described above, but have your knee bent. Its hard to say exactly how much to bend your knee; slightly more than "slightly bent". Maybe 140deg between the lower & legs. To do this correctly, you should be feeling your head go up and down as you do it. If your head is staying still, you are just straightening your knee as you lower your heel. I've been doing these 2 exercises for a while whenever I'm in training, and they seem to work pretty well. You can go up and down on one leg (without the other leg helping) once you feel comfortable and the pain is gone. It is important that you keep doing the exercises even after your knee/leg stops hurting. *disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, I have no training in sports medicine, etc. what works for me might not work for you. if it irritates the injury more, stop doing it (no pain-no gain does no apply with injuries). Good luck!

I have that problem too. I have found that making sure I stretch my quads well and icing my knees after runs helps. I have never completely got rid of it though. Hope you can find something to help yours.