Knees are Tight (Read 1941 times)

esofen


    thread drift

     

    I'm so tight I squeak.

     Yeah.  Sorry about that, SRL.

     

    Returning to the knees, I used to feel creaky switching back and forth between running and cycling.  For me, pedals with more float (moving from SPDs to Speedplays) made a big difference for knee happiness.  With SPDs, I wouldn't notice the knees when riding but would when running the next day.  If it's purely a running thing (bugging you during a stretch when you aren't riding at all), I'd also lean toward consistency in mileage and frequency.  Often it seems as though knee and shin problems plague new runners until some sort of threshold in running (frequency? duration? accumulated miles?) where their body has adjusted.  I don't mean by this that these problems should be ignored.  Shoes, ITBs, stride, or overdoing it on long days could all be contributing.

     

    Now time to drift back to lurking.

    JimR


       Yeah.  Sorry about that, SRL.

       

      Returning to the knees, I used to feel creaky switching back and forth between running and cycling.  For me, pedals with more float (moving from SPDs to Speedplays) made a big difference for knee happiness.  With SPDs, I wouldn't notice the knees when riding but would when running the next day.  If it's purely a running thing (bugging you during a stretch when you aren't riding at all), I'd also lean toward consistency in mileage and frequency.  Often it seems as though knee and shin problems plague new runners until some sort of threshold in running (frequency? duration? accumulated miles?) where their body has adjusted.  I don't mean by this that these problems should be ignored.  Shoes, ITBs, stride, or overdoing it on long days could all be contributing.

       

      Now time to drift back to lurking.

       

       

      Plus, as spin chick's an avid cyclist, the force application for running is very different than the force application for cycling.  The ability to apply the force might be there but those little strands of tissue, tendons, etc. that transport running force may not have seen the same activity as on the bike.  It should take care of itself after a while.  I didn't do squat before I started running but it took me two years to weed out the creaks, pings and pangs.

        I'm running about 12 miles per week right now.  The average length of my run is about 3 miles but they can go up to 6.  Sometimes my knees feel tight or  "there" the day after a run.  They don't hurt, I am just aware of them, at the least.  But, this doesn't always happen.

         

        Does this have something to do with my stride?

        Spin Chick:

         

        Hope you really weren't fed up (trust me, most of us were...) and hope you'd come back.

         

        Whenever any of your parts "hurts", the first and foremost thing you'd need to do is to determine, though not easy, whether or not it's the beginning of injury or growing pain.  When you're starting some activity, particularly weight bearing exercise like running, it is quite natural that some part of your body, particularly your legs, get sore.  It is not a good idea to ignore the warning sign and continue despite pain.  But, at the same time, and we seem to see this more and more, worrying too much with the growing pain and backing off too much.

         

        I'm not sure of your background but at the level of 12 miles a week is not that much at all and I would suspect you are still just a beginning stage???  I'm not sure what you mean by your knee feels "there" but knee joing is where powerful muscles in your quads come together and it gets a lot of stress.  Running is a rather unique exercise in a sense that you take 100% of your body weight completely against the gravity; whereas in cycling, your body is supported by a bike; in swimming, your body is floating in the water...  In running, you are supporting your entire body weight on one leg; and then you propel your entire body weight out in the air, which takes a lot of power; and then again, the entire body will have to be supported and held as we land on one leg.  So you can imagine how much stress your knee joint would have to take. 

         

        One of the easiest ways to identify your "soreness" or "discomfort" whether or not a blossoming injury or growing pain is to see if it eases and almost disappears as you cointinue to exercise and your body warms up; or it gets worse and become intolerance.  If it's the latter, stop running for a while.  Perhaps you continue doing something while try to strengthen your quads by doing easy squats or simple knee-extension exercise.  If former, continue running but just ease up a bit with the pace and duration.  Keep the area warm by, say, wearing some sort of leg warmer (remember "Flashdance"?) or maybe chop off the end of your long knee-high woolen sock or the arm part of old sweats.  And don't forget to ice the area after the exercise. 

         

        The more you start to run, the stronger your legs will be and you can handle a lot more volume of running you might have thought impossible at first.  The only way you can do a lot of running is by keeping the effort at a comfortable level so you won't get into breathlessness and the exercise gets stopped prematurely.  For that, alternate longer runs with shorter, easier runs.  You need to push the envelope now and then in order to get stronger (by going further) but that should follow shorter, easier run to give your body a break; but not completely taking a break.

         

        Keep close eyes on your knee issue.  If it shows the sign of "blossoming injury", back off and give your body a chance to grow and develop.

          I'm running about 12 miles per week right now.  The average length of my run is about 3 miles but they can go up to 6.  Sometimes my knees feel tight or  "there" the day after a run.  They don't hurt, I am just aware of them, at the least.  But, this doesn't always happen.

           

          Does this have something to do with my stride?

           

          Get someone to use long strokes to rub the outside of your thigh, from knee close to your hips.  When my husband does that and my IT band is tight, it's almost like a gross feeling tugging on my knee caps.  I'm wondering if some IT band stretches after your runs would help.