On Twitter, Reddit, etc people very very common post something along the lines of,
“I was building up mileage towards the end of 2018 but had to stop when my knee really started hurting after each run.”
Where they then continue to discuss their training habits.
However, the problem is there are a number of more common potential knee injuries. Below, you’ll learn how to best distinguish between them. This is important because each injury can have a slightly different cause and solution!
I’ll start with three very important notes.
- It’s always best to visit a healthcare professional to have them take a look at your body, poke around, and make a diagnosis and individualized rehab plan. But this can be a good start.
- The first thing you should do, no matter the injury, is almost always to dial back your running and rest. Recently I had a little discomfort under my left arch, possibly Plantar Fasciitis. The day after I noticed it I went for a three-mile jog and it got a tiny bit worse, so I took 3-days off and 3 more days of very easy jogging. During this time I drastically increased the amount of foam rolling and especially arch golf ball massage. The result? I was able to return to running and have had zero problems since. All it took was a week off/easy with extra self-massage!
- The cause of my above mentioned plantar fasciitis close call and the cause of so many injuries is simply doing too much training too soon. I admit that’s what happened with my plantar fasciitis scare. It occurred, no joke, the week after I added two workouts in and got a little overzealous with them.
So now, let’s get onto the knee.
There are four main injuries I’ll address, and each one depends on where it actually aches.
All you have to do is click on the location and you’ll be taken to the corresponding page for each injury that has suggestions on rehab and how to manage so you can get back to running 🙂
Where does it ache?
Bakers Cyst
ITBS
Patellar Tendonosis
Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome