šŸƒ Running - Running with bad knees

I wear those copper fit sleeves on my knees. They do help a lot. Donā€™t ask me how.
image

2 Likes

Interesting. I used to be strong in that part of my quads, but from squats which I donā€™t think my knees could handle anymore. Iā€™ll try the alternative exercises you mentioned.

Yoga will also do wonders for your thigh strength. Holding positions for extended periods of time is tough but low impact on the knees.

4 Likes

Only posting so i can find this thread easier as i want to read more about this issue in rgards to taiwan health care.

I jave gotten diagnosis from all spectrums and told everything from excercising other muscle groups to NOT straining any muscle groups to full need immediate surgery. The doctors here are a bit scattered on their opinions. The last time i had to take a tear filled uber ride 2 hours to a hospital to get emergency room help. Booked hotel till the next day the ā€œspecialistā€ was in and he said gout. I acdepted the steroid shot cause i was in level 9 pain, his needle sent me flying in pain and didt do a thing. I risked taking a few steobgb painkillers and driving home to anither hospital where he said absolutely not gout and for sure tendonitis. He suggested waiting haha.

I dobt know, i would strobgly suggest becoming very fluent in your knees issues as well as medicalterms and cutting the fat when seeing doctors.

The lain is iften real, and sometimes unreal, excercising mire may well be causing damage rather than balance. And sonetimes balance is required. in these thungs, the time and financial investment is wirth it as the risk is bed riden or lack of mobility. Seems serious enough foryou to warrant some serious consideration that pushing.may not be ideal.

I relly like swimming for this as well. Its anice easy muscle workout without the bone strain.

2 Likes

All good advice. Maybe as race dates approach, I can do a second run every week by implementing some combination of these approaches.

A 10% gradient is not easy. I used to do runs on a treadmill in which I made full use of the inclination function (0%, 5%, 10%, 15% at one minute each then starting again). Great workout.

Regarding Hokas, I really want to get a pair soon. Anything to reduce impact seems to be a good idea for anyone with bad knees.

One thing with knees and especially knee cap tracking. Be careful about strengthening other muscles around the knees. If you over strengthen the wrong muscles itā€™ll fuck up your knees even more. Chase Mountains has a lot of info on this with regards to hiking in particular.

2 Likes

[quote=ā€œmarasan, post:25, topic:210852ā€]
A 10% gradient is not easy. I used to do runs on a treadmill in which I made full use of the inclination function (0%, 5%, 10%, 15% at one minute each then starting again). Great workout.
[/quote] I actually started out doing a fast walk for about a year at 10%, then slowly started to pick up the pace to better prepare for races. When running on a treadmill itā€™s easier to watch your gait and see if your ankles are turning in or out, and easier to do interval work. But the key is to be patient and accept incremental improvement in angle and pace. Not so easy as we get older and take longer to recover from injuries, eh, @marasan?

As far as getting new running shoes goes, is there a specialty running shoe store in Taipei that has a good reputation for doing a thorough gait analysis with video? Anyway, good luck in first getting your knees healthy before you start to really crank it up.

Definitely true. Iā€™m scared of getting injured because recovery takes so long.

Iā€™ve heard of such a place years ago. I could ask a friend of where he went. Butā€¦

I just want to survive a 5k run at the end of a triathlon. Maybe around a slow 30-31 minutes at the end where the run occurs and I would happy. The plan is to get my swim and cycling back to some sort of respectable level and just hope I can hold things and not fall apart on the run!

1 Like

I know lots of barefoot running advocates. I donā€™t do trail running and on concrete it sounds like a terrible idea, but they say the extra cushiony shoes are counterproductive for your knees. Ive had three pairs of On Cloud, and while I love them, they donā€™t last very long for how expensive they are. Maybe no shoes is the answer.

1 Like

Iā€™m willing to give anything a try. But it seems to me that if running on grass for my condition is good (and it is), then shoes that give you more cushioning and not less would also be good. I did run a couple of years on minimalist shoes. That helped me feel the ground and stop my heel strike. But Iā€™m not sure about going back in that direction. Maybe I can try a couple of laps at the track barefooted this weekend and see how it feels.

I like the squishy track. Itā€™s better on my knees than riverside path. I donā€™t imagine you run on a track in a triathlon.

1 Like

No. But itā€™s only one race. As long as I head into each race with healthy knees, then they can take the pounding every now and then.

Inspect the bottoms of well worn running shoes for uneven wear patterns and make changes.
Ride a bicycle.
Strengthen with squats, stair climbing 2 stairs each step, etc.

1 Like

As a knee pain and injury guy stairs are a no no.

Just do yoga.

up stairs NOT down

If your knees are bad, why run at all? All that wear and tear does no good. Just swim and bike since they donā€™t bother your knees and do yoga like @jdsmith said to correct any imbalance, gain flexibility and heal the joints and fascia.

Have you ever tried Newton running shoes? They have lugs under the forefoot that prevent you from doing a heel strike while encouraging forefoot/midfoot running. I used to hate running because of knee pain but Newtons got me into forefoot running. It took time to build up the muscle and my Achilles but itā€™s the only way I can run long distance.

1 Like

From what I recall from yoga (been years since I did any), most quad strengthening positions are essentially a lunge / split squat type position, where youā€™re aiming for your shin to be relatively perpendicular to the ground and your thigh relatively parallel. The problem with that (also iirc) is that position in a squat is the position of highest stress in the knee when doing a squat, so if one were concerned with doing squats, holding in those positions might be a bad idea. (all that said, squats shouldnā€™t be an issue for most when done correctly).

I think this is a decent article about it. Yoga is all about finding the edge where youā€™ll encourage progress but prevent damage. It can be difficult for beginners or competitive people to reign themselves in and let time and consistency do the work though. I learned that the hard way getting back into armstands to quickly after a wrist injury.

I have bad knees. Low impact yoga has been a godsend.