Patellofemoral syndrome (runner’s knee)

It is undoubtedly the most common athlete injury of all time.

The injury can occur during running activity, through damage or wear to the cartilage of the patella. This in turn leads to pain of varying severity when bending the knees (running, walking, cycling, squatting).

Common Runner’s Knee Symptoms

  • Patellofemoral pain syndrome occurs as pain around or sometimes behind the kneecap.
  • The pain may be particularly aggravated when running downhill or walking down stairs. Sitting in one position for a long time can also cause soreness or even severe pain.

Causes of patellofemoral syndrome

Most often, runner’s knee is a result of wear and tear on the joints. The reasons may also be: weakness of the muscles of the buttocks or thighs, incorrect running technique, the desire to achieve everything in running at once, as well as unsuitable sports shoes.

Treatment for runner’s knee

First of all, you need to stop running completely for a while. You can give preference to sports in which the knees are loaded to a minimum; we recommend limiting yourself to swimming and yoga, or therapeutic gymnastics on the ground.

If there is intense pain in the knee, you can apply ice and raise your legs up, which will help you cope with the pain quite quickly.

Knee protection

Do not force running loads in the absence of proper general physical preparation;

Choose the right running shoes that suit your foot type, consult with an orthopedist – in some cases, corrective orthoses are additionally needed.

Be sure to devote time to general physical training – regular exercises to strengthen the muscles of the buttocks and thighs, accompanied by proper stretching, can prevent premature wear of the articular surfaces.

Pay attention to your running technique (consult a professional trainer), choose a knee-safe running surface, and reduce or eliminate running on concrete, tile, and asphalt surfaces. Choose elastic ground, if possible, alternate running on the stadium’s cinder tracks, the ground surface and grass. An excellent workout is running in sandy shallow water.

If you have never run before, start with walking and general physical training, gradually increasing the load.

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