Rosie asked the Guru about her knee pain while training for a half marathon
- Related Injuries: Knees, Quads & Hamstrings, Running
July 24, 2014
I’ve recently started training for a 1/2 marathon in Oct. I have been running gently but consistently for a while but upped my frequency & length of runs recently and have developed pain down the right hand side of my right knee so it now hurts to walk.
What exercises can I do to strengthen the muscles around my knee to alleviate the pain?
Thanks.
Customer
July 24, 2014
Ah ha – the outside.
Sounds suspiciously like an ITB issue and at about the right time in your training too.
Your ITB is a band of tissue that runs from your hip to the outside of your knee. If you loose control of what your do with hip when running, then this band of tissue flicks across the outer boney bit of your knee and becomes irritated. So whenever you move your knee the irritated tissue runs against the outer boney bit of your knee.
Some people get relief by rolling the outer thigh on a foam roller. Changing your stride length (shorter) will also help – but not immediately.
What’s really important is that you get functional control (ie running) of your gluts. When you land on your right leg, you let your left hip drop down. This causes your right thigh to roll in and flicks your ITB over the boney bit in our knee.
You need you glut med to have better control and endurance – not necessarily strength.
Drop your training down, focus on some good glut med exercises and then get back out there.
You’ve got loads of time.
The Guru
Six Physio
