How Bad Is Running For My Knees?

Knee Pain

Nov 1

Written By Ali Marty

So you want to know how bad running is for your knees. How bad is running for your knees?

We (runners) get it.

We’re sick of people telling us that running’s bad for our knees.

I’m here to tell you the answer, in short, is no. Running’s not bad for your knees.

Watch to the end of this video to find out what you need to know to make running not bad for your knees.

So if running isn’t bad for your knees then why does everyone say it?

Well it’s because they don’t know, right?

Knee pain is a super common problem in runners and people believe that pain means damage.

So they keep saying it… runners have knee pain, damage causes pain, pain is bad, so that must mean running’s bad for your knees.

Pain doesn’t always mean damage, especially if there is no traumatic thing that happened, like falling or a car accident.

Pain is a safety mechanism.

But knee pain doesn’t mean knee damage, and knee pain doesn’t mean running is bad for your knees.

The majority of runners with knee pain have it because they don’t have a balance of the 6 things that need to be balanced to run without knee pain.

If these 6 things that I’ll tell you about in just a minute aren’t coordinated and balanced then yes running could be bad for your knees.

But if you do these 6 things right you can run for years without knee problems.

So what are those 6 things?

To run without knee pain you need to focus on these 6 things:

Strength training
The training plan your following
Recovery after a run
The equipment you use
Stretching
And your diet

It’s all about how STRES’D your knees are

If any one of these 6 components are offtrack your knees aren’t going to feel great.

So no, running’s not bad for your knees, but in order for running to feel good you need to get these 6 parts right.

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Ali Marty

Hi! I’m Ali. I’ve been in the health and wellness space since graduating with a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in 2012. I worked in the typical outpatient clinic with active men and women with orthopedic injuries (shin splints, Achilles tendonitis, muscle and ligament tears, knee pain, IT Band pain, plantar fasciitis, and hip and knee arthritis until 2018 at which point I started Mobile Physical Therapy in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the past few years I’ve transitioned to helping women running runDisney races after they’ve had an injury and they want to finish strong and enjoy the rest of their runcation.

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