How Do I Run More without My Knee Hurting?
Hey Runner!
You’re feeling better and trying run farther or run faster. It’s frustrating because every time you run more your knee hurts so it’s like one step forward and two steps back.
Keep reading because you’ll learn the exact things to focus on now including
how to run farther without your knee hurting,
how to run faster without your knee hurting,
what strength exercises are best for you right now,
the best shoes for running,
the best stretches for your knee pain,
what to do after a run to decrease knee pain, and
how to fuel your body for your running routine now.
In this article you’ll find
You’ve hit a real turning point for your knee pain.
Although your pain isn't completely gone it's predictable. You know exactly what will flare up your pain.
Overall the pain levels are lower because you're avoiding the things that bug it.
You are sure how to fully get rid of the pain when it comes on.
Phew... you're running. You know which pace and distance works for you and you do that.
This looks like
Pain is low
Pain is predictable
You know exactly what flares it up
You know what calms down a flare up
At this stage of the game your knee is feeling better… but you aren’t really running the way you want to because each time you increase how much you’re running, how far you’re running, how fast you’re running, or basically if you do anything different your knee hurts. So you’re stuck in a running rut and can’t get out of it because of your knee pain.
This is a common place for runners to be at because of their knee pain.
Follow along to learn what to focus on now so you’re getting back to your running the way you want to.
Running More without Knee Pain
You’re probably thinking: I’m stuck at this distance, or I’m stuck at this pace forever because my knee hurts every time I try to run more.
See it’s not that you’re stuck at this distance or pace… it’s that every time you’ve run farther or faster you’ve done more than your knee is ready for.
It’s not that you can’t ever run more or faster… it’s that you need to increase it more slowly over time. You’ve gone too far too fast.
Instead, focus on a slow and steady increase over time…. Over lots of time.
The main focus in this stage is increasing what you’re doing in a safe way and that includes doing only one of the things below and only a little more at a time.
This could be:
Improving your pace (running faster)
Increasing your distance (running farther)
Increasing your time (running farther)
Since you know what bothers your knee and what calms it down it’s easy to predict what will flare it up. So you want to increase what you’re doing, and only increase it a little so your knee barely notices a difference. You need to follow the 10% rule for this.
The 10% rule in running helps heal knee pain while doing more running
The 10% rule is the rule in training where you increase by 10% farther, or 10% faster no more than that and only one of them at a time.
It’s important to only increase by 10% because it’s a slow and steady increase, it’s enough to start making a difference but not so much that your knee will think it’s a threat.
And only work on going farther or faster, both. Doing both at the same time is too much for your knee at this point.
How do I use the 10% rule to run more?
It’s easiest to explain how to use the 10% rule when using a treadmill for running. You can easily track your distance, time and pace. So you can go 10% farther or 10% faster with the click of a button.
Running 10% farther with knee pain
When talking about running 10% farther are you measuring time or distance?
Do you track your distance - I’m running 1 mile today?
Or do you track time - I’m running 20 minutes today?
First choose which you’re doing. And then follow these steps:
Tracking distance
When you track distance and are running farther you’ll add 10% of the distance you’ve been running.
At this point you should add 10% to each individual run, keep all runs the same distance. We’ll make a few assumptions for this to work. In this example, you’ll be running 3x/week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday), the pace that you can run without your knee hurting is 13 minutes/mile and the distance you’re comfortable running without knee pain is 2 miles at a time. So you’ve been running 2 miles on Tuesday, 2 miles on Thursday and 2 miles on Saturday.
To run farther without hurting your knee you’ll add 10% of your run to your next run.
10% of 2 miles is 0.2 miles. So 2 + 0.2 = 2.2 miles. Each run will be 2.2 miles.
So now you will run 2.2 miles Tuesday, 2.2 miles Thursday, 2.2 miles Saturday. Each run will be at a pace of 13 minutes/mile.
Tracking time
When you track time and are running farther you’ll add 10% of the time you’ve been running.
At this point you should add 10% time to each individual run, keep all runs the same length of time. We’ll make a few assumptions for this to work. In this example, you’ll be running 3x/week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday), the pace that you can run without your knee hurting is 13 minutes/mile and the length of time you’re comfortable running without knee pain is 26 minutes at a time. So you’ve been running 26 minutes on Tuesday, 26 minutes on Thursday and 2 minutes on Saturday.
To run farther without hurting your knee you’ll add 10% of the length of time of your run to your next run.
10% of 26 minutes is 2.6 minutes. So 26 + 2.6 = 28.6 then multiply the decimal by 60 because 0.6 doesn’t give you the number of seconds you’ll be running. So 0.6 = 36. So you’ll run 28 minutes and 36 seconds total. You can round this number down to 28 minutes and 30 seconds. Don’t round up because that will go beyond the 10% rule.
So now you’ll run 28 minutes 36 seconds on Tuesday, 28 minutes and 36 seconds on Thursday, and 28 minutes 36 seconds on Saturday at a pace of 13 minutes/mile.
Running 10% faster with knee pain
When you want to run faster you’ll be running at a faster pace. To go faster without hurting your knee at this point you’ll subtract 10% from your previous pace to make yourself go 10% faster. So we’ll make some assumptions to make this work. You’re currently running at 13 minutes/mile pace because you can run that without hurting your knee and you’re currently running 2 miles at a time 3 days a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
This is easiest to run faster on the treadmill because you can just click up 1 button when setting your pace. A 13 minute/mile pace is about 4.6 mph, so to go 10% faster you would hit the speed up button 1 time to make it 4.7 mph.
If you aren’t using a treadmill and you’re running outside google “treadmill pace calculator” to see how fast you can run.
Make sure to keep the same running time or distance that you’ve been running. Don’t go faster and farther at the same time.
Is Running More the Only Thing to Focus on Now?
Nope! It’s never just 1 thing… running more happens to be the primary focus right now. As always there are other components to incorporate which include
Strength training
Recover after every run
Quality equipment you’re using
Stretches you’re doing
How you’re fueling
Strength Training for Runners Getting Back Into Running
Strength training at this point you want to start to incorporate strength training for the muscles at your knees slowly.
In the first month of running farther or faster skip the knee strength exercises. This is because it’s important to only change 1 variable at a time… so for the first month focus only on running farther/faster and continue the strength training exercises you’ve been doing up until this point.
These include but aren’t limited to:
Biceps curls
OH press
Rows
Chest press
Triceps extension
Russian twist
Dying bug arms
4 way SLR
3 way Heel Raise
For these exercises add dumbbells or ankle weights to make them more challenging.
After the 1st month you can start adding in strength exercises directly at the knee. Incorporate them slowly, in a small range of motion and very few reps.
These exercises include:
Group 1
Squats
Front lunges
Knee extension
Leg press
Front step ups
Group 2
Lateral step downs
Lateral lunges
Group 3
Ham curl machine
Deadlift
Choose 1 exercise from each Group (1,2,3) to do. Perform the exercise in a small range of motion, do body weight or low weight if it’s a machine and perform 5 repetitions.
Each week add more range of motion and keep the same number of reps and keep the same number of weight. To do step ups at home use this platform.
Are Squats and Lunges Bad for My Knees?
No squats and lunges aren’t bad for your knees.
However, they do add a lot of stress to your knees, anywhere between 5-10x your bodyweight so when your knee has been hurting it’s best to choose exercises carefully.
You want to manage the amount of stress you’re putting on your knee, and in this stage of your recovery you wanted to run farther/faster. So although squats and lunges aren’t bad for your knees, if you’re adding stress in another form (in this case running farther/faster) you need to manage the amount of stress you put on your knee from other things.
What Do I Do After a Run So My Knee Doesn’t Hurt
At this stage of the game you know what bothers your knee and you know what makes it feel better. Continue with the techniques that make it feel better as you’re slowly ramping up and running farther/faster.
If you haven’t been using specific things to help your knee recover from a workout check this information here.
As a refresher these include
Heat (Moist Heat or Electric Heating Pad)
Massage
The first 5 of these techniques should be done after every run, workout, stretching routine. Massage should be done 1x/week or 1x every other week to ease into a maintenance routine.
As you move forward through the stages of knee pain and get to stage 4 all these techniques will be done in a maintenance routine.
Am I Wearing the Right Shoes For Running?
As you’re getting back into the swing of things and worrying about your knee hurting again you are wondering if you’re wearing the right shoes.
Shoes are very important in running. And not all shoes will work for each person.
It’s important to have assessments done to check if your shoes are right for you.
You can do this by taking an assessment online… many shoe companies have a questionnaire you can answer based on your feet, where you run and other things to determine what shoes would work best.
Another option is to go to your local running store and have your running gait assessed and they’ll make recommendations for you.
Neither of these options are an end-all be-all… you’ll still have to try them out and the recommendations may or may not work for you. Luckily most companies give you a trial period when you buy them from their company.
What Stretches Help Knee Pain from Running?
The next component to include in your routine is the stretching you’re doing.
This component includes your warm up, cool down and static stretching.
Warm up before you run
You’ll often hear people say you need to stretch before you run… this isn’t really true. What you DO need to do is warm up before you run.
A warm up is anything that increases your heart rate by 20%. This primes your heart and muscles to be ready for running so you aren’t going from 0 to 60 which your heart and muscles don’t like.
Warm ups before running includes
Walking
Riding a bike
Dynamic stretches
Jumping jacks
Marching in place
High knees
Butt kicks
Any combination of these
Typically it takes 5-10 minutes of these activities to increase your heart rate by 20% at which point you’re good to go and can set out and run.
Cool down is just that… cooling down from what you just did. You’ll also hear it called a warm down. They are the same thing… some people changed the name to warm down so it makes it known that you aren’t just sitting and cooling off, you’re actively doing something. The point of the cool down is to slowly decrease your heart rate from the fast-paced running speed back down to resting without going from 60 to 0 and suddenly stopping.
Cool downs from running include
Walking
Riding a bike
Dynamic stretches
Typically it takes another 5-10 minutes to get your heart rate to come back down. The quicker your heart rate comes back down from your running heart rate the better shape you’re in.
After a cool down comes the static stretches. Your heart rate at this point may not be completely at your resting rate, but it’s significantly slower than your running heart rate.
Do I Need to Stretch After A Run?
Static stretches are an important part of the running process. Without static stretching you could be putting yourself at risk for injury.
Benefits of static stretching after running
Decrease muscle knots
Improve flexibility
Decrease soreness
Should I Stretch Before or After I Run?
Stretch after a run.
The best way to describe this is to think about a rubber band.
Imagine you have two rubber bands. Place them both in the freezer for 24 hours.
Take the first rubber band out of the freezer, place it around all 5 of your fingers and immediately try to stretch it out by spreading your fingers apart. Did it go anywhere? Barely anywhere.
Now take the 2nd rubber band out of the freezer. Take it between both of your hands and rub your hands together back and forth for 60 seconds. Thenplace the rubber band over your 5 fingers again and stretch it out by spreading your fingers apart. Did it stretch farther than the 1st rubber band? Yes it did.
Our muscles have elastic fibers similar to a rubber band in them… the more warmed up the elastic fibers are the easier and more willing they are to stretch.
It’s not that stretching before a run is bad for you or you’ll get injured doing it… it’s that you aren’t really going to be doing much of anything at all… except wasting your time. Your muscles aren’t warmed up enough to make any headway on getting more flexible or stretching out muscle knots, so wait until after they’re warmed up to stretch. Plus if you stretch before your run you don’t get the benefit stretching gives you to decrease the stiffness and soreness it does when you stretch after a run.
What Stretches Are Best For Knees After a Run?
Stretch all major muscle groups in the body after a run.
Stretches include
Glutes
Piriformis
Quads
Hamstrings
Calves
Hip flexors
Feet (Plantar fascia)
Pecs
Upper traps
Middle back
Low back
Stretches should be done for 2 repetitions held for 30 seconds each time.
What Should I Eat for A Run?
What you eat and drink at this point will fuel you for your run and workouts, or it’ll contribute to continued pain and flare ups.
Eat a balanced diet of the major macros protein, fat and carbohydrates.
Before a run eat something light with each macro
Toast, peanut butter
The PB acts as protein and fat in this combo
Smoothie (spinach, blueberries, protein powder, collagen powder, banana, avocado, water)
Immediately after a run eat something light with all macros
Chocolate milk (this has all 3 all on its own)
Protein shake, banana with almond butter
Later in the day after a run eat something more substantial with all macros
Turkey sandwich with bacon and avocado
Pizza with meat and cheese on top
These are just a few examples of what to eat before and after running.
The main thing to think about when fueling for your running routine is hitting all macros and avoid refined sugars and processed foods.
At this point protein is important to fill you up, but also provides the building blocks to repair any injured spot like minor break down in muscles and any injury in your knee.
Carbohydrates give you quick energy for the run and to keep you from feeling light headed from the run.
Fats give you energy for the rest of the day and to keep your mind sharp all day.
Keep the refined sugar and processed food intake to a minimum. These types of foods and ingredients fuel inflammation, and since you’re healing your knee you don’t want to add fuel to the inflammation that’s still lingering in your knee and body.
There you have it: as you’re feeling better and fighting your knee pain as you run farther or run faster these are the exact things to focus on now including how to run farther without your knee hurting, how to run faster without your knee hurting, what strength exercises are best for you right now, the best shoes for running, the best stretches for your knee pain, what to do after a run to decrease knee pain, and how to fuel your body for your running routine now.
Did I miss something?
Comment below and tell me what you think I missed.
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