Knee Hurts After Running Treatment
Hey Runner!
How frustrating, your knee pain is all over the place! The pain isn’t as bad… but it doesn’t seem to go away. Some days it feels fine and other days it really hurts. This article will tell you exactly what to do now to get rid of the knee pain and help you get past this unpredictable pain.
In this stage your pain is all over the place. It's not as high as the pain levels as often as in stage 1 but the pain is so unpredictable. Some days you have little to no pain, other days are really bad and you don't know why. You're running... Kinda. Some days you run and it's fine, other days you run and it Sucks. It's all over the place.
Stage 2 - Unpredictable pain
This looks like:
pain is not ongoing
there are times when it's better
pain is unpredictable
Some days lots of pain
Some days little to no pain
What Works Best To Get Rid of Knee Pain from Running?
At this stage of the game you’re still working more on pain relief and anti-inflammatory things than anything else.
Since you still have pain that comes and goes your knee keeps getting aggravated. And since the pain is unpredictable it’s most likely that you still have inflammation in your knee… or in your body.
Do I Need To Go To The Doctor for My Knee Pain?
The good news is that you can work on this at home and likely don’t need to see a doctor right now. Always use your best judgment for when you need to go see a doctor.
Right now you’re frustrated because you’re attempting to run and workout but some days it feels good and other days it really hurts and it’s so unpredictable.
Other people are telling you to just rest because you’re making your knee worse every time you go out and run.
Does Running Make Knee Pain Worse?
And it’s not that you’re making your knee worse, but every time it flares up and you don’t do anything about it makes the problem last longer and longer.
And just because you have pain doesn’t mean you’re doing damage to your knee… but pain is your body’s way of telling you that what you’re doing is either too much of something or not enough or something else.
What does that mean you ask?
It means that you could be running too much at this point… or you could be too little recovery from the run and that’s why it hurts so much later.
So in this post you’ll find what to do now so your knee feels better and you can run.
Anti-Inflammatory for Knee Pain from Running
As mentioned before your main focus at this point should be mostly pain relief/anti-inflammatory which falls under the category of recovery techniques so let’s start there.
But, before we do that this first recommendation doesn’t really fall into any category so I’m going to make a point here first:
The First Step Is Notice When Your Knee Hurts
Start taking notes of when your knee doesn’t feel good.
Taking notes will help you notice patterns.
Maybe your knee feels good after a run on Monday but it hurts after a run on Tuesday. So you skip Wednesday and it feels good on Thursday again and like crap on Friday again… maybe the pattern for you is you can’t run 2 days in a row right now.
There’s no way to tell what your knee needs without recognizing patterns.
So the first step is to take notes in your phone, paper & pen, texting someone, making an excel spreadsheet… however works for you… start jotting down when it doesn’t feel good.
Make sure the notes include when it happened and what you were doing when you had the pain.
What Should I Do After Each Run For My Knee?
There are many techniques you could be doing after every run to feel better, so try them all and see what works for you.
Here’s some options:
Ice
Heat
Epsom Salt Bath
Foam Rolling
Massage Gun
Massage
Does Ice Help Knee Pain?
Yes!
When you have unpredictable pain that gets flared up ice can be very helpful. Make sure to use ice the right way…
Ice for 20 minutes at a time. 15 minutes is too short. 30 minutes or more has the same effect as using it for 20 minutes.
At this stage you don’t need to ice as often as you do in stage 1… but you should ice every time it’s flared up AND every time you do something that COULD flare it up, and then again before bed.
So ice 20 minutes at a time
Every time it hurts
Every time you do something that could make it hurt
Then again before bed
Does Heat Help Knee Pain?
Heat can be very helpful for people with knee pain.
If you notice your knee hurts when you’ve been sitting, standing, when you just wake up or overall are stationary for too long heat helps warm up muscles and joints to make them feel good.
If you like heat… Heat for 20 minutes at a time. Use heat any time your knee hurts and then use it again before bed.
Want a Moist Heating pad or Electric Heating Pad?
Does Epsom Salt Help After a Run?
Epsom salt is one of the most helpful things to use after a run to help your muscles and joints, like your knees, recover from a run.
Taking a hot epsom salt bath for 30 minutes in the evening after a long or intense run or other workout helps your body recover faster than if you didn’t take the epsom salt bath.
The salts help your muscles and joints recover faster than just no bath, or just a regular bath with just hot water.
Best Epsom Salts for Bath
Is Foam Rolling Good for Knee Pain?
Foam rolling helps knee pain that is caused by sensitive muscles, ligaments and tendons. Most runners foam roll their IT bands after a run.
The thing about foam rolling is it can help roll out muscle knots in the muscles around the knee like the quads, hamstrings, calves, and other muscles like the glutes and piriformis. For more about what foam rolling does and doesn’t do check out this blog post.
Foam rolling also helps prevent tightness and stiffness and gives a massage to these muscles which can help you move better overall so foam rolling is a good thing to do as a habit after a run.
Foam roll all major muscle groups plus your IT Band
Quads
Hamstrings
Piriformis
Calves
Glutes
IT Band
Foam roll each area for 30 seconds or so immediately after stretching after your run.
Link to blog post about foam rolling
Here’s an excellent Foam Roller
Does A Massage Gun Help?
A massage gun helps loosen up muscle knots in tight and tense muscles especially after a strenuous run or workout.
This is a quick way to work out muscle knots at home yourself without making your way to see a massage therapist. Though it should not completely replace a massage therapist, you should still see someone to really get the benefit. The massage gun will be what you do in the in-between when you’re in between appointments.
Use a massage gun on all major muscle groups in your body (upper and lower) plus your IT Band
Quads
Hamstrings
Piriformis
Glutes
Calves
Pecs
Triceps
Biceps
Upper traps
Bottom of the feet
IT Band
Use the massage gun for 30 seconds on each area immediately after stretching after your run.
For an excellent and quiet massage gun go here
Does Massage Help Knee Pain?
Getting regular massages when you’re dealing with pain and in general when you’re a runner is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
When you get regular massages you can work out tight muscle knots to decrease tightness, tension, soreness and pain caused by those tight muscles.
When you are in stage 2 of your pain journey let your massage therapist know that you’re battling some pain right now so they can vary their pressure to make you feel better… not worse.
At this point massage for 60-90 minutes 1x/week is beneficial until you move to the next stage of the pain journey.
Full list of massage and techniques for knee pain
So those are the recovery techniques to work on when your pain is up and down and kinda all over the place. Here they are again:
Heat (Moist Heat or Electric Heating Pad)
Massage
Note that these are helpful… but to really move to the next stage of the pain journey and have stable pain levels it’s really important to know what flares up your pain. So take those notes when your knee hurts so you know what’s flaring it up.
OK but what else can you do to stay in shape while your knee is still not feeling great?
You need to keep working on all components of your running routine so you can continue to make progress so that includes strength training, continuing your cardio, stretching and eating right, and also all those things that you would use for your recovery make sure they are good quality equipment so they get the job done.
Strength Training When Your Knee Hurts
Typically do strength exercises for other parts of your body: like upper body, core, hips and ankles.
To get a routine customized for your needs get evaluated by your physical therapist.
Some good strength exercises to focus on with a hurt knee may include:
Biceps curls
OH press
Rows
Chest press
Triceps extension
Russian twist
Dying bug arms
4 way SLR
3 way Heel Raise
You still should hold off on strength exercises directly at the muscles for the knee.
Things like squats, leg press and lunges… it’s not that doing these strength exercises will flare up your knee… it’s just that these exercises are putting direct stress on an already angry knee. So until you know what flares it up and it’s predictable and stable (stage 3) hold off on them for now.
Should I Run Through Knee Pain?
At this point running may or may not be flaring up your knee.
You want to avoid the things that flare it up. So if that’s running, then skip it for now and do other cardio exercises. And since in Stage 2 you don’t know what flares it up… then yes skip running for now.
Opt for cardio like:
Walking
Cycling
Swimming
Elliptical
Rowing
Strength routine w/ high reps, low wt, no rest
What Stretches Are Good For Knee Pain?
At this point stretches could be flaring up your knee for many reasons: doing the wrong stretches, doing the stretches incorrectly, forcing a stretch, holding a stretch too long… and since in this stage you don’t know what flares up your knee aim for gentle movements as opposed to formal static stretches.
Things like:
Heel slide
Prone ham curl
Butt kicks
Gastroc
Soleus
LTR
Active hamstring stretch
Are helpful at this point. You do the motion of the stretch but you come right out of it and are doing the motions very gently and testing the waters.
Eating to Heal Your Knee
Right now continue eating a good, balanced diet of protein, fat and carbs. Protein will lay the building blocks for muscles and repair injured spots. Carbs will give you energy to do your other workouts and fats will keep your energy up throughout the day after a workout and keep you mentally sharp.
Skip things like refined sugar and processed foods. These types of foods increase inflammation. So since you’re still battling unpredictable pain at this time you still have some inflammation and if you feed the inflammation sugar and processed foods your pain and inflammation will continue longer and keep you in this stage.
Eat things like
30g protein at every meal
Meat
Plant based proteins
Add collagen powder to coffee in AM
Good fats
Avocado
EVOO
Raw nuts and seeds
Whole grains & Fruits & Vegetables as your carbs
Berries
Carrots
Bell peppers
Whole grain breads
There you have it. At this point since your knee pain is so unpredictable, focus on taking notes when your knee hurts so you can start noticing patterns. And every time your knee hurts or you do something that may flare it up use ice or heat, after running and working out take an epsom salt bath, foam roll, and/or use a massage gun, and schedule weekly massages right now. All these techniques help you feel better and prevent the pain and inflammation from getting worse. Try them all and do what works for you consistently. Continue to work on strengthening the rest of your body, doing other cardio, doing light stretching, and eating right.
This not the right stage for you? Do you have a lot more pain, or more often, go to this stage of knee pain.
Once you’ve moved past this stage of your knee pain learn what to do next.
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Links mentioned
Ice pack - https://amzn.to/3jJy2LQ
Heat (Moist Heat https://amzn.to/3YEZCJ6 or Electric Heating Pad https://amzn.to/3RK03j3 ) -
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Foam Rolling https://amzn.to/3YyyZ8o
Massage Gun https://amzn.to/3YBDVJY
Protein Powder https://bit.ly/410L9ZK
Collagen Powder https://bit.ly/3YqdCql
