Hello again fellow exercise enthusiasts!
We are back again with another set of tips to help you prevent a quite common injury associated with running.
Runner’s knee aka IT Band Syndrome are a series of conditions depicted by pain on the outside of the knee at the joint line or just below the joint line. Pain is felt especially during wight bearing knee bending.
Causes
Insufficient recovery and relief of hip muscles post run
weakness of the stabilizing abductors of the hips
malalignment of the hips or overly pronated feet (collapsing arch).
Management
Take a long look in the mirror and ask yourself if you are giving your body enough rest for where you are in your running progression. For those of us that love to run its difficult to rest when we feel we are in a groove and are seeing progress. However, your body is great at healing itself if it has the opportunity. Foam roll and stretch the top of the outer hip, quads, and glutes and TAKE A COUPLE DAYS OFF!!!
The gluteus medius and the TFL are both the main abductors of the hip and both are attached to the IT Band. Running requires a lot of stabilization from the hip! So if the muscles that are attempting to stabilize the hip during an extremely repetitive motion (like distance running) are weak then they will eventually tighten up under the stress and cause excessive pulling on the attached IT band along with several other associated issues. Side lying and standing band abductions along with banded side shuffles are great for developing strength and stability in these vital and often underdeveloped muscles.
There is a possibility you may have overly pronated feet due to insufficient strength of the most important muscles controlling your medial arch. Collapsed arches place your ankles in a everted position and in turn that travels up to the knee, placing it in a varus position, thus causing excessive force to the outside of the knee over time and repetition. Primarily we would like to see increased strength in the posterior tibialis, flexor digitorum longus, and flexor hallucis longus to support the arch and ultimately reduce stress on your knee. This can easily be accomplished with a variety of single leg exercises. You may also consider getting fitted for custom orthotics in congruence with your ankle strength and stability exercises.
Contact us for an evaluation or treatment / rehab session!
The Limitless Therapy Services Team
702.448.3360
Comments