How to Get Rid of Knee Pain | Runner’s Guide

Having a chronic injury doesn't mean you have to stop running altogether. It does require you to listen to your body and train smarter. Check out coach Brad's top 3 tips to manage an ongoing knee injury from his personal experience.

[emmamcguire]

I know I’m a little behind, but I’m incredibly encouraged by this video. I’m a brand new runner, it started by joining a “run your way to a 5k” challenge. And just has grown into such a love for running. It gives me such an incredible outlet from the stress of day to day life. It has truly make me so upset to stop running due to my knee pain, but after watching this video I feel empowered to continue my running journey by letting my knee heal and allowing the muscles around it to strengthen and grow. Thank you so much for this video.

[mjaybash]

Great video! I had a torn meniscus a few years ago, plus osteoarthritis in my right knee. I agree that “no pain, no gain” is NOT a healthy mantra when you’re trying to enjoy running with bad knees. Learned that lesson the hard way.

[Damian.Williams]

I had knee pain while running(suffered with knee pain since my 30's)...then I changed to fore foot running and incorporated "knees over toe's" training he's on YouTube... now I have no pain and I mean no pain...

[marksoutofzen]

As a new runner I was wearing bog standard trainers not even thinking how important the footwear is. My left knee and lower back was hurting but I just got on with it for weeks after. I now have bought a pair of New Balance Fresh Foam 1080 V13 and they are an absolute game changer. This is so important to invest in some real running shoes designed to protect your joints from the pounding of running long distances.

[dougmartin]

This is so perfect. Confirms and agrees with all that I have put together, since my knee injury a couple months ago. Training on a downhill 8 mile stretch, for a downhill marathon 4 months from now, I pushed too hard and felt what was like an ice pick jammed into the back of one knee. Obvious treatment was to stop and let heal. But with no blood to cartilage, the best treatment was to get fluids circulating in there, absorbing all of the collagen, turmeric, glucosamine, etc, etc, that I added to my diet. And to do so gently without shock. So rowing and cycling were added in place of easy runs. Taping, bracing, and compression tights with extra knee support helped also. All this focus enabled me to compete a half marathon only two weeks later. Not my fastest time, but its completion at all was a huge victory. Knee feels great now. And it will be very gradual increases in downhill tests that lead to what I hope is an awesome downhill marathon result.

[JasonFarrell]

Timely video. I just took my 1st full week off running in 6months due to metatarsalgia foot pain after a long 16mi run. The pain had risen to a 5/10 lasting for 3 days, but was mostly gone by day 6, so I was able to put in a shorter and slower long run today. Sometimes it's hard to know the difference between pushing through soreness and pushing through pain, but your 4 to 5/10 rule is clear. Thanks.

[TimelapseWTO]

I agree I hurt my knee to the point where I could barely bend it and I ran a mile at my fastest even though it hurt really bad and it hasn't hurt anymore since

[halosunnah]

i never over did my jogging, never too far never too fast. i trained to jog with my forefoot or midfoot. i incorporated mobility training, strength training, warm up & cool down, massage and all. but i still injured my knee. now i rest and also am sad because i thought i found a hobby. it's sad cause i want to run marathon one day, but I'm injured because of jogging.

[dontbanmebrodontbanme]

I've been lucky when it comes to running and knee pain (or any type of pain, actually)...until I finally wasn't. At 37, my knees were finally complaining from heavy squatting, so I stopped that and started deadlifting more. As I got older, however, I realized all of the extra muscle I was carrying around was actually too much and I started running. I run typically 4.3 miles during the week and usually 5 or 6.22 (to get that 10K) on the weekends. I run 3 or 4 times a week. I'll sometimes push myself further and I've done up to 10 miles, but always on the weekends. I LOVE the fact that I can drink a little beer, drink a little wine and still keep my belly flat in my 50s. And then, my luck ran out!

I needed an appendectomy and was told not to do anything for six weeks. I walked 3 miles the very next day and my doctor (and my wife!) scolded me. Ok, fine, don't do ANYTHING! Of course, I put on weight in that timeframe. The moment I got the "ok" to start running again, I tried to get right back into my routine. Coming back from a 10K, I started noticing left knee pain, something I've never had. Very quickly, the pain got bad enough that I just assumed I'm too old to run and I stopped. I finally decided to get an x-ray to see if my cartilage was worn out. Luckily, my cartilage was 100% there and the doctor assured me (he's a runner himself) that that's not the issue and got me physical therapy.

I'm recovering, but still not back to 100%. Some mistakes I made:

* I didn't stretch before or after my runs - my sister repeatedly told me to do so, but as someone who never did any type of warming up ever, I just ignored doing this. I do so now.

* Getting back into it slowly - that's the hardest part. In my mind, I can still run 10 miles. In my mind, I'm still 6'1" and 195 lbs, not the 220 lbs that I've ballooned up to. When you're old, it's truly stunning how quickly the weight goes on if you're not active

While lifting weight is great for me, I don't want to put on too much muscle, because I'm too old to be walking around weighing over 200 lbs. So I limit that to once or twice a week. I know how to put on muscle if I want, even in my old age. My goal is a six pack!

[cryptotruth]

People enjoy pushing the boundaries as running. I agree we need to listen to our body and take responsibilty for our bodies, minds, spirit. Focus on what you are able to and enjoy your workout, yet push yourself. Be responsible for your body.

[alphacentauri]

I had my right knee checked out (x ray) because of persistent knee pain and the orthopedist said that my knee look great structurally so it was probably a degenerative meniscus injury. My next course of action was to commission a physical therapist to strengthen my knee while backing off from running. This really helped big time and I was able to resume running with reduced mileage. But I just came back from my vacation in the Canadian rockies and all of the uphill and downhill hiking has now aggravated my left knee! The pain is excruciating when running and my good knee is now my bad knee and while the initial bad knee is fine. WTF?

[ryanS]

I spent most my life running. Even ran cross country for my high school. Went into the military and messed up my knees when they made us so weighted jogs. Quit running and started cycling because of lower impact. Now I wish I could had learned to better manage it and not quit. But I honestly didn’t think about it. The pain was a bit much and it just discouraged me. Going to try to cross train running and cycling. But will start slow.

[samanthajane]

I've been running for 3 months and have just started getting knee pain 🙃 I really enjoy running and don't want to give it up just yet. Hoping the physio can help!

[claudio]

Amazing video full of great tips! You've hit every implementation I've added to my daily training and daily life since I started suffering from arthrosis and arthritis on my right knee and my left ankle due to injuries and surgeries (6 in 3 years) when I was a rugby player. I was a neutral runner but to deal with the pain I became a pronator and the adding of yoga, bike and downgrading a bit the size of my legs (them were really excessively big) saved me and I managed to run up to almost 50k (I do it once monthly) and I have better and faster runs now i'm 42 compared to when I was 25.

[sarahk]

Thank you so much I have this problem and it just won't go away and this was really helpful

[nateiowa]

Thank you for this. 99% sure I’m having a medial meniscus issue. Seeing a physio tomorrow but have been really discouraged. Hopefully I can keep running but smarter this time. Thanks again!

[frbrable]

This video is encouraging. I injured my medial meniscus a few months ago and have been struggling to stay active without flaring it up. I'm only in my mid-40s and want to stay active! I also have an injury that can not really be "fixed" with surgery; it would be more of a "clean-up" (debridement) surgery, which I don't want to do at this time.

[Jeckenstein]

I’m going to add this info into my training. Thank you.

[PeterGaul-fu]

Really useful and easing the worry of not being able to do as much as I did. Thank you.

[davidshimp]

Thanks for the great video! It's encouraging to hear your story with balancing running with a meniscus tear. I couldn't run for 9 years because of a torn meniscus (didn't know that's what it was until recently), even with lots of careful physio and cross training. My surgeon was confident it could be repaired with good chance of recovery, so I went ahead with it and stayed patient through a long, slow recovery (my meniscus was stitched together arthroscopically, not trimmed out, which apparently is a faster recovery but with higher chance of long-term damage/osteoarthritis). I have been carefully cross training and increasing mileage for the last 1.5 years, and I've been able to do 2 5k races and run 10 miles/week consistently without much discomfort. Your reminder to cross train, not push limits unnecessarily, and stretch and strengthen is very timely. I need to be careful these days to keep up with all of that and not get ahead of myself! So thankful to be running again! I loved hearing that there seem to be long-term benefits to running (wisely) with a torn meniscus.