Pain on the Inside of my Knee

by Andrew
(New York, NY)

Okay so here is the situation, I am 23 years and I am in love with running, but ever since the beginning of July 2008 I have been unable to run do to a pain on the inside of my knee.

It just came on one day while I was running. Now I believe that the problem was due to my old shoes, I have had them for 6 to 10 months which is much longer than I should have had them.

I have been researching running pains on the inside of the knee, and they all lead to drastic injuries where the knee was twisted or bent, which mine was not.

The other thing is that for the past couple of months I have been working out on the Elliptical and doing stairs and my knee doesn't bother me at all. The Elliptical makes sense, but I run up 50 flights of stairs non-stop and my knee feels fine.

I have just purchased new shoes, don't ask me why it took me so long to buy them, and I ran on them last night. I bought a pair of Asics Gel-Kinsei 2. They felt great, a little heavy but amazing stability and cushion. I did a quick three miles and everything was fine. Later on in the evening, I started to feel a little in my knee, but no where as bad as usual.

Running Injuries

Before this I haven't tried running for close to a month. The next morning my knee was a little stiff, a little pain. I ran a mile to see if it would loosen up. It didn't seem to hurt or help my knee. So my knee feels better than it usually does after I would try to run, but it still feels stiff and a little sore.

So I was just wondering if anyone has ever heard of or had a similar injury? And if so if they had any recommendations for how to get back on the road? Thank you for your time.

Answer by Dominique:

Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your running question.
We runners can do quite a bit of damage to our legs and knees. Every time we hit the ground the impact is 2-3 times our body weight. Just repeat that a few thousand times per running training, three to six times a week and it is clear that we can sometimes experience "issues".

You are right, pain on the inside of the knee is usually associated with sudden injuries, twists, snaps, pops, bends, etc and you say that is not the case for you.

Given the information you provide this very much sounds like an overuse injury due to the impact the landing of your feet on the ground has on your knees.

Your running shoes were overdue causing extra stress on the knees.
You also indicate that you have been doing work on the Elleptical trainer without any issues (logical, because there is less impact).
And stair running also causes less impact when landing, so quite possible that you were able to do that as well without problems.

It's good to see you got new shoes, that's one big step forward. And even though everything is a bit stiff and sore now, I think that is just to be expected after one month off running.

If I were you, I'd build up really slowly now. Don't go jumping back into your routine of six months ago. Give your legs, your knees, time to get used to the additional stress you are putting on them.

While you are doing that over the next few months, try to build up the muscles around your knees (quadriceps mainly) to make sure that your knees are better supported and can cope better with the stress you put on them.

If the issue persists it would be good to go see an osteopath or other medical specialist.

Must-read pages are:

increasing mileage safely

running stretches

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