A Runners Guide for Healthy Knees
Over my years of training, I have done 100’s of hours of 1 on 1 training with runners who are dealing with 1 thing. Knee pain.
This has lead me to write this article. To create a simple guide that when understood and followed consistently can help the average runner to a long and healthy career of running.
The first thing that needs to be understood is just how important resistance training is in the runners training lifecycle.
Every single sport and exercise is built out of movement patterns. A movement pattern can either be “good” and performed with integrity using the correct muscular contractions, or it can be “bad”, meaning the movement is performed using incorrect muscular contractions. Everyone has seen a person do push ups where their elbows flare out, and their hips lag behind when they press back up. These patterns become more deeply entrenched every single time you repeat them.
The problem with Running is that a single pattern is repeated hundreds, maybe even thousands of times more than other sports on each run.
Therefore, if a runner has bad movement patterns, their body is going to repeat and entrench those movement patterns far more than other athletes.
Example: Weak Abductors and Hips
These are professional runners who have perpetuated a pattern of knee collapse and hip rotation while running. This will lead to eventual breakdown of their knees, hips, and ankles.
AS I said before, running potentially involves thousands of impacts between your foot and the ground.
Every single time your foot strikes the ground while running force is transferred up through your knee. The only thing mitigating this impact force breaking down your ligaments and connective tissue is MUSCLE. Unfortunately, if a mid to long distance runner does not incorporate resistance training into their programs, their body will actually work to make their muscle mass as small as possible in an attempt to make the body require as little oxygen as possible during long bouts of running. While this does help increase endurance, It severely reduces the muscle mass that is available to reduce impact force on their knees.
Don’t worry, there is a solution. Don’t get tied up in ONLY running. Lift Weights.
I know runners can be some of the most die hard athletes about their sport. Even many “casual” runners live and die by getting their daily run in. Simply adding 2 days of resistance training to your routine can strengthen the muscles around the knee and counteract the hormones that cause muscular atrophy. A review of studies done by the Sports Medicine Journal found that even in experienced runners, running economy can be improved up to 8% when resistance training is added to their programming (Jung 2003). This means better, faster, healthier runs.
This is a full written program that when followed with correct form will help maintain healthy knees as a runner
A few additional notes:
Everything on here must be done with CORRECT form. I have seen plenty of good athletes think that they had their squat form down, or they are deadlifting correctly and in reality they are just building those same terrible movement patterns.
My best suggestion for how to avoid this is to learn with an expert. Hire a strength coach or personal trainer who is going to teach you the ins and outs of every single movement. It really is worth it.
If you are totally unable to learn from a strength coach, try and find a lifting partner who has a LOT of experience lifting weights. Also, do your own research! There are plenty of amazing tutorials on each one of these lifts on youtube. One big thing that I always think of when I am lifting weights is FIND SOMETHING THAT YOU DID WRONG WITH EVERY SINGLE SET. Absolutely no one does every single lift perfectly 100% of the time. So, find something that you can improve and focus on it, EVERY SINGLE SET.
This program is very similar to the individualized programs that we write our online clients. If you find this helpful but want to take an even more individualized approach to your training, as well as have FULL access to a knowledgeable personal trainer- try clicking the link below!
CITATIONS:
Snyder, Kelli R., et al. “Resistance Training Is Accompanied by Increases in Hip Strength and Changes in Lower Extremity Biomechanics during Running.” Clinical Biomechanics, vol. 24, no. 1, 2009, pp. 26–34., doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2008.09.009.
Jung, A.P. Sports Med (2003) 33: 539. https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200333070-00005