Running Series: 3 Easy Tips To Relieve Anterior Knee Pain
Dealing with Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome?
What Is It?
Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) is a broad term to describe anterior knee pain. It can develop from structures of the knee or surrounding areas having too much mobility or too little mobility. Often, in cookie cutter medicine, treatments are directed at aligning your patella (kneecap) with underlying structures using bracing, taping or quadriceps strengthening. Good thing we don’t practice cookie cutter medicine!
Think of your patella as the train and your femur (thigh bone) as the train tracks. If the train is moving on the tracks, everything is good, right? But what happens if the train tips off the tracks?
Struggling With Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome?
What is it?
Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) is a broad term to describe anterior knee pain. It can develop from structures of the knee or surrounding areas having too much mobility or too little mobility. Often, in cookie cutter medicine, treatments are directed at aligning your patella (kneecap) with underlying structures using bracing, taping or quadriceps strengthening. Good thing we don’t practice cookie cutter medicine!
Think of your patella as the train and your femur (thigh bone) as the train tracks. If the train is moving on the tracks, everything is good, right? But what happens if the train tips off the tracks?
The quadriceps muscle runs from the front of your hip down your thigh and courses through the patella. If certain regions of this muscle are “tight” or “weak” it can steer the train, or your patella, off the tracks causing excessive friction to structures underneath. Most athletes will compensate until they no longer can, leading to pain and/or wear and tear to the joint.
Your knee is a reactive hinge joint, meaning that it adapts to forces placed above and below it (ankle and hip). Just like a door hinge, you should be able to swing that door open and closed all day with no disruptions. While treating pain at the knee is important for reducing your symptoms and, therefore function, we also pride ourselves in addressing the joints above and below in order give you the best biomechanical advantage for reducing risk of further injury.
For example, the hip plays an important role in controlling a moment of internal rotation and adduction at the knee. The ankle/foot is responsible for dissipating ground reaction forces, however, having a high arch or low arch can allow these forces to be placed poorly over the knee joint.
Running
Running requires greater demands on the body compared to other weight-bearing activities such as walking. At the start of walking, you have both limbs in contact with the ground until the next phase where you have one limb in contact with the ground. As opposed to running, there is only one limb touching the ground, and then a period in which there is no foot contact to the ground. This is known as the floating period. Because of the nature of running, it makes it crucial for athletes to be have the best biomechanical advantage during a single leg stance.
Common mistakes in a single leg stance are a knee valgus moment which looks like the knee caves to the midline as it flexes and extends. If you have trouble controlling your knee, there can be a number of factors causing this, however a common concern is weak or poor control of the gluteal muscles.
3 Easy Exercises
Quadriceps Pin and Stretch
- Trigger points or “knots” can cause referred pain to the knee
- The quadriceps make up a big muscle group and will take TIME to create muscle tension differences while loading
- Pin the hot spot with the foam roller underneath you and bend the knee
Femoral Nerve Glide
- Prolonged bouts of overuse and pain increases neural input to the knee
- We like to start by providing nerves with blood flow, movement & space
- Place the affected knee on an elevated platform with a cushion for comfort
- Be sure to move in all 3 planes of motion for best results shown in the video below
Single Leg Romanian Deadlift
- SL RDL focuses on lower extremity stability, balance, and motor control
- It builds strength of the posterior chain
- And emphasizes a functional movement pattern – the hip hinge!
Looking For More Help?
*This is helpful information, but it is general information. This is NOT medical advice. If you already have any injury, pain, tightness, etc., please seek help from a licensed and qualified healthcare provider like us, performance physical therapy in Green Bay. A complete solution for what you’re dealing with needs to be customized to all the different factors driving your pain, and those factors will be at least slightly different for each person. These strategies may help, but they’re not likely to be a complete solution for each individual reading this now or in the future.