What To Do If You Experience Knee Pain While Running

Knee pain from running is a serious concern and is extremely common among runners. The knee is prone to injuries because it bears most of the body’s weight when running. Sometimes knee pain can be from a serious injury, but most of the time it is from overuse and repetitive impact and motion. If you are out running and you begin to experience intense knee pain follow these instructions.

1. Stop Running - A lot of people believe that fighting through the pain builds character. That may be true sometimes but when it comes to what causes knee pain it is not true. If you want to risk being out of commission for quite a while then yes keep running. Stop running, find a bench or somewhere to sit down and see if the knee pain subsides. If the knee pain doesn’t go away, then proceed to step 2.
2. Lay Down - Lay down on your back take all the pressure completely off of your legs and knees. You may only have a cramp from dehydration and need a few minutes to loosen up. After lying on your back for a few minutes, attempt to carefully stretch out to help release your knee pain. Give yourself a few minutes of stretching and you will likely experience knee pain relief. If the pain doesn’t subside call it a day and walk the rest of the way home or grab a cab home. If you are still dealing with inner knee pain proceed to step 3.
3. End Your Run - Take a deep breath. You are done running for the day, so either limp your way home or find another way to get home. It is not worth hurting yourself, even more, to just finish your run.
4. Ice and Elevate - Once you get home get some ice on your right knee pain, lay down on your couch or bed, and prop your leg up with some pillow. Icing and elevation will prevent you from aggravating the injury any worse than it already is.
5. Treatment - Other than ice and elevation, we recommend a pain reliever such as Tylenol or Ibuprofen to help reduce swelling. Another good option would be to get a knee brace to help support and protect your knee. The brace can also help to reduce pain and inflammation. BraceAbility offers a wide variety of knee braces for all types of knee pain.
6. Call Your Doctor - If the pain doesn’t go away, we recommend that you schedule an appointment with your doctor as soon as you possibly can. You need to find out how bad the injury is and how to proceed with rehabilitation.

Remember after a knee injury to take it easy, take breaks, or go a shorter distance until you feel less pain.  Also, make sure to stretch before and after your physical activities. Happy Running!