Runner’s knee is a descriptive term for pain around the front or side of the kneecap, often experienced by runners, but also walkers and running sports people. It is very common and has a few myths surrounding it. It is nearly always due to changes in load tolerance and a reaction, rather than unhealthy or faulty structures. There are lots of structures you may have heard of like your ITB, fat pad or patella, but these things get irritated, rather than damaged or in the wrong place. So how do you treat it? Well, rest probably isn’t it. Now we could rest it, and it might feel better while you’re resting, but unfortunately when you start to run again, you’ll start to feel it again. So, what we really need to do is gradually progress your tolerance to loading so we’re able to handle the volumes or the intensities in which you’re running. More often than not, you’ll feel it more notably going downhill.

Uphill might actually feel a little bit better, and that’s actually going to reduce the load around the knee. So using strategies like that is something that we might even look into when we do start to manage this. What’s really important in the management of runner’s knee is addressing any capacity issues that we might have identified, particularly looking at your quadricep strength and your hip muscle strength. if we have identified that there might be some deficits or differences between sides, that’s what’s going to be involved in your comprehensive rehab program to try and build your capacity to be able to tolerate the running that you would like.