Hey everyone! I need some serious from-the-heart advice. Basically, I LOVE running because of how it makes me feel and manage my weight, and I think I overdid it. I’ve been running since last October and have finally made it to the six mile mark. But my knee! During my last run, I overstrained my knee or something, and now it hurts everytime I bend and extend my leg.
This bums me out because I RELY on running as an emotional coping tool, and also to keep my weight low.
But due to the pain, now I’m worried I am being forced into rest. And this makes me very nervous and even panicky, because I love running so much, for the reasons that I mentioned above…
What should I do? Should I rest until the pain goes away? Just do light runs? Is there another type of exercise that can do what running does for me? I get really tweaky when I don’t have a lot of cardio and running just seemed PERFECT…the thought that I may not be able to do it for a few days (can’t fathom going weeks without it) really bothers me.
Advice? I want to continue running, but I’m tired of the pain too…
What can I do? :-(
Comments
Whenever I have a slight pain [either in my knees, heels, or ankles] i just take a few days off and baby the injury. Try arnica, turmeric if it’s inflamed, and get lots of healthy food! Try yoga just to keep moving and stretch stuff nicely..
Feel badly. I tried to reply about an hour ago and after a long typing, the website crashed. In a nutshell—look to today’s post in raw athlete thread on shoes. I’ve been a PT for 22 years and you need to ice, MOTH. Grab that bag of frozen peas or frozen corn—place one atop the knee and one below, wrap it in a pillowcase and stick it high up on the wall while you sip an anti-inflammatory smoothie of pineapple, mango or papaya.You can also take sub-lingual arnica or rub arnica gel on the knee (not over an open wound). make sure when you increase your mileage you do so by no more than 10% per week. Remember the shoe thread posted today—good info. If it makes you feel any better, I was told after running a too vigorous 1/2 marathon that I would not be able to continue to my marathon goal—ong story of stress fractured pelvis and LOTS of good Physical Therapists around me—I went to spinning and completed almost all of my training on the bike and in the water. I returned to my team when they were at 18 mile runsmuch slower and very careful, but I busted out a 4 :15 marathon 2 months after a supposed “never run again” injury. You will rturn also, but the body MUST heal. Ice 3x/day, arnica 2-3x/day and if it’s no better in3 days, get thyself to the orthopedic physician to rule out any internal derangement in the knee. You don’t have to take the meds or the advice if you don’t like it, but you’ll find your way by sticking by your passions—your raw food. You will find painfree ways to move temporarily while you heal—then we learn from our mistakes so it doesn’t happen again—build up slower with the best shoes and inserts you can afford,evaluated by a descent running shoe store.
When I went raw I started running and went way too fast into training (from 2-14 miles in 4 months) which caused me to pull my upper hamstring. I could not walk for a while without pain. I do know how you feel and the sad part is all it takes is a twist of the ankle or something so stupid to cause a major injury. I took it easy, did what I could, mega dosed MSM and other supplements and, let my body heal on its own. Everyone that knew me said “wow you should definitely go to the doctor”. I would take it very easy until you feel 90% better. Also, know that your body does not need as many calories as it did when you were running. I agree with mango women about yoga. That’s what helped me recover as well. You’ll be okay, think positive! Keep us updated! :)
A few of suggestions…
Happy working out…
I’ve been a runner for most of my life and can tell you it’s time to rest and YES, take time off. Every so often I injure my knees and they swell a little and even hurt when I walk, however, this subsides with a little rest, ace bandages and ice. Provided you did not do anything horrible (only you would know) just lay off for a few days at least. If you do not take it easy, you will only aggrivate your situation and then you’ll really be down for the count.
I was a runner for years and suddenly developed knee pain after a trip abroad. I hadn’t been running during the trip and found it odd. Anyway, I finally went to the orthopedist and then had an MRI. Turned out I had a torn meniscus. I highly recommend you get checked out by a medical professional before you continue running so that you know what’s really going on.
Time off is definitely needed. I once broke my knee cap (unrelated to running) and found that the absolute best way to help rebuild it was bicycling. But what you need now is rest and ice.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! I took two days off (I still did the elliptical and yoga) and tried to run on the third day, but a mile into the run my knee was pinging and aching again. :-(
So I guess I returned too soon…drat…I guess I’ll try again in a few days and just keep working out in different ways until then.
time off… then bike! running is too hard on my knees, and i’m young. anyway, i love to swim/bike for that reason.
I think reflexology can also help. I’ve had bad knees for years, all started because I used to run several miles a day on hard ground, and I had to stop in the end. Since then some awful injuries have happened to my knees and they were getting in a terrible state. Raw food certainly has helped a lot, so the more you can be 100% raw the better. But recently I got introduced to reflexology which you can learn to do to yourself once you find the right points to press, and I’ve been really pleased with the state of my knees because of it. And before you go back to running on ground it’s best to start running on a trampoline first for a while. Then when you feel your quadraceps are strong, only run on soft grassy ground or sand, not on hard ground ever.
Hey guys, just an update…
Well, my knee was pretty sore all day from running yesterday, so I ICED IT for about fifteen minutes, and it worked like a charm! Feels okay right now, actually. I’ve also been taking MSM and eating lots of pineapple.
Does anyone know where I can get some arnica and what it is, exactly?
I injured my knee doing bellydance a year ago even with taking time off it didn’t heal completely. However, now I’m noticing improvements with mega doses of msm combined with bikram yoga. The heat really helps you heal injuries and increase blood flow to the area. I’ve only done 4 classes so far and it seems to be helping.
Don’t forget to take vit c with the msm.
What part of the knee is it that gets injured anyways? Is it the cartilage, the tendons, muscles, or what?
The part the usually hurts is the very upper tip of the kneecap.
arnica is a homeopathic. it is a plant/herb with wonderful antiinflammatory properties. it resolves bruising as well, and is used for muscle aches and joint aches. It comes in a cream as well as a gel and is sold at Whole Foods or Vitaminshoppe and any health food store. I prefer the gel—it works better. You can also take it in pill form sublingually (under the tongue) for more systemic problems—like the whole body aches of the flu.