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Home > Conditions > Knee > Runners knee
Many athletes such as runners, jumpers, skiers, cyclists, and soccer players put heavy force on their knees. But these days you don’t need to be an athlete to experience Runner’s Knee. Several things can bring on this condition like overuse of the knee, a direct hit to the knee, your bones aren’t aligned, problems with your feet, and weak or unbalanced thigh muscles. Runner’s knee is also a term used to describe several health conditions that creates pain across the kneecap (patella). These conditions include anterior knee pain syndrome, patellofemoral malalignment, and chondromalacia patella.
The knee is a complex structure, which is very sensitive and many factors can play a role in runner’s knee, including:
Patellofemoral pain could be the consequence of irritation with the soft tissues about the knee. Strained tendons are quite common in athletes. Other predisposing factors to patellofemoral pain include overuse, muscle imbalance, and inadequate stretching. Pain that begins in another area of the body, including the back or hip, might result in knee pain (referred pain).
In many individuals with runner’s knee, the kneecap may be out of alignment. Vigorous activities, therefore, can cause excessive stress and wear around the cartilage under the kneecap. This can then lead to the softening and breaking down of the cartilage behind the patella (chondromalacia patella), hence, causing damage to the underlying bone and irritate the joint lining.
The pain of the runner’s knee can be felt either behind the kneecap itself or at the back of the knee. It may also develop after undertaking physical activity. Consequently, you may experience a grinding sensation around the kneecap area or have pain develop when walking down or upstairs, kneeling, squatting, and even sitting having a bent knee for an extended time.
To treat the runner’s knee it is important to know the exact problem triggering the pain, which is usually nonsurgical.