Very recently, there was an interesting article in The Guardian on ‘runners knee’ and knee pain.  The link is here.  The article contains some great information.  But we feel where is does fall short is not mentioning how critical it is for the landing hip to work (not just your gluts) and how essential it is for the foot to be able to sustain the mass of your landing.   With knee pain, sometimes the last place you need to look at is the knee.  So many other factors can affect the knee.

Knee pain is certainly not just about ‘pronation’ or the ‘rolling in’ of your foot.  If you have a high arched foot your knee takes more hit as you are unable to react to the ground well.  Sometimes people need to pronate more!  Gary Gray from the Gray Institute coined the phrase ‘Everything changes when your foot hits the floor’ and he is so correct!  You also need to assess what happens to the ‘back leg or trailing hip.  If your left hip does not extend fully – the knee of your right leg will have to work harder.

I think it is critical to appreciate that everything is connected in our bodies.  How one area not working may or may not increase the load onto another and make the body compensate.    Then knee is stuck between your hip and your foot.  It is more likely that one of these is not working well and the knee pain is only the symptom.

Then the rehabilitation must then target the areas that are not working, rather than just the symptomatic areas.

If you are concerned about your running or indeed are suffering, make an appointment to come and see one of our great osteopaths.

Blog post by James Dodd