Before I trained yesterday I had knee pain and was feeling pretty tight and sore.It’s only some muscle tightness pulling on the connective tissue around the knee cap, but it afflicts quite a few runners.
The way I deal with runners knee pain is to make sure that I warm up enough and then do some specific muscle loosening exercises.
I use the foam rolling exercises showed you in the video clip here and some trigger point work by lying on a golf ball.
The area that has become particularly tight is my left ITB (a large area of connective tissue that runs down the outside of your thigh.Also my right VMO which is a small muscle just above the inside of your knee.
Using the golf ball to apply pressure I am able to get the muscles in the area to ‘switch off’ and relax which reduces the amount of tension in my knee, I usually do this type of workout at home on the floor whilst watching television.
So after the warm up and resistance workout my knee felt ten times better and was only a little tight the this morning.
Anyway on to today’s time trial.
We ran the first mile in 9:36 as an easy warm-up.The fast mile we completed in 8:10 and then the last cool down mile took 9:19.
Not exceptional but a steady 9 min mile pace.If we’re to get in under our two hour goal we’re going to need to match that for the full distance.
This Sunday we are doing a 9 mile as fast as possible time trial which I hope we can get close to maintaining a 9 min mile pace for.
Today was time to repeat the strength training resistance circuit that I started last week but with a couple of changes.
I increased the number of reps to 8 and the number of sets to three.
You can see exactly what I’m doing by downloading my free day by day blueprint **Click Here**
As you know I have had to change the schedule from the planned program by running on Monday rather than Sunday.So other changes this week are that I will obviously be doing mile three mile time trial tomorrow which only leaves one day (I need to rest a day before my 9 miles at the weekend) to do my other strength resistance circuit and the 60 min non running interval.
So Friday will become a hybrid workout of the two.
Well I was supposed to do the resistance training strength circuit today but quite honestly my legs (more accurately my knees) felt like they were going to explode today.
So I decided to take my own advice and train smart not just hard.This meant that I decided to take the day off training for the Bristol half marathon.
Instead I had an hour long trigger point session with one of my massage therapists.
If you are not familiar with trigger pointing it is a massage technique where constant pressure is applied to a ‘knotted’ muscle for about 5-20 seconds, released and then re applied.
What this does is tell the nervous system to ‘switch’ the muscles of and make them relax.
It was incredibly painful but really enjoyable at the same time.
I’m one of those really sick people that actually quite like pain when I know that the end result is I will feel better.
Any way, having messed up with the training at the weekend and having such sore legs now has meant the program has had to change again.I am 1 session behind.
Tomorrow I’ll get back on track with the strength circuit of the resistance training schedule and then Thursday it’s time for another 3 mile time trial.
I’ll make a decision by the end of the week as to whether I’m going to try and catch up with the missed session or just right it off and continue on plan.
It may come as a shock to you to find out that I have never run that far before in my life…it really shocked my wife who just assumed that in my pro rugby days we had done that sort of distance.
Well today’s weight training session got a bit messed up. I ended up running out of time and trained with one of my clients – the only problem was I ended up doing what they were doing which repeated some of the same movement patterns as I did yesterday.
Any way here it is:
AM: Weight Training Session
A1 Squats with dumbbells – to sitting on bench (2×15)
A2 DB bench press with double leg stretch (2×15)
A3 Alternating Bent over Row – db’s (2×15LR)
B1 Walking Lunges with knee up and skip (2×10LR)
B2 Lat Pulldown – wide overhand (2×15)
B3 Push Press – barbell (2×15)
C Biceps rope curl – drop set (10,10,10)
D Triceps rope press down – drop set (10,10,10)
Ab circuit
E1 Supine 90 crunch with medicine ball (20)
E2 Squirms (20,20)
E3 Reverse Crunch (10)
PM: 45 minutes run
Steady paced run – training my wife to run a half marathon (it’s the longest she’s ever run for today…I’m very proud of her).
So not an ideal day of training but I made it work for me. It takes me back to my first rule of training – being consistent.
It’s been 10 years at the end of the month since I quit professional rugby and I have a desire to get back and play this September (all be it at an amateur rugby level……I’m getting on a bit!!)
I’ll be adding some of the above exercises to my weight training technique website that is undergoing some beta testing at the moment.
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At any one time something like 30% of runners are injured.That is quite an amazing statistic and was presented to me by world leading running coach (and POSE method inventor) Nicholas Romanov.
What causes this problem is a number of issues and too large (probably a whole books worth) an issue to discuss here.
Hands up if you run and have suffered from knee pain at some time or another!!
Don’t worry you are not on your own as I alluded to above, many people who are runners struggle with injury’s that stop them running or competing at some point.
What that means is that you are not able to do what you love or need to do (especially if you’re training for an event)!!
Most people tell themselves they’re just being ‘whimps’ and run through it.Other people don’t develop problems for a long time, but believe me when I tell you, if you don’t have the right amount of hip extension you will definitely develop some form of injury…at some point!!
Hip extension is essential for good running mechanics.
If you are not sure what hip extension is then stand up, with your feet together.Lift one foot off the floor and with a straight (or bent) knee push that foot back so that your thigh moves backwards…that’s hip extension.
If you don’t have enough hip extension then you’ll have to compensate for it some where else in the body (usually the low back, but that’s for another day).
With this lack of hip extension you are more likely to over use the muscles around the knee and this is where the problem lies.
When you start to overuse any muscles you put the body in a position where it changes the balance.Joints need balance between the muscles in order to make sure that they stay in the right alignment and no undue ‘stresses’ are placed into the joint.
I work in a busy sports injuries clinic (www.kineticfitness.co.uk) and I would have to say that the physiotherapists I work with tell me that in 90% of cases knee pain, that people report, has nothing to do with any degenerative problems around the ligaments, tendons or cartilage.
Most of these ‘presenting’ knee pain patients are actually people who have massively got their muscle balance out of kilter.
So what can you do about it?
Apart from following a corrective exercise plan, one of the first things we have these people work on is increasing their hip extension range of movement.
I know, you hate stretching!!
That’s because human beings tend to gravitate towards the things they like doing most and avoid the things they like doing least.
If you don’t stretch it’s probably because you find stretching hard and painful.Well unfortunately you are the type of people who need to do more of it.
So the key is to put the muscles like the quadriceps and hip flexors in a position that will maximally get them to stretch and relax.
This is my absolute favourite hip flexor stretch and an essential for all runners to do.
One of the first things I got her to do was this exact stretch.She now does this on a daily basis; in fact she should be doing it at least twice a day.That’s because she works all day sat at a desk.
This means that not only have her muscles adapted to the lack of flexibility at her hip, but she gets the double whammy of making them tight and short all day long at work.
You don’t need to do this stretch for hours on end simply complete it a couple of times a day to really get the muscles up the front of the leg relaxed and lengthened.You should start to feel some of the pressure and tension in the knee releasing the more you do it.
This obviously is not a panacea for knee pain but is definitely one of the easiest and simplest places to start.
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