Runner's Knee Explained & Stretched

Runners will come into see us for regular maintenance during their training months leading up to a marathon. One of the common issues that we see in our practice is something called runner's knee. Runner's Knee is typically pain that occurs on the lateral or outside of the knee. This can be caused by the Biceps Femoris pulling the the Tibia (lower leg) into rotation. When the Tibia rotates laterally it cause the knee to become misaligned which makes the joint not function well. An imbalanced joint will lead to poor mechanics which leads to pain and faulty movement patterns.

The Biceps Femoris has an attachment on a bone called the Fibula and when this muscle tightens it pulls on the Fibula. If the Biceps Femoris is overly tight it will produce more force on the Fibula which will strain the ligaments that attach the Fibula to the Tibia. When the ligaments get strained, pain will occur, and that can be the nagging pain the lateral part of the knee.

So how do you know if your Biceps Femoris is tight causing lateral knee pain? A simple assessment which is in the video below will help you. If it is the case that you have a lateral rotation of the tibia. Stretching it will help in alleviating it along with soft tissue work on the Biceps Femoris (hamstring).

Scheduling an appointment with us will help you identify the problem so that the Correct Massage Therapy techniques can be applied during the session. After all, getting back into training and running efficiently is what you want.

Don't let Runner's Knee stop you from achieving your goals of completing your race.

Run Strong and Run Long!!!!

The video below shows how to identify tightness in your biceps femoris and how to stretch it.

Runner's Knee is something that can plague a runner and create lots of pain. What I have found in my practice is that it is usually a tibial torsion (when the tibia rotates laterally of the femur). This creates pain on the outside of the knee and is usually diagnosed as runner's knee.