Physical education and sports are one of the important aspects of a healthy lifestyle. Running training is not only common among professional athletes. Many people of different age groups run to stay fit. This is very good and useful, but, unfortunately, both professionals and amateurs encounter such a nuisance on the treadmill as knee pain. Why is this happening? How to protect your knees during training?
It's not just runners who experience increased stress on their knee joints. Injuries and pain in the knee can occur during fitness activities; cyclists, alpine skiers, and team sports players are susceptible to them. The complex structure of the knee joint allows it to withstand moderate loads of body movement.
When running and intense sports activities, the load on it increases. Knee pain during or after running is not normal; it indicates some kind of disorder in this area.
It is especially important to protect your knees when running for those who have already encountered the problem and for those who are just starting independent training. Incorrectly selected or excessive loads can cause the following problems:
There are many factors that influence foot health during sports. This includes the right shoes, the place to exercise, the ability to run correctly, and even the individual anatomical structure of the skeleton. Let's dwell on the most important points that will help keep your knees healthy without stopping your sports activities.
Properly selected shoes can significantly reduce the load on your knees when running. Orthopedists have special requirements for runner's shoes; if running shoes do not take on part of the load, it is distributed to the knees, lower legs and spine, which begin to hurt over time.
Any, even the most perfect shoes wear out. A deteriorated, deflated air layer of running shoes will not be able to protect your feet, so such shoes need to be changed without hesitation. The approximate time frame for replacing running shoes is after 500 kilometers of run.
What's under a runner's feet can kill a runner's knees just as much as the wrong shoes. A kilometer of race is about 500 strong collisions with the ground surface.
Special stadium running tracks are equipped in such a way that shock absorption is provided during this impact. If you have to run outside of special running tracks, you need to know this rule: running on a well-trodden dirt path is always safer than running on asphalt, and running on asphalt is safer than running on concrete.
The path for such an activity should be free of potholes, slippery spots, stones and other obstacles.
This point is perhaps one of the most important. In order to maintain healthy knee joints for many years, you need to be able to run correctly. This is, first of all, taught to athletes at the beginning of training in athletics sections. Those who do not consider themselves professionals, but have decided to take up running to stay in shape, also need to know the techniques of proper running.
The correct landing place is the forefoot. It is in this place that the sneakers of those who run correctly wear out faster;
It is necessary to start any sports activity with a good warm-up, which can take as much time as the main workout itself. “It’s harmful to skip one workout; it’s a bad habit to skip a warm-up,” experts say. Warm-up is special exercises to warm up muscles and joints, the purpose of which is to speed up circulation in the joints and ligaments and make them elastic. During warm-up, the knee joints are filled with synovial fluid.
Warming up isn't just for your feet. Knead the whole body, starting with bending, swinging, and squats. It is better to start the movement by walking, gradually accelerating the pace and moving on to running.
After training, stretching exercises will help relieve overload in the knee muscles.
The warm-up routine often includes exercises with squats. Such movements performed with excessive load can also cause knee injury. Sudden deep squats themselves can cause additional harmful stress on the knee. Elderly people especially need to take care of their knee joints during such exercises.
When squatting, your feet should be no narrower than shoulder-width apart, with your toes pointing out to the sides. Your heels should be flat on the ground. You should also rise smoothly, without sudden jerks.
Special sports knee pads will help protect your knees during training. Knee pads are used to fix the joint during treatment or rehabilitation after injuries or illnesses and for preventive purposes during increased loads. Running falls under the category of increased load on the knee joint; the knee brace is designed to protect the knees from overload and subluxation of the kneecap. There are several types of sports knee pads:
In addition to physical and technical activities aimed at preserving joints and playing sports without problems, proper, nutritious nutrition plays an important role. Often the struggle with excess weight,
the need to follow a diet leads to the body not receiving enough of some microelements necessary for bones and joints. In this case, dietary supplements developed by scientists come to the rescue, preventing dehydration and fragility of joints, maintaining their elasticity and flexibility.
No one is immune from sharp or aching pain in the knee after exercise, not to mention the fact that the knees can become clogged when falling. The first thing to do in this case is to give your legs complete rest. Doctors recommend using cold compresses on a large area to relieve pain; the duration of such a compress is no more than 20 minutes.
Warm baths with the addition of medicinal herbs will help relieve tension in the knee joint. If the painful sensations recur, or the pain does not go away after training, you should definitely stop physical activity and consult a doctor.
If you are not a professional runner, for whom all kinds of injuries are a constant companion of their sports career, then the prospect of getting pain in your knees instead of getting better after a morning run is unlikely to suit you. It’s scary to imagine how many people quit running because their joints started to hurt. But this is quite easy to avoid if you follow a few simple rules.
Not only the knees can hurt, but also the hip joints, lower back, spine, and all together at the same time. The fact is that running is accompanied by constant impacts of your feet on a hard surface with a force several times greater than your own weight. Through the leg, the impact is transmitted to the pelvic bones and spine, especially if your running technique was not taught to you by a coach with 20 years of experience. The result is knee pain a couple of weeks after starting training.
Is this arthritis, you ask? At a young age, arthritis as such may not exist. The knee joint has a complex structure; it is enough to stretch the ligament and pain is guaranteed. In adolescents, pain may be caused by Schlatter's disease. In people over 45 years of age, after improper running, there is a very high likelihood of developing traumatic arthritis and subsequent arthrosis of the knee joint.
Suppose you decide to take care of your physical fitness, shake out your fat, remove your stomach and sides. You gather your courage, take your will into your fist, set the alarm clock for half past seven in the morning... Stop! You will probably still put on your old flat-soled sneakers, and then, sleepy, run as fast as you can along the asphalt path around the house? You are guaranteed a direct path to knee arthritis.
How not to run:
So, the main enemies of the knee joints when running are: the hard surface under your feet and the cold, unheated ligaments of the legs, which tear like a tightly stretched rope in the cold. From this we can logically conclude what remedies will help us avoid knee pain after running.
It is better not to go for a run in the early morning. At this time, the ligaments are tense, the body still wants to sleep, it is not ready for active stress. You should always run only after a good warm-up. Before leaving the house, you need to work all the joints of your legs, jump, squat, run in place.
It is better to choose a road that is not the smoothest, but one with a soft surface – a dirt one. If there have already been injuries, then it is necessary to wrap the knee with elastic bandages on the advice of a doctor. Shoes must have shock-absorbing soles.
What can happen if you run incorrectly:
How to run without getting knee injuries:
For whom running is generally contraindicated?
There are several categories of people for whom running as a healing technique is contraindicated. These include:
If you follow all these tips, you can protect yourself as much as possible and minimize the risk of injury. Then your wellness activities will actually bring benefits, and not injury. But it may turn out that it is not possible to comply with all the conditions for safe running. In this case, it is better to replace running with less traumatic exercises.
What safer way can you replace running?
There are quite a few reasons for pain in the side while running, but basically it all depends on the state of the person’s body.
One of the main aspects when running is breathing. With proper breathing, an athlete can run long distances and not feel tired; if not, they can become tired soon after the start. The main causes of pain due to improper breathing are: breathing too quickly, lack of a normal breathing rhythm (often confused), breathing incompletely.
As a consequence of this, two types of pain arise: muscle spasm and pain in the liver. The spasm occurs due to an insufficient amount of oxygen entering the diaphragm, and therefore the muscle cannot work normally, and the pain occurs because the blood flow to the heart decreases (as a result of constant breathing problems) and it stagnates in the liver.
If you ate one and a half to two hours (or less) before your run, or consumed too much food, then pain in your side is guaranteed. Since after eating food the body spends a large amount of energy on digesting it, the volume of the stomach increases and the liver vessels dilate. This gives us the answer to the question “Why does it hurt in the right side.”
Pain is suspected to be due to:
- Poor warm-up (or lack thereof), too sudden and intense load, low level of preparedness and endurance. At rest, the blood is evenly distributed throughout the body and circulates normally; with a sudden load, the circulation is disrupted and the liver begins to enlarge, pressing on the accompanying nerve endings. The spleen can also react, which also causes a tingling sensation in the side, this gives us the answer to the question “why does the left side hurt.”
They make themselves felt not only during jogging, but also during most physical activity.
If you are bothered by even mild, almost imperceptible pain in one or another internal organ, then you can be sure that during running it can only intensify, regardless of its nature or symptoms. In most diseases, the organ is deformed, it can be enlarged or reduced, which is why pain itself occurs, since the blood flow to it increases and this leads to excessive spasm and pressure.
There are several basic recommendations that will help you:
Warming up before running is mandatory. First of all, it is required to avoid injuries (such as sprains, spasms, snags, etc.). Before running, you need to warm up all the muscles that will be used in the future, and stimulate your central nervous system to work actively.
If the goal of your runs is to build endurance, then you need to follow a few simple recommendations. For example: run at a variable pace (10 minutes faster - 10 minutes slower), develop constant calm breathing (four steps - inhale, four steps - exhale), and run as long a distance as possible). This will help you achieve your desired level of endurance quickly and efficiently.
If you run to lose weight or just to get healthy, then everything is pretty simple. Jogging should be regular, take place in conscious air, it is recommended to run around the stadium and in some terrain (forest, park, etc.), and bring you pleasure and not pain and stress.
Running is an excellent option for improving your health and maintaining physical fitness; it has a positive effect on all metabolic processes in the body and blood circulation, develops the heart muscle and respiratory system, strengthens the immune system and hardens you.
Running is a useful workout in all respects. It helps not only improve your health, but also significantly tighten your figure. However, we must not forget about the load the body has to withstand when running, why it is dangerous, and what are the benefits and harms of running for joints?
Whether you exercise outdoors or indoors on a treadmill, your body places enormous stress on your joints, which can even be hazardous to your health. Why do painful sensations occur?
The greatest load when running comes from people who do not follow the basic rules of running or who are overweight.
Ideally, it is necessary that the rules of running be explained to a novice athlete by an experienced runner who can prevent possible problems for a beginner. However, if you follow at least the following simple rules, this will already help to significantly reduce the load:
Finally, it is important to start running gradually, increasing the load as needed and according to the personal sensations of the body. A sudden heavy load can cause serious illnesses and the development of pathologies.
There are additional recommendations for runners: they will help make your workout more effective without increasing the load on the body:
Selecting a simulator for a person of advanced age - over 50 years old - should be done using individual doctor’s recommendations.
Joint pain after running can develop into a serious pathology. Therefore, doctors advise stopping training if pain occurs until complete recovery. If the condition does not improve within a week, you should consult a doctor.
To prevent joint pain next time, the following preventive measures are necessary:
The presence of mild soreness after playing sports is considered normal and indicates that the work has been done correctly. It’s another matter when your legs hurt a lot after running and even the thought of climbing the stairs becomes unbearable. The reasons for the sudden appearance of pain in the legs after a run are different, and there are many ways to relieve it and relax the muscles.
Often the result of grueling workouts or long runs is pain in the legs, which means intensive development of muscle tissue. When exercise is moderate, lactic acid is released and easily leaves tired muscles. When a person runs for a very long time, his legs experience heavy loads and such acid simply does not have time to be eliminated in time, irritating the nerve endings and becoming a factor of pain.
There is another type of pain that appears on the second or third day, which gradually increases. The factor causing such pain is micro-tears in the muscle fibers. In such cases, an inflammatory process occurs in the muscles, and the pain with constant jogging decreases. If a person is unable to move and experiences severe discomfort when touching their legs, this may be a sign of a muscle tear, which requires medical attention.
Many experts describe the appearance of pain after physical activity as normal. The muscles are exposed to much more stress than usual, but at the same time they develop, become stronger and more resilient.
To avoid discomfort after playing sports, you need to adhere to some basic rules.
Excessive stress while running often results in foot pain, especially in people who have recently started exercising. They do not calculate their strength and, for example, during a run or competition they very sharply increase their speed. The foot takes part in all human movements, and especially when running, so cases of its overexertion are quite common.
The reason why the feet become overworked is the lack of warm-up movements. Discomfort in such cases appears only when running, and in a calm state it is almost absent. If painful sensations of this kind occur, it is better to change running to swimming or gymnastics in a lying or sitting position, so as not to further injure your legs.
It’s worse if your foot suddenly starts to hurt while walking, because it can be caused not only by excessive loads, but also by various diseases of the joints and bones. Feet may hurt from sprained ligaments or tendons, or from plantar fasciitis due to flat feet.
There is also pain when walking due to an ingrown toenail, callus or tight shoes. This condition cannot be ignored in any case, because the pain will continue to bother the person even more often.
In order to prevent foot sprains, you should always do warm-up exercises before playing sports, while jogging or walking around the city. There are effective exercises to prevent foot sprains.
Stretching the joints has an amazing effect. Three minutes of daily exercise will be enough to relieve tired legs and pain after walking. After stretching exercises, a person’s gait changes, the step becomes easier and more relaxed. The ankle joint is secured with an elastic bandage or bandage if a strenuous physical test or long-distance running is ahead. With the help of an elastic bandage, many foot injuries and sprains can be avoided in people prone to them.
When a leg is injured, the first thing it needs is rest, regardless of the nature of the injury. Legs should rest from heavy loads. The leg must be raised to a height in order for the blood to drain. Then apply an elastic bandage and a piece of ice to the damaged area of the leg.
In the next two days, you do not need to make unnecessary movements with your legs. The ankle is stretched with little force, and if the pain does not go away and injuries occur regularly, then you should make an appointment with an orthopedist. The pain from the injury is slightly reduced by a cloth or towel moistened with cold water, as well as complete rest of the patient.
No one can avoid pain after running, neither athletes nor beginners. Why do my legs hurt after running and what can I do about it? A light jog circulates blood through the tissues and relieves pain, but if it is caused by exhausting running, then it is better to use other methods.
A hot bath or sauna is the best way to relax tired muscles. In hot water, blood vessels dilate, and the cause of pain, lactic acid, is removed from the muscles faster. Even ten minutes will be enough to reduce the discomfort in your legs after a run by half.
Massage perfectly relaxes tired feet. Toxins are eliminated faster, and blood is dispersed throughout the body thanks to a high-quality massage. If you can’t go to a professional, you can do relaxing massage movements yourself.
You should pay enough attention to healthy sleep and daily routine. Good rest can easily relieve fatigue from a person. Tired muscles can be strengthened with nutrition. If the necessary components are sufficient, the pain goes away much faster. Drinking plenty of water throughout the day helps make muscle fibers elastic, resulting in less pain.
There are many reasons why unexpected pain appears in the legs after walking or habitual jogging. You can cope with unpleasant pain while running if you follow simple recommendations. To always be in shape and have a good mood, you need to monitor your health, nutrition, as well as the intensity of stress on your legs and the whole body.
Running is an excellent workout for strengthening your cardiovascular system. Also, with the help of short distance running, which is carried out over a certain distance at different speeds, you can strengthen and work all the muscles of the legs, and in addition to them, the abdominal muscles. A short jog at a low speed can be used as a warm-up before any hard training.
With proper distribution of the load, such a sport will be extremely beneficial . For example, it can be an alternative to a set of exercises for the legs, and on one of the warm days, jogging can replace going to the gym. In addition, running will help you stay fit and have a healthy heart as you age. A morning jog will be a great help in losing extra pounds, and an evening jog will make the body more resilient.
Running allows you to work all muscle groups , although the main load is on your legs. The heart muscle, abdominal muscles and neck also work. So, the muscles working in this sport can be divided into several types :
With the help of running, you can pump up and strengthen your leg muscles, since they are well used in this sport. Using different techniques and gradually increasing the load, it is possible to lose a few extra pounds, while muscle mass will grow.
When running long distances , you will not be able to acquire too defined muscles, since the legs become more durable and more accurate than those that can often be seen in people who work out professionally in the gym.
Many people have probably heard that running often leads to a decrease in muscle mass . This happens due to the fact that after running a long distance, the body needs more energy and it finds it in the muscles, from where it takes it.
Therefore, in order not to lose muscle mass, many athletes train by sprinting . This is one of the specific techniques that involve running short distances, and also when using weights, there will be a noticeable increase in the legs, as a result of the transformation of fat into muscle.
So, if a person engages in this type of sport correctly, gradually increasing the load and without injuring his body, then he has the opportunity to quickly see the expected results . Running uses all the leg muscles and that is why it is one of the best ways to work them out, strengthen them and pump them up evenly.
To pump up your legs while running, you need to :
A few tips to help you run more efficiently :
Special attention is paid to nutrition for a person involved in this sport.
Both people who work out in the gym and those who prefer running need a high protein . It will promote muscle growth.
To feel good, you should not eat before the race. But water is the opposite - you need to drink it before, after and during training.
So, a person who wants to pump up their legs through running needs to put in a little more effort than someone who just wants to strengthen or tighten them. But nevertheless, it is possible. The main thing is not to exhaust yourself, and it is also worth consulting with someone who is doing similar things. He can advise and help you run so as not to damage your health. In addition, do not forget that if the load is too intense, the opposite, undesirable effect may occur.
You also need to remember not only how your legs move, but also about the position of your back , stomach , and arms . A straight back and tense abs will help you maintain balance and slow down the feeling of fatigue in your body. And the arms bent at the elbows, which move relative to the opposite legs, make it possible to accelerate.
Some people often experience leg pain after running. Scientists have proven that such mild physical activity has a positive effect on the body in terms of combating depression, which often poses a serious danger to modern people. Thanks to this type of sports activity, such as running, the heart is strengthened, breathing is trained, and blood circulation improves, since the supply of oxygen to the organs occurs to the maximum extent.
Despite the fact that after sports procedures sometimes your calves or heels hurt, a run of half an hour not only helps relieve stress, but also helps to release happiness hormones, which are dopamine and serotonin. Their content in the blood can increase almost 7 times. A high level of concentration of such hormones remains in the body for about 2 hours, and their breakdown occurs more slowly.
The results of studies conducted over a long time have shown that running not only has a beneficial effect on blood circulation, but also on the central nervous system. Hardening the body is impossible without jogging, which helps people successfully get rid of many diseases of varying complexity, develop knees and ligaments.
The combination of healthy eating and running is an ideal way to lose weight.
It is noted that jogging not only has a positive effect on a person’s physical health, but also on his self-esteem and determination, while simultaneously increasing self-control.
Since people who go jogging in the morning are not always in good shape, they often experience pain in their legs after finishing their workout.
The reasons can be completely different. It can be strong or weak, and in different parts of the leg it differs in degree of intensity: pain in the heel can be stronger than in the ankles. For example, discomfort in the spine is sometimes transmitted to the whole body, and also moves to the hip joint and feet, and sometimes to the knee.
When jogging, a person hits the ground with a force greater than their own body weight, so after running they may experience heel or knee pain. In the latter case, sometimes it does not occur immediately, but 2 weeks after the start of training. When attacks of pain begin to be felt in the knee and heel itself, which have various causes, the degree of severity depends on the age of the person. If the runner is a teenager, the trigger is Schlatter's disease. People over 45 years of age may suffer from traumatic arthritis with subsequent damage to the knee joint.
A contraindication to running is low blood pressure.
The career of professional athletes is associated with constant injuries, and for the average person the prospect of injury to various parts of the legs or spine is not attractive.
Many people have to give up training associated with this activity because their legs hurt after running.
If discomfort occurs in the lower leg, this may be due to poor training of the muscles of this part of the leg. At the same time, in addition to running, it is necessary to do some additional physical exercises, strengthening the spine and muscles so that the ankle and heel are not subject to pain. It should be remembered that jogging is not advisable for people suffering from scoliosis.
People who fall into the following categories have contraindications to running:
It is better for such categories of citizens to replace jogging with more acceptable types of exercise, such as swimming in the pool, rowing and exercise cycling.
You should always consult your doctor before exercising.
While running, certain rules should be followed to avoid pain in the ankle or hip during and after training. In order to bring your physical shape back to normal, remove excess fat from the stomach and sides, you need to gather your courage and set the alarm clock for 06.30. Particular attention should be paid to shoes, which should not have flat soles. This can cause arthritis in the knees.
You should not run if:
If your knees hurt after a run, this means that the ligaments were not warmed up enough. The floor under your feet when running should not be too hard or cold. The conclusions that can be drawn from the recommendations given are related to the fact that you should not strain the ligaments of the lower extremities in the early morning when starting training, since they are already tense without it. The body in the morning is not ready to take on an active load, since the person has not yet fully recovered from sleep. A good warm-up is necessary for running.
Before leaving the house for a morning jog, you should work out each joint: jump, run in one place, do several squats or rotational movements. For running, it is advisable to choose a dirt road, which may not be the smoothest, but has a soft surface.
If there are past leg injuries, wrap the knees with an elastic bandage before training. You must run in shoes with shock-absorbing soles.
If you run incorrectly, you may encounter various problems:
Frequent and strong impacts on the asphalt not only cause heel pain, but also cause arthritis of the knee joint. Since they will be transmitted to the spine through the legs, this threatens to worsen the disc herniation. Shoes must not have stripes, but have shock-absorbing soles and good lacing. Hip pain can often be caused by improperly fitting running shoes. If you run in such shoes, then injuries to the shin, ankle or other parts of the leg are inevitable.
You should train in running shoes, which are the most important piece of equipment for runners. It is important to purchase shoes that are appropriate for your foot type and weight. If a runner has flat feet, then running shoes should provide good ankle support and a stable, wide sole. If a person is heavy and has a high arch, then it is important to choose shoes with arch support. It must have excellent shock absorption properties. Every 300-550 km, sneakers need to be changed during training, which depends on the running style, surface and body weight.
Running may not be the most dangerous workout associated with heavy loads on the hips or legs. However, runners often suffer injuries that result in pain in the shin bones or kneecaps. They happen largely due to the fault of the person himself. The most common types of errors are:
The reasons why your legs hurt in the front or back after running can be different. If they get sick after training in various places, that is, calves, heels, knees, buttocks, then it is necessary to reconsider the technique. Often this sports procedure is unfamiliar to many runners. Ignorance of the basic rules comes down to taking too long breaks between workouts or abruptly interrupting the run. This approach is illiterate, since this type of sports procedure cannot be alternated with standing or sitting. If you feel tired after running, it is not recommended to lie on your back, side or stomach, or sit down immediately, otherwise you may feel pain.
Ankles may become sore after training due to improper cooling of the muscles. A considerable number of fans take a cold shower after a run. The loads placed on the muscles are associated with the release of lactic acid, which must be removed through reasonable thermal exposure.
If your ankles systematically hurt after finishing a run, then it is better to supplement your training with warm baths, cycling or an exercise bike; walking at a moderate pace also has a positive effect on the condition of your legs.