Jason Dodd, Clinic Manager and Sports Injury Specialist at BodyLogics is with us to answer your questions regarding injuries and niggles. Over to Jason…

This week I want to speak about a common condition I see in runners often and that is something known as ‘Runners Knee’. It is important to differentiate where the pain is with this compared to another well-known knee pain term and that is ‘Jumpers Knee’.

Runners Knee is categorised by pain on the outside of the knee (usually) which may radiate up to the outside of the thigh. Jumpers Knee usually tends to be at the front of the knee, just below the knee cap. They are different as those with Jumpers Knee tend to be involved in jumping sports (think Basketball, Volleyball, etc…) and they develop this because they need the quad muscle to generate power.

Runners Knee on the other hand is found in those who run because every time we land on our foot, in a single leg stance, we use our hip muscles to help stabilise us. Now how does this make sense? You are probably thinking how does the hip affect the knee pain in those with Runners Knee?

Well, the pain you feel on the outside of the knee is likely to be coming from the IT Band. The IT band is a long fibrous form of fascia that originates from the hip region and runs down the outside of the leg and attaches onto the knee.

But how is this affected? As I have already mentioned, when you run, each time you go into a single leg stance, your hip muscles help stabilise the whole body, including the knee. The aim of this stabilisation is to keep the knee as close to the mid-line of the toes. In order to do this, the hips must pull the knee outwards. This is achieved by the hip contracting and pulling on the IT Band, which then helps keep the knee neutral.

When the hip is not strong enough to do this though, the IT Band takes over and compensates by trying to pull the knee outwards. It is important to understand here that this is not the job of the IT Band. The IT Band should be the anchor point of the hip muscles. The hip should pull the IT Band, not the IT Band pulling. This is what can lead to the pain we feel in the lateral part of the knee.

There are various ways to manage this condition and we will visit this in a future post.

** Did you know, all Trent Park members receive a 10% discount on any bookings made with us for any of our services. Please visit www.bodylogics.co.uk or call on 020 8368 9220 to find out more.