Listen to Your Pain
Chris Adams, copyright 2006, license to About.com
Keep exercising though. With any injury, exercise speeds up healing. Just don’t exercise the injured part.
Track your pain using a visual analog pain scale to better assess your knee’s state of health. And, of course, speak to your healthcare provider about your discomfort.
Vary Your Running Surfaces
Get off the treadmill and try the open road. Or, if you are a road runner, try an indoor track or just vary your running path.By varying your running routine, you will vary your stride and foot strike. This reduces the repetition in the repetitive stress injury. It also keeps the muscles at the joints balanced.
Let Your Knees Move Correctly
Be careful with your running posture, especially if you run on a treadmill. If you concentrate too hard on placing one foot in front of the other, you might run with your knees hinging in to straight of a line. Your stride has a side-to-side element to it. In other words, you should kick out to the side and let your feet splay out a little.If you run on a thin treadmill, you might be forced into an extreme case of this, causing a lot of knee problems as a result. The fix? Vary your running surfaces or get an extra wide treadmill.
Wear Good Shoes
Good shoes are so important. But what is good for one person is bad for another. It is worth the effort to find a store with an educated staff that will take the time to fit a shoe not just to your foot, but to your stride.Do Not Run With Weights
Avoid ankle weights or heavy shoes. The extra weight at your extremities will put a much greater load on your joints. A weight on your ankle can easily put force that's 10 to 20 times greater on your knee (depending on the speed you run).Stop Before You are Tired
Do not run to exhaustion. Do not even run until you're tired. When you get fatigued, your fine motor control is one of the first things to go. As such, your motions become sloppy and you start to lack muscle control of your joint motion. This is an injury waiting to happen.You need to keep complete control of your body with your muscles. Stop and rest when you need to.
