How to Reduce Your Knee Pain as a Runner

Naples Regenerative Institute Blog How to Reduce Your Knee Pain as a Runner

Being a runner comes with perks. You stay in shape, have a healthier heart, and enjoy a brighter mood. But despite the benefits for your mental, cardiovascular, and overall health, running can be hard on your joints. 

Runner’s knee affects 25-30% of active runners. It involves a dull, aching pain around the kneecap that worsens over time. You might also have “noisy knees,” hearing creaking or crackling sounds when you move the painful joint. 

You need to get your knee pain under control to keep enjoying the upsides that made you a runner. Fortunately, double board-certified pain management specialist Glenn M. Flanagan, MD, can help you reduce knee pain without surgery at Naples Regenerative Institute in Naples, Florida. 

Managing runner’s knee pain at home

You might be able to reduce your knee pain at home. 

Resting your painful knee is the first and most important step to alleviate knee pain. Even though resting means no running for a bit, it gives your painful knee a chance to recover. 

Beyond resting the knee, these steps may also help: 

Stretching and strengthening exercises

Specific exercise can reduce pressure on the painful knee joint after a period of rest.  

Shoe inserts

Shoe inserts can help some people with knee pain by balancing or aligning the leg and reducing pressure on the knee joint. 

Compression

Dr. Flanagan might suggest compressing your painful knee by wrapping it. 

Elevation

Elevating your painful knee while resting helps improve blood flow and reduce inflammation. 

Hot & Cold packs

If swollen, apply a cold pack to your painful knee to constrict blood vessels in the joint and reduce inflammation. The cold also helps numb the knee to ease pain. Otherwise, heat will improve circulation to the area to help with tissue healing and recovery.

Don’t take pain medicines to control knee pain as a runner because pain medications can reduce kidney function, which makes it harder to stay hydrated when you’re active. In addition, most medications only mask the pain and the problem may worsen while you continue to run, even though it hurts less. If needed, you can use creams or gels, which have fewer side effects than oral pain medications. 

Exploring professional regenerative therapies

Naples Regenerative Institute specializes in innovative regenerative therapies, which help the body heal injuries on its own. For runners with knee pain, Dr. Flanagan may recommend:

These treatments can help all kinds of knee pain, including arthritis, sprains, strains, tendinopathy/tendonitis, bursitis and meniscus tears. For all injectable treatments, Dr. Flanagan uses ultrasound and/or fluoroscopy to guide the needle into the correct area of the knee joint. This reduces the risk of further knee damage.

Preventing future knee pain as a runner

Dr. Flanagan can also give you tips to prevent knee pain in the future. Runners can reduce the risk of future knee pain by:

Talk to your coach or trainer for more tips on running form and safety. 

If you experience ongoing knee pain after resting an injured knee, call Naples Regenerative Institute or request an appointment online right away.

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