Nothing sours the mood more than wanting to go out for a run with a sore knee. Your muscles are ready, and so are your lungs – why can't your joints play ball, too? Even though there isn't an instant solution to get rid of knee pain, there are a few exercises that can speed up the process. Better still, the workouts only take a few minutes a day.
Osteopathic therapist Stéphane shares three exercises that can alleviate knee pain quickly. However, I'd like to echo his advice to seek professional medical advice instead of self-doctoring. What you might think is a Runner's Knee could very well be the sign of something else entirely. Don't make things worse by doing the wrong exercises for your problem.
The three exercises that can help with Runner's Knee are glute bridges, knee drives and side-lying hip activations. For each exercise, Stéphane shares three different versions (apart from the last one), which I'll detail below:
- Glute Bridge
- Level 1: Lie on your back, squeeze your glutes, engage your core, and lift your hips.
- Level 2: Progress by placing one foot next to the other leg.
- Level 3: Single-leg glute bridge. Keep one leg straight and aligned with your body. Engage core and glutes, lift your hips, and avoid pelvic tilt. Repeat on both sides.
- Knee Drive
- Level 1: Begin in a mini-lunge position, then drive your back knee up. Ensure there's no knee pain during or after.
- Level 2: Step onto a raised surface (e.g., step or bench), driving your back leg up.
- Level 3: Add a small hop at the end of the knee drive to further engage your posterior chain.
- Side-Lying Hip Activation
- Lie on your side, with the knee horizontal and parallel to the ground.
- Engage your core and slowly drive your knee backwards until you feel a stretch.
- Maintain core activation throughout the movement, return to the start, and repeat smoothly without holding.
The above exercises are also helpful for non-runners and can help align imbalances that inevitably arise from sitting around too much. For more running-related workouts, check out this 10-minute running speed-boosting core workout or these seven exercises to enhance running performance, as recommended by a former sprint champion.
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