mike said:I am 65 and almost daily have been doing a strenuous uphill climb on
residential streets in Berkeley, California. Now I have a sore knee,
it's especially sore on the inside just beside the kneecap.
I have stopped my routine for now. Does anyone know an excellent
exercise to alleviate this soreness? Also, any exercises to strengthen
the legs to protect the knee?
Several random thoughts come to mind:
Don't run if it hurts. If you can slowly jog on the flats or on easy trails
without pain, that would be good.
Ice and rest should do the trick. Then start slowly again on a less
stressful surface, and work back up to hills.
The longer you wait to do something about an injury, the longer it will take
to heal.
Age, sadly, exposes minor weaknesses which youthful resilience formerly
triumphed over. I used to be able to run hills day after day, but now I
sandwich a relatively flat day between hill days.
It may be a strength issue, or it may be an alignment issue. I had to get
the tilt of my feet just right (orthotics and insoles) to get rid of kneecap
pain. Never did any exercises -- when the kneecap tracked naturally, the
pain went away.
-- Dan