How much do you know about how to run without hurting your knees

Running is one of the most popular sports among the people today, but many people also have concerns about running. I believe that many people have experienced knee injuries caused by running. At the same time, some people choose to give up running exercises because they are worried that continued running will cause further deterioration of the knee. So why does running cause knee injuries? How should we run to ensure healthy knees?

1. Adjust your running posture

First, the foot lands in front of the knee, causing the knee joint to straighten or even lock. At this time, a considerable forward force is fed back through the ground and impacts the knee joint.

Therefore, when landing, control the position of your ankles so that they are directly below your knees as much as possible, or slightly behind them. The bend at the knees will provide excellent cushioning.

Secondly, the landing point of the foot should be controlled on the forefoot as much as possible, especially the center of gravity should be placed on the forefoot between the big toe and the second toe. This gravity position is the force point for a reasonable arrangement of the legs. Whether the force point is closer to the outside, inside or back of the foot, it will cause lateral impact on the knee and cause injury.

Another thing is to control the stability of your body and don't shake left and right. Because swaying left and right will cause the center of gravity to change continuously laterally, exerting lateral impact on the knees. The front of the knee is most capable of bearing weight.

Therefore, do not swing your arms excessively or step forward excessively while running, as these will increase body instability.

2. Learn to control the amount of running

The most basic principle to avoid excessive exercise is: do not increase the amount by more than 10% per week. There are different opinions about the incremental amount of running. Simply using percentage to control it is only a statistical result and is not very reasonable. That’s why how you feel during each run is so important. This feeling is the degree of tiredness of your muscles and body.

For experienced runners, during the pre-race period when the running volume increases, they should first feel whether it is easier to run the same amount as last week. If so, they should stop at any point in the excess running volume if they feel they cannot control their running posture. If you don't feel any easier than last week, don't choose to increase your mileage. After increasing running volume or high-intensity training for 3-4 weeks, you should design a one-week interval week to reduce the running volume to about 70% of the peak and allow for adequate recovery and rest. Then continue to increase your running volume and training intensity.

For beginners, it is more reasonable to increase the running volume once every two weeks. It is equivalent to one week of improvement and one week of consolidating the results. The amount of increase does not have to be limited to a deliberate proportion. Pay attention to your body and stop when you feel your landing getting heavier or you feel pressure in your knees.

3. Reduce speed training

For the same amount of running, higher speed means greater impact force and a greater possibility of damage to the knees. At the same time, at higher speeds, the running posture will be distorted in order to lengthen the stride and increase the speed. The legs unconsciously do not bend at all when landing, and the muscle buffering ability when the joints are bent is lost, and the impact force is directly transmitted to the knees.

This is also the reason why many novice runners get injured in the first two months of running when they run very little. Although the running distance is only 2 or 3 kilometers per day. However, when he ran as fast as he could, his muscles were not strong enough to protect him, and the huge impact force injured his knee.

For long-distance running and endurance running, even for an experienced runner, speed training generally does not exceed 10% of the total training volume. And there is usually only one interval speed training per week. Beginner runners don't need to arrange speed training at all.