Can I Run with Arthritis in My Knees?
You can keep running with arthritis. And you can do it without knee pain. Arthritis is a normal part of being a human and there are ways to keep it from getting worse… and stopping running isn’t one of them. It’s all about the balance of how much stress you put on your knees and the recovery and healing you give your knees.
This article gives the steps on how to balance out the stress on your knees and letting them rest, too.
In this article you’ll find
Can I Run Even Though I Have Knee Arthritis?
Yes! Knee arthritis, also known as osteoarthritis, is very common in women who run… it’s also very common in non-runners. Since you could’ve gotten arthritis just by sitting on your butt all day, might as well run.
See the thing is knee osteoarthritis is a wear and tear of the cartilage in your knee. This wear and tear can happen whether you walk, run, do nothing, ride a bike, do gymnastics, play football… etc etc etc. osteoarthritis is as normal part of aging as skin wrinkles are. We are all going to have some to some degree… but the arthritis doesn’t have to be painful. And it’s when it’s painful that people get concerned.
Yes you can have knee arthritis with no pain. There are varying degrees of arthritis and there are varying degrees of pain with arthritis. So the goal would be to get rid of the knee pain, even though you won’t get rid of the knee arthritis. So how do you do that?
How Can I Keep My Knees From Getting Worse From Running?
To keep running with arthritis the goal is to run without knee pain. Once you have arthritis you’ll have arthritis, so when we talk about your knee getting worse are we talking worse pain or worse arthritis?
Because arthritis and pain are not synonymous.
You can have a lot of arthritis with no pain.
And you can also have very minimal arthritis and a lot of pain…
you can also have pain from other problems at the knee that aren’t arthritis. So let’s talk about the two separately… there will be some overlap.
How Can I Keep My Knee Pain From Getting Worse From Running?
Knee pain from running has everything to do with inflammation and stress on your knee. So to get rid of knee pain you first need to manage the inflammation and stress on your knee.
Inflammation is the normal response to stress on the body. Stress can be in the form of a cut, an infection, overworking, too little sleep, pressure, etc. It doesn’t matter what the stressor is… physical, emotional, illness… your body tends to react in the same way it’s reacted in the past.
For example: every time I get a mild cold from someone I always lose my voice even if the other person had the sniffles. My weak point is my vocal cords so I lose my voice. Same thing happens to someone with a history of knee pain if they’ve had a busy week and their stressed at work and they go for a run, the internal stress has built up and their weak point is their knee so their knee starts bugging them… randomly!
Does that make sense?
So to make the knee pain better we need to handle the stress which will handle the inflammation which will handle the pain. So how is that done?
The acronym STRESD is what I use to talk about the stressors that need to be handled for knee arthritis pain.
S is Strength
T is Training
R is Recovery
E is Equipment
S is Stretching
D is Diet
These components are the focus whether you have pain or no pain currently but have had it in the past.
How Can I Keep My Knee Arthritis From Getting Worse From Running?
Knee arthritis is a normal part of aging, just like we get wrinkles as we get older we get arthritis as we get older.
There are 4 stages of arthritis from 1-4 which talk about how bad the arthritis is with 1 being low, and 4 is considered bone on bone.
Pain with arthritis is not related to the stage of arthritis you’re at but how much inflammation is in your knee.
You can have minor arthritis (stage 1) and a lot of pain because the knee is really inflamed, or you can have bone on bone arthritis and mild pain because the knee isn’t really inflamed.
So when we talk about how to keep knee arthritis from getting worse we’re talking about the actual wear and tear, not the pain and inflammation. That’s the section right above this one in this same article.
So How To Keep Knee Arthritis Low and Keep Running?
There are ways to help keep your knee arthritis from progressing from stage 0 to stage 4 and some healthcare professionals will tell you to just stop running… I am not one of those people.
The only time I tell my clients to stop running is when they have high levels of pain, and I recommend they stop only temporarily while they manage those symptoms. But, really running can be good for your knees… it’s just a matter of balance. A balance of how much stress you’re adding to your knee with how much recovery and healing you’re allowing for your knee. This is a balance of the Strength, Training, Recovery, Stretching and your Diet and then making sure the Equipment you use is correct for you… like shoes. We’ll get into specifics in a few minutes… first let’s talk about why I say running can be good for your knees.
“you really only need to stop running temporarily when you have uncontrollable pain.”
Is Running Bad or Good for Your Knees?
Your knees have muscles, bones, ligaments and cartilage in them.
The cartilage is the cushion between the bones that gets worn out in arthritis.
Your knees actually have extra cartilage in them, called menisci (single meniscus), these can wear out, too.
So your body was made with the knowledge that knees are going to take a lot of pressure and stress.
And this cartilage was also made with a built-in mechanism to feed itself more… and your cartilage actually feeds itself more and gives itself fluid when you put pressure on it and then take it off again… in the form of movement.
So walking, running, biking, other exercises like squats and lunges actually give your knees the opportunity to have more nutrients.
It’s just you can’t do too much too fast without counteracting it with recovery and healing. And that balance is where the STRESD System comes in.
Using the STRESD System to Keep Running with Arthritis
To be able to keep running for years to come after a diagnosis with arthritis involves balancing your strength training, your running training, your recovery techniques, making sure the equipment you use is supporting you, your stretching and what you’re eating and drinking.
Strength training for Running with Arthritis
Strength training when you’re running with arthritis with no pain looks like a whole body strength routine.
You need all muscles in your body to be strong for support and so no part of the body gets more stress on it than another part.
For example: if your knees are strong, but your hips are weak:
When you run with weak hips your strong knees are going to pick up the slack for your hips which adds more pressure and stress to your knees which could make arthritis in your knees worse.
So in your strength routine include upper body, core, and lower body exercises. For a full strength routine check out this YouTube Video.
Running with Arthritis
The actual running you do with arthritis is important so you don’t do too much too fast and add too much stress to your knees. Follow a specific training plan and make sure that training plan doesn’t ramp up too quickly.
A good training plan for running with arthritis follows the 10% rule and the runner knows how to keep a pace. The plan may or may not include a variety of speed trainings like speed workouts or tempo runs.
When you follow a specific plan you can see it laid out and note whether the training goes beyond the 10% rule which means you increase by no more than 10% each week.
A runner with arthritis knows her comfortable pace and can maintain that pace as she’s running. When you don’t know your pace and you’re running faster some days that will add too much stress to your knees because your pace may be faster than adding 10%, or you may be adding 10% to your pace but also adding 10% to your distance which would not be following the 10% rule… because that changes 2 things at once: speed and distance, not just changing 1 thing at a time.
How to Recover After a Run When Running with Arthritis
A runner with arthritis recovers properly after every run. This includes stretching, but since stretching is a component on its own we will talk about that in the stretching section, instead this section will talk about other recovery techniques like ice, heat, epsom salt baths, foam rolling, massage guns, massages, etc.
Runners with arthritis know which modality helps relieve their pain and calm down some inflammation and they do this technique regularly: after every run and whenever they feel a flare up happening.
Ice
After you’re done stretching from your run, ice your knee for 20 minutes.
Heat
If your knees are tight and stiff when you wake up or before a run use heat for 20 minutes.
Epsom Salt Bath
At the end of the day after a long run sit in a hot epsom salt bath.
Foam Rolling & Massage Gun
After you run foam roll and/or use your massage gun on your muscles and IT Band to work out any tightness and knots.
Massage
Get regular massages from a massage therapist to keep muscle knots and tightness in check in your whole body.
What’s the Best Shoe for Running with Arthritis?
The best shoe for running with arthritis doesn’t exist.
It’s not one shoe fits all. Go to your local running store and get a gait assessment, if you can’t do that at least do a questionnaire on many running shoe websites that asks you questions about your body and running style.
In general most runners with arthritis find a more cushion and light running shoe works best.
Other equipment that you use needs to work well to work for you when running with arthritis. This includes your massage gun, foam roller, type of epsom salts, other modalities, and then that the professionals you work with are actually helping you.
What’re the Best Stretches for Running with Arthritis?
Warm up
Cool down
Static stretching
Runners with arthritis warm up before every run and stretch after every run and workout, and they are for the whole body so nothing gets tight or stiff.
Before running a warm up includes increasing your heart rate by 20% by walking, riding a bike, doing dynamic stretches.
After running cool down to decrease your heart rate back to resting level and do static stretches.
What Can I Eat for Running with Arthritis
Collagen
There are foods that can support your knees to be able to run with arthritis. Specifically collagen peptides. Cartilage is made up of collagen so there is potential to support your cartilage by supplementing with collagen peptides.
Other considerations for food when running with arthritis are to eat protein, good fats and carbs at every meal and to limit refined sugar and processed foods.
Protein
Protein gives the building blocks to your muscles, ligaments, tendons and cartilage.
Fats
Good fats give you energy you need for the whole day and gives your brain the food it needs to stay focused and not foggy.
Carbs
Carbohydrates give you the kind of nutrients your body needs to it can quickly grab energy while you’re running and working out.
And refined sugar and processed foods feed inflammation… so if you have a history of inflammation when you eat these types of foods its giving any tiny bit of inflammation some fuel to flare up again.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments if I missed something.
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