Do you want to get back to running after an injury? Just because your knee is no longer sore doesn't mean you can safely start running. How can I check if my knee injury has healed completely? This is done, among others, by special fitness tests.
Running, like any sports effort, may carry some predisposition to injury, resulting from the stress on our body systems. Injuries are very common among amateurs who decide to change it after a long period of not moving. Ignorance of the basic principles of increasing the load, especially in the initial stage of training, or uniform training based only on running, are the main causes of frequent injuries in runners. The problem is also to ignore the symptoms, which can develop into a more serious injury.
Taking a break from jogging is not always the only way to get rid of an injury. A further effect of such a procedure may be long-term ineffective treatment of ailments. A good idea here will be to use the services of a physiotherapist who will diagnose the problem and conduct rehabilitation.
The most common injuries of runners within the knee joint
In the musculoskeletal system, the knee joints are the most vulnerable to injuries in runners. The most common knee injuries among runners include:
- anterior knee pain - runner's knee
- iliotibial band friction syndrome - ITBS team
- inflammation of the patella proper ligament.
For the purposes of this article, I will not focus on each of these units, assuming that the patient is already at the final stage of improvement and is struggling with the dilemma presented in the title.
When can we get back to running?
Returning to running depends on the type and intensity of the knee pain that the runner was struggling with. There is no specific time or method of improvement that will determine when an athlete can safely return to running after a knee injury. Each organism is different and seemingly the same types of injuries are improved differently. It is only possible to start thinking about going back when there is no longer any pain or discomfort. The range of motion of the affected knee joint and the painlessness of the tissue structures should be checkedthe soft ones around the knee. There shouldn't be any instability or a feeling of locking in the knee joint.
Therehabilitation of the knee jointwas successful in verifying thatfunctional testsare also helpful in provoking possible pain from before the rehabilitation period. Examples of tests include:
- maintain balance by standing on one leg for about 30 seconds
- perform 10 squats on one leg up to 45 °
- performing 20 toe steps - with one leg and both feet
- jumps: bounce, then jump from a painless leg to a streamlined leg, on a streamlined leg forward (start with 3-4 repetitions, goal: 10 jumps on one leg)
- faster 30-minute walk.
If the above-mentioned tests still cause any pain, rehabilitation should be continued.
If the result of the above tests shows that it is completely painless, you can gradually return to running. However, it should be remembered that returning to intense running too quickly, lack of effective warm-up before training, lack of regeneration of the body after training, neglect of central stabilization of the torso, may contribute to much more serious injuries in the future, which will disable the runner from activity for several weeks or even months. .
Returning to full activity can be complex and does not necessarily mean that the cause of the problem is in the knee joint, which is hurting. Therefore, it is worth analyzing the whole stereotype of a runner's movement in order to spot any weakest links that may lead to an injury in the future.