Pain on outer side of knee, hurts to walk?

Question

I usually run three times a week, and I run about four miles every time I run. A couple weeks ago, after my second run of the week, the outside of my knee hurt pretty bad. The next day, the pain was so bad that I could barely walk to class. By the weekend, the pain was pretty much completely gone so I ran again, but during the run the pain came back so I stopped. My mom recommended that I use the stair climbing machine instead of the treadmill until my knee healed. After three days of using the stair climbing machine, my knee was worse than ever. Now it has been painful to walk, and the only exercises I've done over the past four days is walking my dog. Have I done permanent damage to my knee?

Ayyy · Accepted Answer

Sounds like IT Band Syndrome. It happens to runners. It could happen for a number of reasons. But you run on a treadmill so that eliminates a few causes. The next one I'd look at is bad shoes and bad insole. If you're running on old shoes or using shoes not intended for running, change that immediately.

I doubt you did permanent damage to your knee. You just re-aggravated it. Best thing you can do is rest it. Stay away from running and at no point should you try the stair climber. It's similar to running so you're not doing yourself any favors. Ice, elevate, rest. Once the pain goes away, attempt to rehab it and focus on the cause so that you can prevent it from happening again. I would recommend not running for a little while. Instead try swimming (great for cardio) and biking if that doesn't feel too painful. Stretch, stretch stretch stretch.

Pain on outer side of knee, hurts to walk?

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