People run for lots of reasons - it makes them feel - the "runner's high" - to manage stress, manage body weight, get-in-shape, or for the camaraderie.

And if you're like a lot of other people, at some point your running will get interrupted and most often, it's because of knee pain.

When you have Runner’s Knee, your knee hurts, but it’s hard to pinpoint.

Sometimes it hurts under your kneecap and other times around your knee or on the front of your knee. You may have an aching sensation or a hard to localize pain. Other symptoms include joint noises, a grinding or a catching sensation, swelling and a “giving way” of the knee.
 Climbing stairs, squatting, kneeling, running, performing certain exercises all seem to aggravate the condition. Sometimes, your knee hurts all the time and in others cases, it might hurt a couple of days after a run, for example.

Runner's Knee Syndrome (RKS) is often labeled PFPS, which stands for PatelloFemoral Pain Syndrome (patellofemoral describes the interface between your kneecap and your thigh bone).

In addition to PFPS and Runner's Knee, another term frequently used to describe it is Chondromalacia Patella or softening and fissuring of the cartilage that covers the underside of the kneecap.

In either case, the problem is inside your knee, in the joint.

So what do you do about it?

It's a simple question. 

"Why does my knee hurt?"

And you'll find all kinds of answers from a kneecap that's in the wrong spot, to weak quadriceps muscles (front of the thigh), to weak hips and tight hamstrings.

But Runner's Knee pain is primarily a joint problem. The tough, rubbery tissue that covers the end of the bones, articular cartilage, is not sturdy enough to take the pounding that comes with running.

Are your leg muscles weak? Most likely, yes. Weak quadriceps is part of the problem.

But the common approach for knee joint pain targets only muscle strength.

Why is that? Why would you use a muscle approach for a joint problem ?

Because, Conventional Wisdom believes you can't do anything about weak or injured joints.

This is the prevailing opinion of many in the medical world despite evidence to the contrary (explained in the book). Not all practitioners follow this muscle-first belief system, but many are still not treating people with knee joint pain optimally.

If you have pain, weakness, loss of mobility from knee joint pain, Conventional Wisdom's approach is:

The good news is there's a way to boost the strength of your joint and leg muscles without making your knee feel bad.

The concept supporting this idea is based on the science of mechanobiology - how graduated pressure can be used to strengthen your tissues and joints..

Although many in the medical word believe you can't do anything about a weak or injured joint, I debunk this thinking in my book in detail. It's not just my opinion. It's from a large number of scientific studies that support the idea that joints respond to mechanical force but it's how the force is applied and used that makes the difference.

The Runner's Knee Bible is a 175-page multimedia, e-book (available from Amazon.com) that reveals, a step-by-step, advanced, scientifically-based program designed to help runners struggling with knee pain, Chondromalacia Patella or Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.

Who This Book is For:

Doug Kelsey (“DK”) is a physical therapist, author and teacher whose specialty is helping people build resilience - fitness across multiple domains - to enhance their performance, health, and life (professional CV here).

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

- Martin Luther King Jr.