I ran a pain-free nice-y happy 10k+ after 20 days. I worked very consistently on knee issue in these 20 days and I thought I’d share what I did. 

Timeline - 
Jan-Mar: average mileage - 180k/month

Apr-June: average mileage - 250k/month 

July: rest

August-September: average mileage- 250k/month, 3:46 Marathon on 21st Sep, 7 October - 28k run 16 days after FM 

10th October - 1st pain on outer knee left knee, no issue in right. My right ankle is a chronic weak strength spot which affects my balance so usually issues come up in left leg only. My suspicion was its because of running long in worn out Superblast 2 (800k) and s4+ yogiri (450k) and I now think shoes had a contributing factor but main reason was overuse of knee over last few months, and also the bad form I go into at the final ends of my runs due to exhaustion. But anyway, I bought new shoe rotation of Nimbus 27 and Megablast and went for run on 13th and 14th at felt the left knee totally giving way at 4-5k range i.e. I couldn’t get any energy to the knee to move forward, so I had to stop. Also stupidly I had done deep squats on 11th, 12th instead of isometric wall sits because I forgot which one was good for knee and doing deep squats worsened the situation which I came to feel only on the run later. 

So anyway I stopped running from 14th and I was having pain on stairs too, so first I thought it could be meniscus tear but chatgpt said since the pain kept going away after one full day of rest and came up only after 4-5k mark in next run, it wasn’t anything mechanical tear. 

So I started following 1 hour routine from 15th October with youtube and chatgpt help and did it everyday - 

1. Foam rolling : 2 mins front thighs, 2 mins outer front thighs each leg at once, 1 min IT band each side, hip rolling 2 mins each side - sit on the roller with knees bet, put right ankle crossed on the left leg like sitting cross legged and tilt towards left side to your upper buttock is in the air and body is on right buttock, then roll from where your belt sits to where your buttock muscle ends, do same for other side, 1 minute each side front pocket area rolling 
2. Hip abduction - the machine things in the gym where you move the pads outside so your buttock area feels pressure - 15x3 sets
3. Hip adductors - same machine as above but now you move the inside and hold so your inner things are strained, its like squeezing a pillow - 15x3 sets 
4. Clamshells - 3x15, see video on YouTube, make sure you work your hip, buttock area feels pressure
5. Straight leg raise - 3x15 each lev, start without ankle weights straighten your leg with thighs tightened and lift the leg 45-60degrees and hold for 3 seconds, same the other leg, after few days build ankle weights from 0.5kg to 3kg
6. Isometric wall sits - take a big ball, put it on wall and sit against the ball with knees at 90 degrees and stay like that for 1 minute, pressure should be on buttock muscles and inner thighs
7. Step downs from short height, make sure the knees don’t go past toes, if you make sure of that your will be hitting the pressure at correct part of hips and glutes 
8. Step ups - do till tired, progress over height of the boxes
9. Quad and hamstring stretch for cooldown 

I also read and understood that I need to be careful while strength training not to stress knees too much because running already affects it, activities which I used to do which I am going to stop - 

1. Decline weighted crunches for abs - I lay down on decline chest press with 15-20kg plate in hand and do crunches with taking the plate over head at the top part of the crunch, since the only support of body during range of motion is knee joint locked into leg holders, full pressure is taken by knee joints. So although this exercise looks very cool and attention bringing in the gym but it’s not the best for runners, I am going to stick to seated crunches now. 
2. Smith machine deep squats - I would do heavy deep squats on smith machine topping at 80-100kg but it also affects the knees most because the stretch often goes to front upper thigh instead of proper distribution to hips too and especially at bottom most point whole pressure is taken by knee joint. So now I am just going to do 90 degree squats. 
3. Leg Extensions - Instead of heavy leg extensions where the whole pressure is on knee joint when leg is straight at top point, for runners it is better to only go till 60 degrees and hold for 2 secs to tighten inner thighs and back down slow instead of going all the way to the top point. 

So if any of you are also doing these exercises in gym, maybe you can try the variations that helped me for a few months to see how it’s turning out. 

Wohoooo 🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️🏄‍♀️

Runner’s knee rehab and recovery