I've been running for a few years now, I took a break over the holidays and just started up again. I started getting a sore left knee afterwards, and it got to the point where I couldn't finish my usual route. It dawned on me that I might have strained it over christmas moving a very heavy (of all things) treadmill down a few flights of steps. I remember resting it on my bent knee, step by step, although I did not feel any pain during the move. It's been about 3 weeks since then, is there anything else I can do besides rest? And for how long? Today I jogged for perhaps 3 miles before any discomfort set in. Any suggestions?
C'mon man, if you can jog for 3 miles before discomfort, your doing better than most. By that , i mean me, at least. It really is odd, the number of accidents occuring from moving, much less using exercise equipment. Seriously, ive been stopped out for a good year from various bench press etc problems, i cant call them accidents........i couldnt even call the weights "ambitious", just not really sensible overall. I know someone who was put out for a year from having a cheap home gym fail balance wise, doing a SEVERE injury to their hand, face etc. Nasty.
stop stressing your knee for a couple of weeks. You just make it worse. Give your knee some rest, then start slowly. At least try to run less. Some bandage could help, especially if you have problems during the day. If you can run for 3 miles without problems it's probably nothing, but I wouldn't mess with it.
If the pain persists, you might want to get an x-ray of your hip. It happened to me. Now I have two artificial hips. After two unnecessary knee surgeries, I finally found a ruemotoligist who knew what to look for.
If you are having trouble with your knee, the worst thing you can do is continue to run. Not only will you not be giving the knee time to heal, but you may start overcompensating and injure something else, like your hip. In the meantime, if you want to continue to exercise, try something that won't put as much stress on the knee. Elliptical, bike, rowing machine etc... The last knee injury I had was after a big run. Something happened to my knee that made it extremely painful to walk/run downhill. It happened to coincide with a visit to San Francisco, which as you can guess, wasn't a lot of fun.
At first I couldn't believe we actually got it down into the basement, the platform weighed about 200lbs and was 5ft in length. We didn't realize that "free shipping" meant "to the sidewalk".
I use to jog 4 miles every day. When my knees started hurting, I started to ride my bike 10 miles. Worst thing that I ever could have done. Had neucrosis of both hips. Exercise is the worst thing that you can do for that. If you start out having pain for no good reason watch out. You can also get it in your shoulders and back. Bad stuff. The bones die then crack all to pieces and the pain is excruciating.
Did the pain begin with the new shoes? If so, that could be the issue. For me, shoes usually cause achilles issues though, not knee. Knee pain behind the kneecap is typically runner's knee, an overuse injury. Rx is to cut back. Knee pain can also be from arthritis. Symptoms can include pain when using stairs, swelling, sore in the morning. Not much yu can do about it, but you need to do everything you can to strengthen the joint area, eg do leg extensions. Knee pain can also come from a cartlege tear, which is serious and requires attention from an orthopedist.