Right knee extremely stiff around kneecap after sitting in a chair for a while. Feels better after just a little walking around. Have had this for about 3 weeks.
Doesn’t hurt when running or cycling. Any advice?
Probably herpes!
How old are you? My knees started hurting while sitting, about 5 years ago, at the age of 55. I was diagnosed with onset run-of-the-mill osteoarthritis several years before that. If you are young, that’s probably not it, but if you are getting older, its a possibility to consider. The older I get, the more I run/cycle, the less they hurt, the less active I am, the more they hurt. My rheumatologist told me to use it or loose it.
nah I reckon “the clap”
.
Could be patellofemoral syndrome. Also called movie goers knee.
I agree that it is likely patellofemoral syndrome.
This is known as runner’s knee or sitter’s knee. If you are like me and do both, your risk is highly increased.
I struggle with this quite a bit. It first showed signs after increasing run volume a shit ton, but I only noticed it while sitting at work. Eventually it started to show up while running as well.
Some things that actually work for me:
I ice my knee after every run where I have any knee discomfort.I run in a knee brace until it goes away for at least two weeks.At work when I sit for 7+ hours in a row, I make sure my knee is not bent. I prop it up a bit to make less of a bend. This is likely most important for you since you say you only notice it while sitting. The bent knee causes it.My wife massaged my knee for me if there is a little bit of pain before bed
Like any injury, correct diagnosis and aggressive treatment can do wonders. Fortunately I have been able to keep my runner’s knee in check so far while also doing huge volume.
Good luck!
Yes, google ‘theater knee’ or ‘patellofemoral syndrome’ etc. They used to push doing tons of VMO exercises to realign the patella (it worked for me). Cycling used to be recommended to better equalize the forces on the patella. The thinking has changed somewhat but basically you’d very likely benefit from some physical therapy and supervised exercises (so you are doing them correctly).Then just an easy maintenance program. Very rarely needs intervention (such as arthroscopic hunt).
used to have lots of trouble with this, regular quad extensions exercises fixed it for me…
I’m 45.
Honesty, I think it’s some weird alignment problem I created kneeling doing yoga.
Have continued to run, bike without any problem. Am careful to sit in chairs with the leg somewhat extended, and haven’t had symptoms.
Think I need to stick with swim/bike/run and be conservative about the cross-training.
N+1 as always, and my pain may be different as I can trace it back to a specific injury. Only hurts when I sit for extended periods. My Dr has diagnosed it as general runner’s knee. Driving for more than an hour kills me. I find strength/ balance training to be best at keeping my knee pain free.
For strength, I do a bodyweight workout 1-2 times per week, including squats & lunges. For balance, I do a yoga progression once a week that takes me through the warrior poses. More or less sun salutation into the warrior poses, then repeat for the alternate side, hold each pose for 5-8 deep breaths.
Are you saying it DOESN’T hurt when you’re running? Only sitting? That’s my peculiar problem.
Did the doctor tell you that running might make it worse? I’m OK to manage the stiffness/pain if it’s just sitting. Just don’t want to exacerbate something in an overly-aggressive off-season.
Sometimes it will ache on long runs. If I don’t do my strength/ balance work it might hurt after hard runs. But only rarely will it hurt during a run. If I haven’t been doing my strength work, it might hurt on the lunges. A week or two of wearing a knee brace during workouts and I’m usually back to normal. It hurts the most/most often when I havent been doing my workouts and sit in one position for a long time; and driving for a long time, either due to limited motion, or position, can be torture.
I believe that my issue has to do with stabilizer muscles, which seems odd that the pain would happen when I’m NOT moving. But if it helps, it helps. As always check with your doctor or physio, but in general body weight exercises & yoga are mild enough be worth trying.
Thanks!