Will Runner’s Knee Heal By Itself?

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Will Runner’s Knee Heal By Itself? 

Not according to researchers from The University of Melbourne.

I was doing a Free Strategy Call with a Runner the other day who was looking for help with Runner’s Knee.

She’d had it for a year and a half and had been going to Physio for months now. It wasn’t getting any better and during the course of our call she asked me… 

“Does Runner’s Knee heal by itself?”

Now, this is a really good question and there are a few different research studies looking at it. 

Including one conducted by Researchers at the University of Melbourne and published in The British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Now, why is this an important question to ask?

Well, it’s because many runners with knee pain believe that if they just wait it out, it will heal on its own.

This is actually a fairly reasonable thing to think. You see, if you have ever sprained your ankle or pulled a muscle, you know that most injuries will heal on their own after a few weeks.

However, patellofemoral pain (aka PFP or Runner’s Knee) is a bit different because it’s a repetitive stress injury. It’s an overuse injury and it feels like a vague pain in the front of the knee or behind the kneecap.

So, the researchers wanted to know what happens to PFP when you just leave it alone and do nothing. So they analyzed two studies that followed 310 people with PFP to see what happened.

The studies measured pain and disability at the beginning and then at 3, 6 and 12 months to see what changed. They then looked at the common factors among those whose pain didn’t get better.

They concluded that “PFP is not self-limiting” because 40% of the people studied still had significant pain and disability a year later.

They also noticed a couple of key factors that made it more likely that the pain would persist.

• Those who had had the pain for more than 2 months were much more likely to still have it a year later
• Those whose pain was quite bad (> 6/10 sometimes) were more like to still have pain a year later
• Those whose pain was more disabling were more likely you are more likely to still have it a year later

Essentially, having more pain or having had it longer makes it more likely that it won’t get better on its own.

So, what does this mean for you?

If you have PFP, “wait and see” is not a good option as it is unlikely to get better on its own. Also, the longer you put up with it, the more likely it will persist. 

If the pain is bad, or causing you to significantly reduce your running, it’s even more important to address it sooner rather than later to make sure it doesn’t persist.

I think of this like a forest fire. It’s much easier to put it out when it’s small and relatively confined. Once you have a raging inferno devouring large stretches of woodland, it’s much more difficult to put it out.

This isn’t the only study looking at this. Others have found a similarly concerning trend over 8, 10 and even 20 year periods. 

If you have knee pain that is forcing you to run less, or, it’s been going on for more than two months, you’re going to need to do something about it.

I’d suggest starting with my Free Runner’s Knee Masterclass. 

Inside you’ll learn:

✅ Why runners with knee pain need to run MORE to fix the problem

✅ Why REST makes it worse … and what to do instead

✅ Why conventional rehab often doesn’t work for Runner’s Knee … and a better way to fix it

Just click the link below to watch it:

https://www.fixrunning.com/replay

If you’re looking for more personalized guidance on how to get rid of your knee pain, click the link below to book a free call.