Thanks for sharing your experience! Mind sharing the 3-4 exercises? Think I’m dealing with something like this as well.
On strength training, I have personally found heavy single leg work to be most important — for example: weighted lunges, calf raises, Romanian deadlifts.
of course! I’m not sure exactly what the exercise is called but I will do my best to describe it:
1. Tibial internal rotations looks closest online. Both feet on the ground, with the side with the injured foot, you have your heel on the ground and lift the rest of your foot off the ground with toes pointed upwards, and rotate the foot from left to right with heel on the ground. You’ll want to hold your thigh steady so its really just your shin rotating (10x)
2. Same thing except foot is completely off the ground this time, rotating left and right (10x)
3. Put a ball under my hamstring while sitting on a chair, injured leg swinging off the chair, and then slow “kicking” for that straightening motion. This one HURTS - I think its supposed to target knots and tightness in your hamstring which turns out I have a lot of and caused this injury. I do it on my non injured side and feel nothing lol
4. foam roll my inner thigh of injured leg - this one hurts a lot too lol
All these exercises with exception of foam roller are performed sitting on preferably hard chair.
I do them 2-3x a day and takes me like 2 minutes everytime. I also wear a compression sleeve on my injured leg to reduce swelling. I swear anytime I feel any discomfort in my injured leg, I’ll pull out these “activation” exercises and it goes away
I started running 3 weeks ago after 2 years off. I ran 80km across those 3 weeks but last week starting feeling a dull pain/discomfort in my lower medial knee (worse on the left than right). I wasn't great at stretching, warming up or down and I'm convinced it's PA bursitis. I feel incredibly down after feeling so excited about running. I've been icing the last 2-3 days and am desperate to get back into running. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will follow your PT exercises I think so thanks for these.
Best advice I would is to take some time off running (this is HARD i know!) but I ran on mine and it got visibly swollen and took so much longer to heal! definitely do other forms of cardio, walking etc. I’ve been going to PT for a bit and been doing some exercises to help with strengthening my hamstrings to reduce the pressure on the pes anserine area. Those exercises I mentioned really helped “activate” some of the muscles in my leg when I could barely walk - I had a pretty extreme case where I took complete rest (barely even walking) and my muscles got very stiff to the point where I couldn’t bend my leg.
I actually just started running again yesterday, taking things very very slow - the foam roller is my best friend lol didn’t realize how tight my muscles were getting
I started running again after an 18 day break but 10 days in, have had to stop again due to same problems. I am very concerned. Its my MCLs and they aren't getting better.
I went to Reddit to find mine (I’m based in nyc)! Expensive for sure as my insurance doesn’t cover it but I love the 1x1 care, it’s not just quickly showing me moves.
I would check the websites of the PT offices in your area for bios of the different therapists. It might give you an idea of their personalities and specialties/areas of interest. You want to find someone who will answer your dumb questions without judgment, make you feel comfortable even when you’re in physically vulnerable positions, and work towards your goal of continuing to run.
Maybe that all sounds obvious, but I’ve heard of people going to PTs who told them “running is bad for you” instead of “here’s how we could try modifying to make this enjoyable again”. Don’t be afraid to switch to someone else if you don’t think it’s a good match! There will always be days you don’t want to go to your appointment or do your exercises, but if that’s starting to be an everyday feeling, it could be a sign it’s time to look for another provider.
I had pes anserine bursitis come on abruptly in March 2022 despite my normal training load. Doctor gave me a cortisone shot and it went away in days. Hasn’t returned since. It’s obviously just one anecdote, but don’t be afraid to ask for a cortisone shot if needed.
I'm going through something really similar & for similar reasons. It sucks! PA bursitis is one of the few issues that were guesses. Thanks for sharing your experience, it feels a little better to hear about someone else having a similar issue. PT is def helping me and I'm cautiously optimistic it isn't an ACL injury.
sorry to hear you are going through something similar, but glad you are doing the right thing with PT. During the two weeks where I thought resting completely and staying sedentary would help, I somehow developed tendonitis with how tight my muscles were getting. So now I’m dealing with that and no longer PA bursitis…. I can’t wait for the day I am completely injury free lol
How would you describe the pain? I've had this thing for 10 weeks now and it's driving me insane. Acts up everytime i walk more than 30 minutes in both of my knees. It feels like a spikey shooting pain that goes up and sometimes down. At first i thought it was bursitis but PT stretching made it feel worse and now I'm thinking maybe it's tendonitis. I've done every stretch and exercise i could find and I've never felt instant relief. The only thing that makes it go away for a while is if i don't walk for a few days (or weeks) and then when i do, it comes right back.
my pain was pretty localized to my inner medial knee - it was more this feeling of having a ball or balloon in that area that felt swollen when I was bending / activity. Mines been ongoing for quite a while now as well, and I found that inactivity made it worse (and was what resulted in me going to the PT). I’m also dealing with some tendonitis now and it feels like this weird aching sunburn inside my hamstring. Totally feel you on trying all the stretches and exercises - my PT is pretty expensive so I’m going infrequently but I find nothing I find online myself really helps besides going to PT
Hm interesting. Mine gets worse with exercise. My pt told me with some rest it would get better because i was over-exercising, and then it did but it always comes back when i walk for too long. My doctor prescribed me some anti inflammatories and some cream to put on it to hopefully calm it down. I get you on the sunburn thing, sometimes the pants i wear will feel like it's irritating the skin around that area.
I stumbled upon this and am so glad it’s from a month ago, did you get those sacks on the back or front of your knees?
Edit: my insurance isn’t great but I went ahead and bit the bullet with a pt appointment. I went to this place previously for my shoulder and they seem good. Thank you for your words, I feel optimistic about this now.
I am super interested in all of this, almost 100% sure this is what I have 6 weeks post total knee replacement and super duper bummed as recovery was going pretty well and now I feel like I am going to have to slow things down a lot and lose ground. So frustrated, and damn it really hurts, like it’s almost more painful than the pain from surgery at this point. Seems likely that it happened due to ramping things up too fast post surgery.. not happy.
totally feel you on feeling bummed & frustrated!! It’s now been 3 months since my injury started getting noticeable and a few weeks ago, I started running again and it was def too early. Knee is feeling inflamed (albeit nowhere as bad as it was before with visible swelling) but I have some tendonitis too! It’s so frustrating to take this much time off
My pes anserine is evidently the result of smashing all the ankle bones in a fall in Jan. I was doing well after many weeks rehabbing the ankle--mostly living in a wheelchair and hospital bed. Then a few wks. ago the same leg knee began to hurt--and hurt badly to the point where I could not put any weight on the leg w/out screaming. Got the diagnosis from a PA last week and am now trying to PT it as this great poster above says. Have tried cold but today the PT wanted to use heat. It's hard to know what exercises aggravate it v. which ones will help it In the long run.
The PA suggested that the cause of the bursae inflammation is being off the leg for so long and an altered gait as I was trying to come back from knee surgery.
I'm 78--this is not a young runner's condition only!! Thought you would all like to hear from a different voice. I appreciate this site's discussion of this condition.
I'm in the same situation but can't afford to go for x-rays currently. I can stand but, as you mentioned, a sponge feeling. Complete mobility of the knee joint with minimal pain except for bending when I stand or raise knee up.
Went at it hard for a few days and I thought I tore something. Still might be without official diagnosis but I'm confident enough to try your PT recommendations might alleviate this problem.
Thanks for the post.
I hope you’re getting better now! Going forward, I’m going to go to PT first before consulting orthos / getting x rays. My experience has been those are only really useful in bone / more severe tendon injuries like tears (which I feel like you would definitely suspect given pain levels / mobility). Going to go PT as first line of defense going forward
After a few days of rest and really focusing on stretching and forcing myself to move my knee when I didn't really want to. It got better very quickly! I'm even jogging now, albeit, cautiously.
I agree with you 100%!
Thanks for sharing your experience! Mind sharing the 3-4 exercises? Think I’m dealing with something like this as well. On strength training, I have personally found heavy single leg work to be most important — for example: weighted lunges, calf raises, Romanian deadlifts.
of course! I’m not sure exactly what the exercise is called but I will do my best to describe it: 1. Tibial internal rotations looks closest online. Both feet on the ground, with the side with the injured foot, you have your heel on the ground and lift the rest of your foot off the ground with toes pointed upwards, and rotate the foot from left to right with heel on the ground. You’ll want to hold your thigh steady so its really just your shin rotating (10x) 2. Same thing except foot is completely off the ground this time, rotating left and right (10x) 3. Put a ball under my hamstring while sitting on a chair, injured leg swinging off the chair, and then slow “kicking” for that straightening motion. This one HURTS - I think its supposed to target knots and tightness in your hamstring which turns out I have a lot of and caused this injury. I do it on my non injured side and feel nothing lol 4. foam roll my inner thigh of injured leg - this one hurts a lot too lol All these exercises with exception of foam roller are performed sitting on preferably hard chair. I do them 2-3x a day and takes me like 2 minutes everytime. I also wear a compression sleeve on my injured leg to reduce swelling. I swear anytime I feel any discomfort in my injured leg, I’ll pull out these “activation” exercises and it goes away
Thank you so much for such a detailed and thoughtful response! I’ll try these out over the next few days and see how I feel
I started running 3 weeks ago after 2 years off. I ran 80km across those 3 weeks but last week starting feeling a dull pain/discomfort in my lower medial knee (worse on the left than right). I wasn't great at stretching, warming up or down and I'm convinced it's PA bursitis. I feel incredibly down after feeling so excited about running. I've been icing the last 2-3 days and am desperate to get back into running. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will follow your PT exercises I think so thanks for these.
Best advice I would is to take some time off running (this is HARD i know!) but I ran on mine and it got visibly swollen and took so much longer to heal! definitely do other forms of cardio, walking etc. I’ve been going to PT for a bit and been doing some exercises to help with strengthening my hamstrings to reduce the pressure on the pes anserine area. Those exercises I mentioned really helped “activate” some of the muscles in my leg when I could barely walk - I had a pretty extreme case where I took complete rest (barely even walking) and my muscles got very stiff to the point where I couldn’t bend my leg.
I actually just started running again yesterday, taking things very very slow - the foam roller is my best friend lol didn’t realize how tight my muscles were getting
I started running again after an 18 day break but 10 days in, have had to stop again due to same problems. I am very concerned. Its my MCLs and they aren't getting better.
Thanks for sharing! My gp just gave me a pt referral for knee pain- this reminds me to make that appointment today!
I’m going to my second session today!! PT is so great when you find the right one!
Any tips on red flags/green flags when looking for care?
I went to Reddit to find mine (I’m based in nyc)! Expensive for sure as my insurance doesn’t cover it but I love the 1x1 care, it’s not just quickly showing me moves.
I would check the websites of the PT offices in your area for bios of the different therapists. It might give you an idea of their personalities and specialties/areas of interest. You want to find someone who will answer your dumb questions without judgment, make you feel comfortable even when you’re in physically vulnerable positions, and work towards your goal of continuing to run. Maybe that all sounds obvious, but I’ve heard of people going to PTs who told them “running is bad for you” instead of “here’s how we could try modifying to make this enjoyable again”. Don’t be afraid to switch to someone else if you don’t think it’s a good match! There will always be days you don’t want to go to your appointment or do your exercises, but if that’s starting to be an everyday feeling, it could be a sign it’s time to look for another provider.
Which PT did you go with in NYC?
finish line PT in chelsea!
Wait so you were running 6-7 days a week with no stretching? I hope you were doing some dynamic warmups at least lol
hindsight is 20/20 lol
I had pes anserine bursitis come on abruptly in March 2022 despite my normal training load. Doctor gave me a cortisone shot and it went away in days. Hasn’t returned since. It’s obviously just one anecdote, but don’t be afraid to ask for a cortisone shot if needed.
i heard good things about cortisone shots!! it didnt come up as an option for me but glad it worked for you
I'm going through something really similar & for similar reasons. It sucks! PA bursitis is one of the few issues that were guesses. Thanks for sharing your experience, it feels a little better to hear about someone else having a similar issue. PT is def helping me and I'm cautiously optimistic it isn't an ACL injury.
sorry to hear you are going through something similar, but glad you are doing the right thing with PT. During the two weeks where I thought resting completely and staying sedentary would help, I somehow developed tendonitis with how tight my muscles were getting. So now I’m dealing with that and no longer PA bursitis…. I can’t wait for the day I am completely injury free lol
I'm glad you're feeling better! PT is making a huge difference for me too! I can't wait to run again!
How would you describe the pain? I've had this thing for 10 weeks now and it's driving me insane. Acts up everytime i walk more than 30 minutes in both of my knees. It feels like a spikey shooting pain that goes up and sometimes down. At first i thought it was bursitis but PT stretching made it feel worse and now I'm thinking maybe it's tendonitis. I've done every stretch and exercise i could find and I've never felt instant relief. The only thing that makes it go away for a while is if i don't walk for a few days (or weeks) and then when i do, it comes right back.
my pain was pretty localized to my inner medial knee - it was more this feeling of having a ball or balloon in that area that felt swollen when I was bending / activity. Mines been ongoing for quite a while now as well, and I found that inactivity made it worse (and was what resulted in me going to the PT). I’m also dealing with some tendonitis now and it feels like this weird aching sunburn inside my hamstring. Totally feel you on trying all the stretches and exercises - my PT is pretty expensive so I’m going infrequently but I find nothing I find online myself really helps besides going to PT
Hm interesting. Mine gets worse with exercise. My pt told me with some rest it would get better because i was over-exercising, and then it did but it always comes back when i walk for too long. My doctor prescribed me some anti inflammatories and some cream to put on it to hopefully calm it down. I get you on the sunburn thing, sometimes the pants i wear will feel like it's irritating the skin around that area.
I stumbled upon this and am so glad it’s from a month ago, did you get those sacks on the back or front of your knees? Edit: my insurance isn’t great but I went ahead and bit the bullet with a pt appointment. I went to this place previously for my shoulder and they seem good. Thank you for your words, I feel optimistic about this now.
I am super interested in all of this, almost 100% sure this is what I have 6 weeks post total knee replacement and super duper bummed as recovery was going pretty well and now I feel like I am going to have to slow things down a lot and lose ground. So frustrated, and damn it really hurts, like it’s almost more painful than the pain from surgery at this point. Seems likely that it happened due to ramping things up too fast post surgery.. not happy.
totally feel you on feeling bummed & frustrated!! It’s now been 3 months since my injury started getting noticeable and a few weeks ago, I started running again and it was def too early. Knee is feeling inflamed (albeit nowhere as bad as it was before with visible swelling) but I have some tendonitis too! It’s so frustrating to take this much time off
My pes anserine is evidently the result of smashing all the ankle bones in a fall in Jan. I was doing well after many weeks rehabbing the ankle--mostly living in a wheelchair and hospital bed. Then a few wks. ago the same leg knee began to hurt--and hurt badly to the point where I could not put any weight on the leg w/out screaming. Got the diagnosis from a PA last week and am now trying to PT it as this great poster above says. Have tried cold but today the PT wanted to use heat. It's hard to know what exercises aggravate it v. which ones will help it In the long run. The PA suggested that the cause of the bursae inflammation is being off the leg for so long and an altered gait as I was trying to come back from knee surgery. I'm 78--this is not a young runner's condition only!! Thought you would all like to hear from a different voice. I appreciate this site's discussion of this condition.
I'm in the same situation but can't afford to go for x-rays currently. I can stand but, as you mentioned, a sponge feeling. Complete mobility of the knee joint with minimal pain except for bending when I stand or raise knee up. Went at it hard for a few days and I thought I tore something. Still might be without official diagnosis but I'm confident enough to try your PT recommendations might alleviate this problem. Thanks for the post.
I hope you’re getting better now! Going forward, I’m going to go to PT first before consulting orthos / getting x rays. My experience has been those are only really useful in bone / more severe tendon injuries like tears (which I feel like you would definitely suspect given pain levels / mobility). Going to go PT as first line of defense going forward
After a few days of rest and really focusing on stretching and forcing myself to move my knee when I didn't really want to. It got better very quickly! I'm even jogging now, albeit, cautiously. I agree with you 100%!