Hi all,

During my last 2 hikes, I experienced knee pain.

This is quite new for me and does not happen when running or hiking uphill. I am fairly active and exercise regularly.

Here is the situations when it has happened:
1) Hikes >8km long
2) one knee only and it's the outer areas that hurts. But sort of "inside" because if I touch it, there is not much tenderness or so. Comes in a flash and persists.
3) Stairs are really bad
4) Next day it's pretty much gone.

What could this be apart from age? I will go to see my doc as soon as possible but wanted to pick your brains in the meantime!

Thanks
K

Possibly hamstring or popliteal tendon(itis) as the muscles are working eccentrically against gravity to slow you down. I get intense posterior knee pain sometimes when walking down hill for a long time.

No clue, I can just say that my knees 'drop' when I'm going down, like I step into the hole, I just lose the support. Not fun. Not painful in my case, but once tree stopped me from falling further down the steep hill.
Helps going on longer path taking smaller angle, or on sides, or even backwards.

You may try those moves (carefully) if it might help with diagnose.

I didn't seek any advice for myself, I just avoid going down the hills and stairs
And take a bunch of breaks.

When it occurred in my case I was like 19-20 years old and lightweight. I'm good at avoiding situations, so it happens rarely.

If you find out what's wrong or what triggers it, please share.

Lateral knee pain...I have it too, only on the downhill. Only started when I was over 50. It comes on suddenly and gets really, really bad, as you've said. Mostly rest and conservative therapy (NSAIs)--surgery if you really need to fix it. Otherwise, we plan hikes with not that much downhill, and it also helps to take the downhill bits very slowly.

https://www.healthline.com/health/kn...side#diagnosis

Experienced hikers always say you should use poles when going downhill because it helps. I don’t but lots do.

I get it as well. There were hikes where I literally walked backwards in order to keep up with others. Getting softer soles on my shoes was helpful as well as rubbing Leucen on my knee before strenuous downhill hikes. Poles are also a huge help.
Good luck.

I've lived with the exact same issue for quite a few years which followed a football injury where my patella came off and my cruciate ligament was torn.
Took a while for all that to heal properly but the knee pain going down hill on the steeper hikes remains, and nothing much i've been able to do about it.

I would say that strengthening exercises have helped mitigate the pain so that now i can make it up and down some reasonably big mountains.

Might be worth a physio taking a look. Good luck

miniscus

A meniscus injury would likely cause the knee to lock, click, give way - and not just when walking down hill.

I'm not a doctor but I had what the OP is experiencing and I had a miniscus injury.

Arthritis and your stock issue knees getting to end of life.

My first thought was light (displaced?) meniscus injury too (from personal experience). I'd have it checked because this is one of those injurues which gets worse by continuing through the pain.

@OP,


I hope you'll see a doctor too.

Definitely. Just annoyed me so much yesterday I wanted to try and understand. I never have knee pain - only on the long hikes and then downhill. I am annoyed if this means I cannot hike anymore. Anyway, will let you all know what the doc says

Have you ever tried wearing a knee brace to see if it helps? Something like this...

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Sborter-B...3&sr=8-13&th=1

My husband was having knee pain due to running a year or so ago, and so I bought him something similar to that (in the link) and it made all of his knee pains go away. I guess they help stabilize the patella and it says they're good for various problems related to the knee, including meniscus. I'm sure they also sell something similar in CH (I just tend to use amazon.de quite often).

Hope you can find something to help.

Have something similar except on the inside of the leg rather than the outside. Diagnosed (but not scanned to confrim) as ligament damage. Also get pain on longer downhills.

I've recently switched to using very cushioned trail running shoes for hiking instead of regualr hiking shoes (Hoka One One Speedgoat) and find they help a lot. Poles should also help.

Meniscus/cartilage ? I have a lot of knee pain, it’s chronic, I find KTtape type stuff much better than braces as I can still move much more freely but it takes some of the pressure off. Good shoes/boots are a must and depending on the slope I use poles too. Makes me look like an old woman (I’m in my twenties) but it helps me have stability and less pain.

my pain seems to be gone this year. If it comes back, I'll try using the poles even in the summer. It might have been related to the saddle position on my bike.

It was also only one knee, only on longer hikes, and related to irregular terrain combined with elevation change, downhill in particular.

You can go get an MRI and all that jazz but the reality with such issues is mostly that surgery can screw it up and to have a good outcome you need good muscles anyway, but working on that alone can already help it.
Doctors prefer to find ways to manage rather than going straight to surgery for good reason, unless they're money-making butchers.

At some point you just have to replace the knee but sadly the prosthesis do not last more than x years so it's better to do that only if you are old already.

Eliminating running, volleyball and such can reduce stress on knees anyway. At some point the knees are done for and it's not sustainable to continue.

Tbh I would try the poles first, maybe that's enough for now.

I know some who have normal knees but pain when they hike downhill. X-Ray + MRI normal. They don't have knee pain when doing impact sports, pain only comes when they hike downhill


Oh, and outer knee pain can be ITBS too.

That's exactly me. And its so painful I can hardly continue the walk but a few hours later mostly gone and 24 hrs later can go for a run without pain. So strange....