This is why "just do squats" really grinds my gears.

Let me back this up a minute.

If you've ever struggled with achey knees on the back half of your long, or cringed with every other step running down hill...

then you know how annoying, but also how stabby and painful runner's knee can be.

Even just running on different terrain like trails or a grassy meadow can leave you questioning your life choices for a week after.

(ask me how I know from experience...)

That's why whenever I see other PT's or the internet at large suggest "just do heavy squats" to fix your knee pain, it makes me die inside a little.

Because while they're not wrong: you WILL get stronger, build stronger legs, from squatting heavy...

You won't always solve the root problem.

If you didn't know, I have pancake feet. They're notoriously flat. And my right is worse than my left. This is relevant because the type of foot you have can directly affect the joint above it, your knee.

*enter my long history of repeat right runner's knee*

For emphasis: there was a time in my life where I was back squatting 400 lbs. (yes, 4-0-0).

But you know what? That darn right knee was still a butt when I ran. In fact, I swore it hurt more.

Why? Because my single leg strength was poop. No really: I remember trying to do walking lunges and about fell over because my balance was so bad.

THE POINT:

I want you to hear me when I say, you can get really, really strong from squats! And that's fantastic.

But you CANNOT skip the single leg strength. Take it from a runner of 15+ years and a physical therapist who was too stubborn and had to learn it the hard way.

And that's why this week I wanted to write you a running-specific strength circuit that directly targets the root cause of knee aches and niggles.

Because often, for runners, the biggest contributors to knee pain on long runs is our quad muscle capacity: the muscle just isn't strong enough to handle that long of a work time.

And once your quad peaces-out, it likes to dump load into your patellar tendon.

The internet does you a huge disfavor here and fails to deliver on the nuance on HOW to strengthen your knee tendons.

That's what this circuit focuses on: the missing piece and exact time-under-tension rep scheme that I use to strengthen my patellar tendons whenever I can feel them getting cranky.

But the other culprit, especially for runners experiencing a lot of downhills, is poor eccentric quad strength. I have very deliberate, running specific exercises to target this too, so you're never under prepared running down hill again.

If you have questions at all, feel free to reply directly to this email: it's always me on the end.

Until next time, running fit fam...

Dare to Train Differently,

Marie Whitt, PT, DPT //@dr.whitt.fit

P.S. This week is the answer to why your “Leg Day” isn’t fixing your runner’s knee. Obviously I've got exercises for you ;)

Looking for MORE ways to work together?

• ​RUNNING RESCUE CALL: Save your run and your race. Work directly with me 1-on-1 at the first sign of an ache, niggle, or repeat running injury. We'll deep dive into the why behind your injury and create a personalized exercise program that gets you out of pain, keeps you running, and helps prepare you for race day!
• Grab my NEWEST FREE Strength resources for runners: The Calf & Achilles Cure Toolkit, made for marathoners sidelined by stiff, painful achilles and tight, injury-prone calves who want to protect their training cycle and show up to the starting line strong, pain-free, and ready to race.
• ​STRONGER FEET WORKSHOP: Losing the battle to plantar fasciitis, posterior tib pain, or reoccurring Achilles tendonitis? Not with this workshop ;)

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