General Fitness & Nutrition: Knee popping question

I'm working on Hal Higdon's Spring training Novice (basically, 12 weeks going from 9 mi/week to 16 mi/week).  I've been running 3mi, 3-4 times per week for a while with no problems.  Recently, my right knee has developed a "pop" when I extend it from a bent position to a straighter position.  It feels like a tendon slipping over a bone or something.  Occasionally it's a little painful, but usually it just feels strange.

I took a week off running to give it a rest and it didn't change much - I have noticed that it does not bother me when I run, and after a run I find that it doesn't happen as much.  It seems to happen when my joint/muscles aren't being used (i.e., in bed, at work).

 

Any thoughts on what this might be and how to address it?  I'm anxious not to cause any serious injury, but I'd really like to push ahead with my training.

 

Thanks!

joints can make all kinds of funny and cool noises...... one thing that might help is to do some quad work..... running tend to work the back half of your leg without doing much for the front half, which can cause some imbalance and some instability. You're not looking to make them huge, just tone them. Things like wall squats( lean with your back against the wall and do squats.... down slow, hold 5 seconds, up slow, start with 2 sets of 5 and increase the number of reps per set) or stationary (or mobile) cycling. I also tend to do low-weight leg extensions (which are frowned on by some PT's since it's open-chain) and low-weight leg presses on a machine. These exercises do a lot to keep my fairly tricky knee somewhat happy!

Open-chain exercises happen when the distal part of the joint is free to move. Closed -chain exercises happen when for some reason the distal part of the joint isn't free to move. So for working quads, for example, an open-chain exercise would be a leg extension machine, because the leg and foot aren't constrained by anything. Squats would be closed-chain, because your foot is on the floor. Another example would be working the biceps with curls vs. doing pull-ups. Open-chain exercises tend to focus on one muscle group and tend (according to some experts) to cause un-natural stresses across the joint (leg extensions pull hard across the knee-cap, causing a shearing stress whereas a squat mainly compresses the knee joint).

Yeah I have the same thing where when I go up the stairs, my knee definitely pops. It just makes this popping sound, but it doesn't hurt during running, and it doesn't hurt when I go down the stairs. Would this advice work for me as well?

Tendonitis. I had the same thing twice last year. I run high school cross country and track and our school has a sport trainer who told me. The best thing to do yourself is to ice it and take an ibuprofen or something. Even better than that is to just take a break, but I know nobody on this site likes that option, including me. The trainer did an ultrasound on my knee everyday before practice and even some electroshock therapy. Now you might want to make sure its tendonitis, but I'm 90% sure it is. Also strengthening that tendon is very important. One of the excercises I did involved sitting on the ground with my leg out straight and locking my knee and holding my leg up a few inches above the ground for about ten seconds. Do that about ten or so times everyday.

Sounds like something associated with patellar tendonities, but I'd suggest consulting a sports physician to rule out dislocation. As someone who has had about 8 dislocations and will eventually need surgery, I really encourage you to jump on this one. A proper strengthening and a brace will do wonders for you and save you a lot of trouble in the future. Also, if you're in Canada, a doctor's prescription can allow you to claim the brace or strap on most insurance plans.