Why do so many women runners develop knee pain?
We see this very frequently in clinical practice. Women often present with anterior knee pain, or Patellofemoral pain and often men present with Iliotibial pain (ITB) syndrome at the knee. Recently, Ireland in 2003 and Robinson in 2007 have illustrated weaknesses in the hip muscles in women runners with knee pain, when compared to women with without knee pain. These weaknesses were quite significant, 26% for the hip abductor, which is the side muscle and 36% for the external rotators, which includes the dreaded piriformis. These muscles weaknesses can lead to a condition called genu valgosity, or knocked knees. Recently, these findings were confirmed with the addition of hip extensor weakness being present in women with knee pain. These studies are both looking at women with current knee pain and does not demonstrate a cause and effect phenomena. Are the hip (pelvic) muscle weaknesses a causative factor in the development of the symptom, or are they simply the consequence of the sympto
