Knee Pain
(Patellofemoral Pain / “Runner’s Knee”)
This page is for general education only and isn’t a substitute for a professional evaluation. Every case is different — if something here sounds like you, talk to a licensed provider about your specific situation.
Looking for something more specific? This page covers general knee pain. We’re building out dedicated pages for specific diagnoses soon, including: Patellar Tendinopathy (Jumper’s Knee), Meniscus Tear, IT Band Syndrome, ACL Injury & Post-Surgical Rehab, Knee Osteoarthritis, and Shin Splints (Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome). (Not yet linked — check back soon.)
What is Knee Pain?
Knee pain rarely starts at the knee. Patellofemoral pain — pain around or behind the kneecap — is the most common cause of knee pain in active adults, showing up with running, squatting, lunging, or climbing stairs.
Here’s what’s actually happening: how your hip controls your leg directly changes how your kneecap tracks in its groove. Weak or slow-firing hip muscles let your knee cave inward under load — during a run, a squat, or coming down stairs — which changes the pressure your kneecap deals with. Our approach: find the cause of the cause. That’s exactly what a movement-based evaluation is built to uncover.
How is Knee Pain diagnosed?
We start with your story — pain with stairs, squatting, kneeling, or after sitting for a while with your knees bent are all classic signs. Then we watch how you move: a single-leg squat, your hip strength and control, and your running or landing mechanics if that’s relevant to you.
Imaging is rarely needed up front for this kind of knee pain — it’s reserved for suspected trauma or a mechanical block like locking or catching. What matters more is finding the movement pattern driving the load through your kneecap.
How is Knee Pain treated?
A movement-based plan typically includes:
- Building hip and glute strength and control, so your knee stops caving inward under load
- Building quad strength to better support the kneecap through activity
- Retraining the specific movement — squat, running stride, landing mechanics — that reproduces your pain
- Gradually reloading running, lifting, or sport rather than resting completely
The plan isn’t generic; it’s built around what’s actually driving your symptoms. Surgery is appropriate for a small minority of cases with a clear structural issue, and we’ll tell you plainly if that’s what we’re seeing.
What’s the long-term outlook?
The outlook is genuinely good — most people improve significantly with a structured, hip-and-movement-focused plan, without ever needing an injection or surgery.
The strongest predictor of a lasting recovery is whether the underlying driver — usually hip strength and control — actually gets addressed, rather than just resting until the pain settles and going right back to the same training load that brought it on.
Why start with a PT evaluation?
Most knee pain doesn’t require medication, injections, or surgery to resolve — it requires understanding why it’s happening and a guided plan to correct it. Once you understand your specific movement pattern and get expert guidance to address it, you have what you need to get out of pain and Return 2 the activities you care about — without the cost, downtime, or risk that comes with more invasive options.
References
- Willy RW, Hoglund LT, Barton CJ, et al. Patellofemoral Pain: Clinical Practice Guidelines. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2019;49(9):CPG1-CPG95. doi:10.2519/jospt.2019.0302
- Powers CM. The influence of abnormal hip mechanics on knee injury: a biomechanical perspective. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2010;40(2):42-51. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.3337
Nothing on this page is medical advice, and it’s not a diagnosis of your specific situation — think of it as a starting point for understanding what might be going on, not a replacement for being seen. If you’re dealing with this and want an actual answer specific to you, book a free phone consult or reach out — we’re happy to talk before you ever commit to anything.