Uphill Treadmill bad for knees?

[Nikolaisherling]

How is it with treadmills and my knee? Is interval uphill on the treadmill bad for my knees? Should I consider running on the treadmill uphill, three times a week? Maybe more? Or is it simply just taking too high a risk? It's because where I live, it's flat. Like all over the place unfortunately :-)

[$ick Money!]

Incline is actually less stress on the knees and low back. You want to avoid running down hill.

If you have to run downhill you should zig zag instead of run straight down.

[SherTiger1]

I did a run on an incline today for the first time in ages, and my knees and joints felt absolutly fine. Quads starting burning towards the end though as I was progressively upping the gradient and they felt dead by the time I finished with a minute on 10 incline.

I don't intend to make this a regular thing though as usually run on 1.0 - 1.5, and just thought I'd try it for a change.

[JRT6]

I read somwhere that a significant incline on the treadmill has 23% less impact than running flat. But then again I read somewhere else that said hill running was bad for the knees. That being said I've been doing a hill run on the treadmill, 8 degrees+, one day a week and my knees feel no worse than they usually do. Another plus is the hill workout by it's very nature is short so it keeps the pounding down in that regard.

[zop]

Originally Posted by $ick Money!

Incline is actually less stress on the knees and low back. You want to avoid running down hill.

If you have to run downhill you should zig zag instead of run straight down.

Running uphill and running downhill both place stress on the knees.

Running uphill stresses the ACL more than the PCL.
Running downhill stresses the PCL more than the ACL.

Hopefully I don't have those backwards.

[$ick Money!]

Originally Posted by zop

Running uphill and running downhill both place stress on the knees.

Running uphill stresses the ACL more than the PCL.
Running downhill stresses the PCL more than the ACL.

Hopefully I don't have those backwards.

INteresting. I had not heard that. Thanks for the update.

[JRT6]

I believe the risk to the knees from uphill running is minor. The risk running down hill is obvious everytime I do it.

[$ick Money!]

Originally Posted by JRT6

I believe the risk to the knees from uphill running is minor. The risk running down hill is obvious everytime I do it.

Anytime I have a client that has knee pain with running I have them do higher incline and that usually solves it.