Two questions

1.  My knees make lovely crunching sounds when I do squats.  It doesn't hurt but is it okay?

2. When you run hills, do you work your hamstrings more than you would on the flat?

I have heard that the noises your kneew make aren't significant as long as nothing is hurting. 

Can't help much with your second question though...I would assume you work your calfs harder, but I don't know about hamstrings.

I will try #2...  Hills engage/enlist your quads.  You learn this rather quickly as a triathlete because you (mostly) use your quads on the bike.

Original Post by rosieblue:

2. When you run hills, do you work your hamstrings more than you would on the flat?

Do they work more relative to the other muscles involved in the movement? or does the total work they do increase?

This is interesting...

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by rosieblue:

2. When you run hills, do you work your hamstrings more than you would on the flat?

Do they work more relative to the other muscles involved in the movement? or does the total work they do increase?

 

My question was do they work more relative to the quads.  The reason I want to know is I bought the "book"  NRFLFW and the authour said that women naturally develop their quads way more than their hamstrings which leads to more knee injuries.  So, since I can't start New Rules until the end of August, I was hoping hills would develop my hamstrings.  Apparently not.  Maybe if I run backwards...

Original Post by wesmckean:

This is interesting...

Yes, and it answers my question, thanks.  If I'm relaxing my hamstrings, I'm probably not working them enough to make a difference.  I've always liked hills though so maybe I'll have to find some other ways to bulk up.

My knees crack every time I bend them, usually lower than a paralell squat though. My ex-uncle is a doctor and he said it's fine as long as it doesn't hurt.

My knees make a ton of noise when I bend them, the doctor called it "joint crepitis" ... I used to do squats with > 500 pounds in my younger years; I imagine that didn't help!  I also have some arthritis.  But neither have been medically linked to the knee issue.  I got the same advice you've heard above ... if it doesn't hurt, it's okay.

Thanks for the help everybody, I'll just keep crunching along.

im so glad you asked the first question cause i was experiencing the same issue.  i was really nervous since i had an acl replacement on one of my knees