More evidence that your knee pain (especially in female runners) is a result of weakness in your hip/ gluteus (or buttock) muscles in a recently published paper (Wilson et al, 2012). Also have a look
here.
In the paper, the researchers studied twenty male and twenty female healthy runners. The runners all ran regularly and had 5-6 years of running under their belts. The female runners were found to have 40 percent greater peak gluteus maximus (or buttock) muscle activation and 53 percent higher average gluteus activation compared to the male runners.
The researchers concluded that with the greater gluteus activation, fatigue will set in faster (in the glutes) such that it alters the lower extremity running biomechanics (greater hip adduction and less knee internal rotation) leading to knee pain.
Come see us at Physio Solutions or Sports Solutions, we'll help you run without knee pain.
Reference
Wilson JD, Petrowitz I et al (2012). Male and Female Gluteal Activity and Lower Extremity Kinematics during Running. Clinical Biomechanics. 27(10): 1052-1057.
* Picture from Flickr.com