Relieving knee pain...

cusimar9
cusimar9 Posts: 101
edited July 2007 in Road beginners
This is more of a preventative measure really...

I suffer from knee pain (or rather ache) when I do strenuous sport. I used to do a lot of running and when running for an hour or more my left knee would get sore. That's when I decided to start cycling and luckily cycling doesn't seem to give me any bother. Cycling at the gym tends to irritate my knee more however. It tends to be at the top of my left kneecap, usually.

We're doing a LEJOG bike ride in about 4 weeks so I'm just trying to work out what I should take with me to cover all 'what if' scenarios.

Does anyone get similar knee pain and what sort of knee support did you find works for you? There's a few here

Comments

  • Jacomus-rides-Gen
    Jacomus-rides-Gen Posts: 453
    Probably the best way to sort your knee pain out is not to ride exercise bikes at the gym. These are NOT like real bikes, they have pants geometry and will be very likely to mess you up physiologically speaking, whatever the gym-bod says, ignoor them and ignoor the static bikes.

    Buy a turbo trainer and put in static time on your own bike, this also lets you tweak and try out adjustments to your position with all your tools close at hand.

    Sounds to me like you have a saddle height issue - do a 15min warm up, enough that you are sweating. Then unclip and place your heels on the pedals. Pedal around a bit paying attention to your hips, if you have to rock them at all to keep your heels on the pedals, your seat is too high. Get off and adjust the height by 1-2mm at a time. Remember to warm up again when you have stopped sweating, otherwise your muscles will tighten up and you will end up with a sadlle that is slightly too low.

    In terms of the ride, deep heat your knees before you warm up. If you end up stopping during the ride, apply more deap heat as soon as you stop to keep them warm during the rest period and top up before you set off again.

    Also remember to think about keeping your cadence high and smooth, and to frequently stand up for a few pedal strokes. Use hills and accelerating out of sharp corners to make smooth use of getting out of the saddle. If it feels like you are spending longer out of the saddle than the guys you are riding with you are probably doing just enough.

    Accelerating in the saddle is another killer. Do it gently working up through the gears, you can still accelerate very fast - build the revs and keep them very high as you run up through the gears, you can settle into an easier cadence when you have stopped accelerating. Or just stand up to do it.

    When shifting up to your big ring remember to simultaneously drop a gear on the rear, this makes the transition much smoother for your knees.

    Basically you have a lot of gears - make full use of them, combined with out of the saddle work to keep stress on your knees as low as possible.

    Take 400mg of Ibuprofen as soon as you finish the ride, and more at appropriate times if you need it. Deep heating won't do you any harm either, and of course take Glucosamine and chondroitin supplements regularly.

    Good luck!
    Sweat saves blood.
    Erwin Rommel
  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    I have suffered very severe knee pain in the past while on a tour - Ibuprofen got me through, but the last day of the first 7 day tour was excrutiating, and not something I'd like to repeat in a hurry.

    Have never tried wearing a support as I suspect this may well make things worse........cycling is a non-weight bearing excercise which is why over-use injury is less common than with running and I think the supports are really aimed at reducing possible movement in the joint.

    What I would suggest is the following:
    - don't suddenly increase your mileage - best to try and increase gradually, building up to a long tour by increasing you weekly mileage in the lead-up to it.
    - use lower gears - riding big gears day after day always gives me problems, especially with a laden bike - practice sitting in the saddle spinning a small gear
    - keep your knees warm - use knee warmers in damp or cool weather
    It's a Lifestyle! -+-+- Coggan Training Levels
  • cusimar9
    cusimar9 Posts: 101
    I never stand up on the bike... I guess that's half the problem then?
  • jonesy124
    jonesy124 Posts: 205
    you should really try and find out what caused the pain in the first place. I used to run about 5km a day and my right knee started hurting so much that I can no longer run even half that now without it resulting in a lot of pain.

    I cycle 20miles a day and dont even get a twinge. I was told that I damaged part of a ligament in my knee and pushing through the pain would only cause even more damage.

    Does it often hurt a lot when you get back from the gym or the following morning? The pain sounds like its in a similar place to mine so I would really recommend stopping anything which hurts. If it is the same injury then you should have no problem with cycling at all.
    http://www.myspace.com/jonesy_brighton_rock
  • secretsam
    secretsam Posts: 5,120
    Physiotherapy. Find a good sports physio, and ask him/her.

    The one I went to a while back was great. And pretty. Bonus!!!
    It's just a hill. Get over it.
  • cusimar9
    cusimar9 Posts: 101
    SecretSam wrote:
    Physiotherapy. Find a good sports physio, and ask him/her.

    The one I went to a while back was great. And pretty. Bonus!!!

    I tried physio last time and it did sod all :(

    Mind you, I don't have a problem yet. If I do start to get pain I might book in to see one again.
  • wolvesandy
    wolvesandy Posts: 63
    It could be a number of things according to this :)
    www.cptips.com/knee.htm
  • cusimar9
    cusimar9 Posts: 101
    wolvesandy wrote:
    It could be a number of things according to this :)
    www.cptips.com/knee.htm

    My god there's a lot there!

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