Knee pain help!

jontymo

My knees are not in the best condition after many years of footie and a motorcycle accident 13 years ago, anyway last week i felt a pain in my good knee(left)!!!!, i stopped for a while then managed to cycle through it, today i went out for a quick 9 miler but had to stop after 6 miles and get the misses to pick me up.
I have a pain which feels like it is to the left of my knee, i could not pedal and felt like i would fall over if i put my weight on it, i have had bad pain before when hiking but not for years the reason i got into cycling was to give my knees a break.
Also don't know if it is an issue but i'm 16 stone. The main thing i have done in exercise is on my MTB but did 2 long milers before the pain started (28 and 25 miles over consequative weekends), which was by far the furthest i had ridden before.
Any advice would be great, plus whats the best way to get your knees diagnosed, i will book the docs tomorrow but not sure if he is the right person?

Jontymo

Dr_Death

Sounds a little like a lateral meniscus problem. Could be caused by years of imbalance if you already have one duff leg. Walking is a finely balanced mechanism and problems on one side usually lead to problems on the other eventually. I would try your GP as a first port of call, but a physio may be able to give a more accurate diagnosis plus a treatment regime that may be able to redress some of the imbalance.

bluechair84

hopefully you've sorted this by now but if it is a problem with your bike set-up you won't get it diagnosed by the doc! Make sure you are getting almost full extension on your legs. Put the saddle up as high as you can when the ball of your foot is at the pedal axle and your heel down as far as it will go (so foot is pointing upwards). Your leg should be about straight so when you pedal normally and your heel is higher than your toes you will have a slight bend in your knee when you are the bottom of the stroke. And although cycling is a great low impact sport, it is harder on the knees than anywhere else. Have you thought about swimming to keep up a work-out and reduce the effort of your knees?