crippled with knee pain and unable to ride :(

Mogsy23

Hi guys,

The story goes that I've got back into mountain biking a couple of months ago. I went for a 10 miler 5 days ago, admittedly with a couple of steep climbs involved, and towards the end was feeling quite a strong pain in my right knee, on the front, top inside of the knee. I've been doing similar length rides, though not quite as steep since i started. I expected this pain to subside but it's still bad enough that i've got no chance of getting on my bike at the moment and don't think i'll be able to for another week.

The thing i'm suspicious about is that it was my first ride, other than round the block, in spd clipless pedals. The guy in my lbs fitted my cleats, but to me the right foot to me feels like it's too much on the inside of the foot. I'm a bit knock kneed so have to wear orthotics for walking, I feel like i naturally want my foot to rotate onto the outside of the foot while cycling as well as being a bit toe out. While clicking in it felt like i was having to roll my foot inwards quite alot.

I'm planning on moving my cleat a little more to the centre of my foot and am thinking about an insole. Does this sound sensible to you guys and does anyone know of anywhere i can find any insoles that may help?

thanks in advance

Mogs

Papa Smurf

I don't know about the clipless side to things but I've recently suffered a similar injury. with pretty much the same pain in the same places as yourself. So on that side to things, be carefull. If you've done something semi serious like a twist you could end up being off the bike for 5+ weeks.

If that is the case, rest as much as you can, and accupuncture also seems to help ALOT

pbt150

Very good article here, and the sequel is worth reading too:

http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/articl ... ance-17010

It sounds like having your cleat too close to the inside is causing the stress at the inside of the knee. Try moving it a bit more towards your little toe so it's more in the middle of your foot. General stretching and core strength should help too - something like one-leg squats, or lunges with light weights.

Get well soon!

-liam-

Similar sounding problem here as well. First noticed about 5 weeks ago....then I broke my foot. Sort of assumed that whatever the issue was in my knee would also have time to heal. Had my first ride since on Tuesday night and low and behold, the pain in my knee returns. Went out tonight and threw some ibuprofen down my neck and some spray on the problematic area before I went out which made it easily bearable. I'm going to keep plugging away as it is and go and see a doc if it persists. Clearly not something that will heal given time if 5 weeks didn't do it. Probably something that needs training and muscle development or some other form of treatment. I've had issues with my other knee before now that was caused by my hip rotating incorrectly as I was walking. Bit of practice at walking properly (clenching arsecheeks while walking etc/sitting to build up muscles surrounding the hip) and other excises and improving posture and it was all sorted in a few months.

Mogsy23

Thanks for that guys, think my course of action will be to give it plenty of rest and try moving my cleat a bit next time. I'm shocking at this whole sitting around not being able to get out lark though, drives me nuts.

Liam - what exercises did you do for your posture in the past, I've got quite tight hamstrings and a friend of mine has tonight suggested that they could be pulling my pelvis out of line and causing me some problems. I've had custom orthotics for 8 years now because my posture isn't quite lined up right, might not be related to the current problem but worth looking into nonetheless, if only to try and prevent future problems.

cheers

Mogs

dunker

had similar problem with mine after an over-enthusiastic spring sunny day long ride. top inside right knee near the knee cap. after a bit of a google sounds like mine was quad tendonitis which i've been able to fix,

initially, about 3 weeks rest then shorter rides.
shorter crank arms down 5mm.
seat height raised.
seat further back, knee over pedal at crank 3 o'clock.
standing on the pedals more for short steep climbs.
knee excersises, one legged squat but only going down about 10-15 degrees, a few reps of 10 on each daily.

no knee pain

edit; maybe switch to flats for awile? i know my feet like to go toe-out when standing on the pedals, kinda like charly chaplin hehe and i am a bit knock knee'd too

Mogsy23

I've been looking for somthing like this for the past few days, not sure if anyone will be interested or not, but if you've got any knee problems then have a look at http://www.cptips.com/knee.htm

Great article, not had time to look at the rest of the site yet. The bits that rang bells with me were when they mention that medial (inside) knee pain can be caused by a wide cleat position which is externally roatated.................Now....where are those blasted Allen Keys.

ACDCwmb

Mogsy23 wrote:

I've been looking for somthing like this for the past few days, not sure if anyone will be interested or not, but if you've got any knee problems then have a look at http://www.cptips.com/knee.htm

Some good reading there, very interesting...

I've pretty much the same problem as mentioned, pain at the top of my knee inside the kneecap. I've had it since around April, not so much of a "pain" more than an "ache" back then but started to get worse to a point where I couldn't ride without it hurting especially when out of the saddle on a climb etc. It also started hurting when I went swimming, when standing after sitting down and when coming downstairs, some days it really made me limp.

I've been to the docs and he didn't know what it was! Waiting on results from x-rays at the minute. With as much rest as I can, work permiting, and tablets prescribed by doc it seems to be getting much better. Ive been off the bike and pretty much inactive apart from work for about 2 months and plan to take it easy for a while when I eventally get back out riding.