do knees last longer spinning or mashing?

scottgeniusltd2005

after suffering from a totally unrelated cycling buggered knee problem which is improving slowly. i have started to think about which is healthier for knees (maybe something to do with realizing i've only got one set and possibly my age as well), mashing or spinning. now spinning immediately seems better for the knees, less strain? but as an analogy if you use big blows to smash a rock or lots of little chips, it's the same result. are knees the same? after reading about my own knee damage (patella), cycling is recommended to build up the muscle around the knee to strengthen it. when i was ss on my mtb in the hills my leg muscles ached afterwards which means they were getting ripped and being rebuilt stronger. spinning or using an easier gear to go up hill, my legs muscles don't feel like they are getting stronger. i have tried to google but there is not much that i can understand, it's all in technical knee jargon for doctors.

DonDaddyD

I think (and I'm setting this up for someone to tell me I'm wrong) that both spinning o mashing attributes to different kinds of stresses on the knee and that either, if not performed correctly can result in injury.

scottgeniusltd2005

just another thought. when i did a track session last year, it was the only time i have been fixed. the day after the back of my quads ached which means that i was using the back muscles at some point, probably stopping / slowing. does this mean that riding fixed is a good all round exercise for the knee?

wgwarburton

Hi,
I don't think there's medical evidence either way. That was the conclusion I came to after some concerted googling on the topic.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone's had sore knees from spinning too fast, though. My experience and reading on the topic suggests that spinning is more likely to strain your muscles and lungs than your joints, assuming that you arn't giving yourself some sort of RSI as a result of poor bike fit.

Cheers,
W.

gllewellyn

I've had problems with my knees as well, and the physio suggested cycling more to improve them, as I hadn't done much cycling for the previous couple of years (plus she knew I was keen on cycling) - interestingly she said to start off avoid standing up to peddle (in other words, no hills), as this would add extra weight and pressure to my knees. When I asked about cadence, she suggested lower gearing/higher cadence - I guess for the same reason - mashing is going to be putting more pressure through your knee joints.

Regarding riding fixed, I imagine track riding or similar would be good as it would even out your peddling, however riding fixie on the roads could do more harm than good if you're having to try to stop suddenly etc - could start jolting your knees...
Disclaimer: I've never ridden fixed - thats just how I imagine it - feel free to rip me to shreds!

ride_whenever

What sort of patella injury?

Generally my knee issues have cleared up since i got a few singlespeeds and a fixed gear bike for commuting. However i was suffering from patella tendonitis as a result of a muscle inbalance across my quads.

I needed to strengthen my vastius medialis and riding fixed has really helped that, along with riding clipped in again as that forces me to keep my knees in a strong position and drive evenly across the quads.

As to your predicament then it is going to be personal. Generally SS/FG tends to really strengthen muscles whereas gears let you work the cv without over-loading the muscles.

scottgeniusltd2005

chrondalacia (i think that's how you spell it), however this is self diagnosed, pretty easy really, the pain and noise was very specific.

Skippy2309

fixed shouldnt cause an issue as long as you pick the correct gearing, too hard a gear and its going to hurt like hell. as for knee pain make sure your legs on the pedal correctly, I was behind someone today and he only had half his right foot on the pedal making the knee go outwards, which is going to cause a knee pain....

spinning and mashing. I would say spinning is the easier of the two on the knees as mashing the pedals with bad foot positioning will put serious strain on the knee joint. (saying that I do like to mash the pedals till I get upto a comfortable speed to spin).


I would get the knee looked at rather than using the internet to diagnose a problem as it could be something completely different, a bad injury or being caused by something lower down the leg

i-am-iron-man

As a cyclist I never gave a second thought about my knees. I always assumed they'd be dependable and that was that.

However...

A while back I aquired some nice cranks in the wrong size. I didn't see how 2.5mm longer than usual would make any difference. A few rides later I was hobbling around in quite a bit of pain with my right knee (the one I lead with). The LBS's immediate reaction was "what have you changed on your bike?" and I went back to my normal length cranks - within a few weeks the pain had gone.

Some time later, the next change I made to a bike was fitting a bigger chainring to my singlespeed work bike as I was spinning out too easily. All was well for a while, but when winter started (and the wind picked up) I was spending more time pushing hard on the pedals in low cadence. Eventually my knee was absolutely knackered: it clicks, pops and grinds, and when I put my hand on my knee and extend my leg, I can feel my kneecap moving around. Cycling got so painful that I started walking to work.

I made one of my very rare trips to the doctor, only to be sent home with a fucking telephone number! Apparently we no longer have physios in Hull, we have to be diagnosed over the telephone instead (when I got to work I started asking about private healthcare...). When I eventually contacted the NHS they immediately knew what was up and sent me a print-out of some excercises. To my dismay this read like something an elderley or inactive person would need to do - walking up and down a step, etc.

The LBS asked me a second time "what have you changed..." and I reluctantly swapped my chainset out for the old one and started spinning at high cadence. I was able to cycle with very little pain and, over time, I can walk now with no discomfort whatsoever and the noise coming from my knee has subsided. I can still feel my kneecap knocking when I put my hand on it though, but apparently it can take 6+ months to fully right itself.

To the OP: pushing high gears with low cadence (mashing?) can eventually cause problems with your knees. I know you shouldn't really use the interweb to look at stuff like this, as the interweb is full of shit, but this is fairly well documented. In terms of both looking after your joints and getting the most performance out of a ride, I would have thought you should be spinning anyway - I don't mean spinning wildly, but high cadence in a lower gear will make you ride faster and improve your level of fitness, as well as being kinder on your cassette, chainrings and chain (if you have a cassette and chainrings). From experience, the last thing you want is to start worrying about your knee when pain develops, as I thought my bike-riding days were over at one point and professional help was thin on the ground.

the_village_idiot

im confused- you spin your knees on a bike, but where would you mash them?!