gluteal amnesia & being knackered for the summer
saunaboy
Posts: 116
Hi all,
I was on here months ago giving my tale of woe about medial knee pain & how some poor physio advice had knackered me. Basic story...
1) sore knee
2) went to physio & they observed tight hammies. told me to stretch
3) stretching injured both hammies & gave me tendonitis
4) (eventually) saw a great physio who told me that the problem was in fact the opposite & my hammies were tight because my thighs & hip flexors were too tight from a desk job & daft amount of cycling. The stretching as prescribed had stretched already bullied & overused muscles.
I'm only just now getting sorted & anywhere near a bike. I now know that it's actually something called 'gluteal amnesia' and it's apparently very common. I thought I'd mention it here after (from my own experience) it can be missed. If you've got the following then give it a think before you just go & stretch etc...
tight hamstrings
sore knees
stiff lower back that feels good after a stretch
strong quads
maybe not so strong core
I'm on a long programme to stretch out the front (hip flexors, quads, ITB) and the most important bit...
Ignore the hamstrings - no stretching or strengthening. They were tight because they were being used to do the work of the glutes & they're not meant to do that. The glutes were neurologically turned off due to chronic overuse of the hips & quads. This meant that pedalling & even walking were overloading the hamstring tendons in the knee. I was also starting to get drift of my knee into the crossbar of the bike which I'd never had as a young un.
Exercises to re-program the glutes:
I feel better after 2 weeks of these then I have from months of 'treatment'. If it hadn't been that it meant months of pain & no cycling it would have been really interesting.
I was on here months ago giving my tale of woe about medial knee pain & how some poor physio advice had knackered me. Basic story...
1) sore knee
2) went to physio & they observed tight hammies. told me to stretch
3) stretching injured both hammies & gave me tendonitis
4) (eventually) saw a great physio who told me that the problem was in fact the opposite & my hammies were tight because my thighs & hip flexors were too tight from a desk job & daft amount of cycling. The stretching as prescribed had stretched already bullied & overused muscles.
I'm only just now getting sorted & anywhere near a bike. I now know that it's actually something called 'gluteal amnesia' and it's apparently very common. I thought I'd mention it here after (from my own experience) it can be missed. If you've got the following then give it a think before you just go & stretch etc...
tight hamstrings
sore knees
stiff lower back that feels good after a stretch
strong quads
maybe not so strong core
I'm on a long programme to stretch out the front (hip flexors, quads, ITB) and the most important bit...
Ignore the hamstrings - no stretching or strengthening. They were tight because they were being used to do the work of the glutes & they're not meant to do that. The glutes were neurologically turned off due to chronic overuse of the hips & quads. This meant that pedalling & even walking were overloading the hamstring tendons in the knee. I was also starting to get drift of my knee into the crossbar of the bike which I'd never had as a young un.
Exercises to re-program the glutes:
I feel better after 2 weeks of these then I have from months of 'treatment'. If it hadn't been that it meant months of pain & no cycling it would have been really interesting.
0
Comments
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Very common problem in cyclists. The glutes despite being the largest and strongest muscle group seem to be quite lazy and would rather leave it to the hamstrings and lower back. I was used as a case study for a lad doing his thesis on this problem in athletes (and people claim strength and conditioning is useless in cyclists!)"A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"
PTP Runner Up 20150
