Morning knee pain

faarn

looking for some advise regarding stiff/sore knees when getting out of bed in the morning. I have recently started to commute 10km each way to work every day. It is pretty flat and I take it relatively easy there and push a bit harder coming home (I'm not flat out but breathing hardish). I'm generally fit and before I started the commute leant towards running more than biking (10km runs and the odd hour turbo trainer session).

It's pretty clear that the increase in regularity is probably responsible for the pain. I find it very difficult to go down the stairs in the morning but after 30 mins of light movement I am good to bike and the pain is negligible on my return leg; clearly movement helps! I can't, however, live with this constantly so what can I do to improve this? I am looking to increase my load more (I am looking to do a Half Ironman next year) but at the moment adding in structured runs and bikes would only make things worse I think.

Any advice as to whether pushing through will help or whether I should temporarily back off would be greatly appreciated.

wilberforce

Do you ride clipped in or flat pedals?
Is it a specific area of your knees that are sore and any swelling etc?
Is it consistently both of them that hurt?
Any previous injuries?

faarn

Hi wilberforce, thanks for the reply. I should have been more specific. I'm 42 and the pain is a general pain/ache over the front/top/middle of both kneecaps but there is no obvious swelling. I have had similar pain before which is aggravated by both running and cycling (so general use I think). If I under use my knees it gets bad, and seemingly if I overuse them it gets bad, there certainly seems to be a happy medium but as said I really need to increase my training and I got rid of our second car to force me to commute by bike!

I use flat pedals with toe clips loosely fitted on my commuting bike (my old road bike) but cleat on my newer road bike (which I'm not using at the moment).

I do have ongoing mild lower back and hip problems which do not in anyway hinder me but could be contributing.

Thanks

N0bodyOfTheGoat

When my knees give me grief, it's usually because of saddle height and/or saddle fore/aft.

I now aim for ~30 degrees between my hip socket, just below my kneecap and my ankle... When crank is down and in line with seat post, having span the cranks a few times to try and give a typical foot position extension relative to the ankle.

25-35 degrees bend is apparently the normal range.

Each 1mm change of saddle height changes the angle by ~1 degree.

faarn

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

When my knees give me grief, it's usually because of saddle height and/or saddle fore/aft.

I now aim for ~30 degrees between my hip socket, just below my kneecap and my ankle... When crank is down and in line with seat post, having span the cranks a few times to try and give a typical foot position extension relative to the ankle.

25-35 degrees bend is apparently the normal range.

Each 1mm change of saddle height changes the angle by ~1 degree.

Thanks for this. I'm going to do a full bike fit (DIY) and see if it improves.

ugo.santalucia

Patella ligament inflammation. Rest it and ice it, it should go away in a few days. A couple of quick fixes

1) check your saddle height, it might be too low
2) Use a smaller gear, high cadence rather than high torque

It's a hassle, I've had it for ages... It does eventually clear once you do the right things

faarn

As a follow up, I refitted my bike which resulted in lowering the saddle by about 1.5 cm as well as some other tweaks. I can certainly feel it engaging my hamstrings more now so this has clearly made some difference. I have also done 2 weeks of hip and leg stretches and I took it a bit easier for 4 or so days.

I think a combination of the above as well as my body better adjusting to the increased regularity seems to have dine the trick.

Thanks for the tips above.

molteni_man

faarn said:

As a follow up, I refitted my bike which resulted in lowering the saddle by about 1.5 cm as well as some other tweaks. I can certainly feel it engaging my hamstrings more now so this has clearly made some difference. I have also done 2 weeks of hip and leg stretches and I took it a bit easier for 4 or so days.

I think a combination of the above as well as my body better adjusting to the increased regularity seems to have dine the trick.

Thanks for the tips above.

faarn- glad that is helping to sort your knees. Some really good suggestions and hoping that the improvements continue.
Another suggestion which has helped my knees hugely after years of running, playing football and Squash, hill walking and a couple of knee ops, has been taking cod liver oil and Glucosamine Sulphate. I went from hardly being able to walk sometimes as you describe to no real issues. Pretty much take them every day.
Like you I’m big believer in keeping on moving. Cycling with the right set up is certainly better than the above sports mentioned above for the knees too!

johnnyfartpants

molteni_man ".....been taking cod liver oil and Glucosamine Sulphate....."

^ This