Training & Nutrition - Tendonitis

Has anyone ever experienced tendonitis before caused from cycling? What were the symptoms? Were you able to continue cycling while healing? Thanks.

yup, achilles tendonitis once, caused by bad technique ankling the pedals, I continued and it got better but it was painful

ive had tendonitis or least what feels like it in my patella tendon area from time to time but it only happens when I get up around 400-450 miles/week

ive had tendonitis in my elbows from torquing on the handlebars sprinting all the time, that happened alot when I started, rarely happens anymore, part of it was bike setup having just a bit too much reach, but it still comes back sometimes

symptoms were mostly constant dull pain, some stiffness after resting for long periods, would get worse with use or overuse and pain level would increase accordingly from dull to much sharper but not really a shooting stabbing type pain, sometimes sensitive to touch, sometimes not~~~the soft tissue area of my elbows gets sensitive from it, sometimes if its at a joint you will feel heat in the area as well

Thanks for the reply. I'm wondering if I have this in the knees. Symptoms sound very similar to yours.

if its in your knees be damn careful, you can really screw yourself up by riding when you shouldnt

there's a difference tween bad setup caused pain and overuse caused pain, and it isnt always easy to know the difference, always check bike setup first, and if needed even switch bikes to figure it out

overuse type injuries typically take boatloads of miles to appear and dont just go away, setup caused problems usually show up quickly or at regular intervals of miles and will go away when the setup is changed---ive had this happen a few times

had a bike I rode for work as a messenger, everything was fine for months, then all of a sudden I started having pretty serious knee pains, a couple weeks later I had a 400 mile week and it put me off the bike, I changed bikes and it was fine, went back to that bike and it came right back, only difference tween the two bikes was the pedals----what had happened was the toe cages on the first bike werent quite deep enough so the pedal spindle wasnt far enough back and under the ball of my foot far enough, maybe off by 1/2" but thats all it took, one good hard long week and it showed its ugly head even though I had ridden that bike for months with those pedals with zero problems

setup can and does make a big difference

overuse type things like tendonitis wont go away when you switch bikes or change the setup, time is about the only cure, or if your still a newbie occasionally its just an issue of using muscles and tissues that arent used to it yet, depends on what it is, but knees you dont play with..............and diagnosing why your knees hurt when riding is an art by itself, everyone is different, but always check the setup and if possible ride a different bike and see what and why what's hurting hurts first

in my line of work Ive heard this one syptom pretty regularly from others, the leg you start with always starts hurting before the other one, standing up and pushing off using my right leg with all the stopping and starting I do makes it get sore first, thats an overuse problem and it makes my patella tendon and sometimes my hamstring a bit sore, bike setup wont change that

Thanks for the details. I'll have a look at my set up.

Currently suffering patellar tendonitis, most likely caused by overuse. So far I've been out for about 2 months and showing no signs of improvement, going up and down stairs still causes pain like the day I first noticed the problem.

But anyway, yeah, tendons take forever to heal. You absolutely must avoid any activity that causes pain or discomfort, 'cause that just puts you back to Square One. That is to say, the Lance Armstrong "pain is weakness leaving your body" quote does not apply here...pain with tendonitis is prolonged tendonitis. Knees are particularly difficult because it's damned near impossible to avoid bending your knees (walking, driving, etc. etc.).

Definitely check your setup, but as pedex says, if you are putting in a lot of miles (esp. with a lot of climbing) or if you're new to cycling it could be overuse. In that case, continuing to ride, even with a "perfect" setup, is not going to help.

I used to get a lot of tendonitis/bursitis problems: Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, knee pain and mild CTS. They were all overuse injuries as I am more than a little obsessive about running and cycling. I can tell you what did not work for me:

-Complete rest is a short-term solution. Sure it will relieve the symptoms and allow healing, but your body will not adapt to the stressor that caused the problem in the first place. Upon resuming training it will return. For me the solution required continuing light training at moderate intensity but reduced frequency and duration.

- Stretching will not help without also strengthening the area. Stretching alone is worthless or even worse, counter productive. If you go with strengthening, use eccentric not concentric exercises, and use moderate to light weights.

One thing that did SEEM to work for me was starting to use 400IU of vitamin E daily on top of a multivitamin and 250 – 500mg vitamin C. I normally wouldn’t recommend vitamin therapy, as it’s usually hoaky stuff. But do some searches on oxidative damage to tendons and you may be convinced.

http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/anti-inflammatory.html

http://www.exrx.net/Nutrition/Antioxidants/Antioxidants.html

Thanks everyone. If my case is not bike fit, would I benefit from very mild cycling; say of heart rate at a recovery level (approx. 120 bpm)?

I forgot to add that the pain I am getting is not most noticeable after the riding has stopped later in the evening. It mostly goes like this: Evening of same day of ride pain is the worst. The next day pain is still there but not as bad. The next day pain is very minimal. The next day ride again and that evening back to square one.

I also looked up knee tendonitis and found that most of this is pain in the front of the knee. The pain I am getting is not in the front but in the back and wraps around both sides. The front of my knees feels great . . .

Thanks everyone. If my case is not bike fit, would I benefit from very mild cycling; say of heart rate at a recovery level (approx. 120 bpm)?

I forgot to add that the pain I am getting is not most noticeable after the riding has stopped later in the evening. It mostly goes like this: Evening of same day of ride pain is the worst. The next day pain is still there but not as bad. The next day pain is very minimal. The next day ride again and that evening back to square one.

I also looked up knee tendonitis and found that most of this is pain in the front of the knee. The pain I am getting is not in the front but in the back and wraps around both sides. The front of my knees feels great . . .

Not to be trite but this is probably best to take up with a doctor or physical therapist. My guess based on experience is that no matter what the injury, you should not participate in activities that cause pain, usually that means "pain while doing that activity" ...are you saying you have no pain while your riding but it comes on later in the day after your ride is done? Anyway, if it's interfering with activities, I'd definitely seek some kind of treatment. Even if it's "just" tendonitis you should isolate what the problem is and work on correcting it.

Great for Tendonitis

http://www.activerelease.com/about.asp

Not to be trite but this is probably best to take up with a doctor or physical therapist. My guess based on experience is that no matter what the injury, you should not participate in activities that cause pain, usually that means "pain while doing that activity" ...are you saying you have no pain while your riding but it comes on later in the day after your ride is done? Anyway, if it's interfering with activities, I'd definitely seek some kind of treatment. Even if it's "just" tendonitis you should isolate what the problem is and work on correcting it.

Thanks for the advice. I scheduled an apt. with a sports medicine doctor in two weeks (they say because I'm a new patient that's the soonest they can fit me in:()

Yes, the pain is not noticeable during the ride. Actually it seems that the harder the ride, the better. Standing climbing seems to feel the best, almost a relief. Kind of like I'm flushing something out or something . . .

I did a self bike fit this afternoon and did find that my saddle was too far forward. I used the plumb line down the knee with level cranks and found that the plumb centered just in front of my shoe instead of in-line with the pedal spindle. I moved it back to line up correctly so I'll see how it feels after taking a few days off of riding. If it still hurts I won't ride until after my Dr. apt. I'm also going to contact my LBS to check on my cleat alignment.