Training & Nutrition - NO knee pain!

I've had a goofed up knee for years. I had a couple injuries that weren't taken care of when I was little, then in my teen years I had a dance teacher who made me do all these crazy leaps but unfortunately never mentioned how to do a proper landing. My right knee got to where it would, out of nowhere, hurt so bad I couldn't put weight on it for an hour up to two days. Then it would dissappear. In college I started working on moving with my knee in a more stable alignment (knees over the toes, not twisted in or out, heading straight forward when walking or running) and it got much better, but I would still have to think about it. If I wanted to go running, I'd have to 'consult' my knee and think about wether I would need to wear a bandage or not. Very rarely it would hurt, but only for a few minutes, or while running. Well Sunday I went for a run, and about half way through I realized the thought hadn't even occured to me to bring a bandage and that I hadn't thought about it in months! The only thing I've done differently in the last year or so is ride a bike! I've had maybe two occasions where I felt a little twinge and looked down to see I'd let my foot twist out, but that's it. I really think the bike has been the perfect therapy for it.

I just had to share because it's one of those things that's hung over my head for a long time, and now POOF it's gone :D Yay bike :D :D Anyone else been healed by the almighty bike in some way?

I had to give up powerlifting in the early 90's due to knee problems from an injury resulting from twisting at the bottom of a squat with 580lbs on my back.

The Bike has become my mainstay for legs and I only do moderate leg work in the winter with weights. Besides, biking is just so much more fun than going to a gym 6 days a week for 1-2 hours a day. I enjoy exercise much more now.

I seldom go much over 375 lbs in squats now during my winter off the bike training and have had no further knee trouble of any signifigance. I still have a lingering hip catch from the same incident that flares up from time to time but it is tolerable.

Congratulations!

Do you think your knees' problems were due to injury, inheritance, overwork or what?

My "bad" knees are inherited and like you I would have to consult the knees when I wanted to do just about anything. It got to the point that I didnt' consult anymore because the answer was always no! They are much better now, starting with the water aerobics and now especially from the cycling.

Keep up the good work.

Injuries and being overworked in a weak position. The other knee is fine and doesn't turn inward like the right one does if I don't keep it in mind.

Isn't wierd how things like that can creep up on you>

and what's even wierder is the way you don't notice when the pain dissapears, mainly because you are really busy doing the things you couldn't do with the pain!

Natophelia, good for you. The same has happened to me as well.

When I first started heavily biking in '97 my cleats and and seat height were way off. I went through a year of knee cap pain. After a few years of proper excercises and fixes to the fit issues my knees are in great shape.

Bikes are wonderful things.

Spexy, can you elaborate on the position related thang!
I am starting to experience some slight knee trouble for the first time in nearly 50 yrs (I was exercising in the womb for 25 yrs of that), and I worry that I might be doing things wrong alignment wise.
I have only had this problem since I have been cycling and running, and I think it may be that I run with my toes pointing out and cycling tends to lock your feet in forwards, (I was a runner before I was a cyclist), and I also worry about my general position on a bike, I am in the process of buying a new bike and want to make sure that I set it up correctly (I will be consulting my LBS aswell, but I am not buying it from him) tell me more, I am also interested to hear other opinions (had to say that seeing as this is a forum, and I would be pretty bloody stupid if I didn't want opinions).

One last thing, if my profile did not say England, do you think you could tell from my dialouge?

et tu Brute!

Well Newboy, I've never known an Brit to use the word 'thang' and many of us 'merkins are starting to use the word 'bloody' so no, would not have known you were English.

Anyhoo, on to those evil joints. REMEMBER, I am not an orthopedic genius (but merely play one on the net). I just happened to be obsessed with knee issues. Someone jump in if you think I'm horribly off the mark.

Seat too high, back of knee pain.
Seat too low, knee cap pain. This is usually the culprit.
Your cleats should be facing the way your knees are naturally pointed. If you run with toes pointed out, chances are your cleats need to be slightly pointed out.
The best thing I EVER did for my knees was buying a pair of Speedplay pedals. They allow my knees to rotate almost any damn way they want to. And they allow for some nice stretching in the opposite direction too. I wear the MTB pedals on my MTB and road bikes but am sure the road Speedplays offer just as much 'float'.
I've tried ATACs and SPDs and both really made my knees hurt after a few rides.
BTW, I let my LBS set up my cleats and shoes when I first started riding, they did not perform any sort of adjustment or check. So if your LBS doesn't know about this stuff, you're on your own.
Finally, I also began doing leg lifts to strengthen my quads (back before my quads were huge chunks of bulging goodness) Basically lay flat on your back and lift leg up just a bit for 10-20 seconds. Ten times in a repetition. 2 sets each leg. The next week I began adding ankle weights and so on. All that in the off season. The muscle around your knee helps support the workload the knee has to carry. If you have bad knees do not do weight training that bends the knees.

And if ALL that wasn't enough useless opinion I think there's tons more threads in here on just this subject so you might conduct a quick search to find out more.

Good luck
:beer:

Hey Spexy, thanks for your time, will commence the exercises immediately, and will definitely check the other threads.
Where the hell was I before the Forums!