Training & Nutrition - Mystery bruising?

Over the past couple months I have noticed bruises appear about 4" above my knee over the vastus medialus. I have been training pretty hard lately. While I put in lots of miles last summer when I first began cycling, I didn't train at such high intensity, and I never noticed any bruising. The strangest part is I only see them on my right leg.

I have an appt with my doctor coming up soon for a physical so of course I will consult him. I just thought I'd check to see if it's a common among athletes.

I have an appt with my doctor coming up soon for a physical so of course I will consult him.


+1. Good luck.

Are you taking prophylactic doses of Ibuprofen?

Have someone ride beside and behind you and evaluate your pedaling techique. What this leads me to believe is you have an uneven technique caused by a muscle imbalnce or an effective or actual leg length discrepancy. You are having too much movement with your knee/leg and have injured the muscle

It might be Deep Vein Thrombosis. I'd make an appointment immediately.

Yes! I do get bruises from riding, right around the inner knee area. There is definitely the possiblilty your legs are not properly aligned. I had a tendency to lean my toes and knees inward, especially the weaker left leg. First came the irritation, then sure enough a few days later I'd find little blue bruises in random spots.

This was my solution... When I'm biking I look down every 15 minutes or so at my knees and toes to make sure they are both pointed straight ahead and in alignment with my bike frame. The more you look the better because without realizing it your body will automatically return to the poorer position, especially if your not feeling strong that day. Try to train yourself to "check alignment" while riding. Ever since I started doing that my problem has disappeared.

Hope it's not something worse.