Recreational & Family - knee prob.

Had a good 8 mile mtb ride with my 13 yr old daughter today. She has Osgood Schlatter problems in her left knee. She is very strong and a good rider. About 3 mi. into each ride she has bad knee pain. Any help on this one?

What is Osgood Schlatter problem? The usual solution to knee problems is to change saddle height. I have a bad right knee and one thing I do is to wear a knee warmer or a leg warmer regardless of how warm the day is. Does it help? I don't know, but I wear it anyhow in hopes that it is helping. My knee hurts much of the time while biking, but I love to bike enough that I am glad to indure it. However unlike your young daughter, I am a broken up old man and pretty much used to pain.

What is Osgood Schlatter problem? The usual solution to knee problems is to change saddle height. I have a bad right knee and one thing I do is to wear a knee warmer or a leg warmer regardless of how warm the day is. Does it help? I don't know, but I wear it anyhow in hopes that it is helping. My knee hurts much of the time while biking, but I love to bike enough that I am glad to indure it. However unlike your young daughter, I am a broken up old man and pretty much used to pain.
It is a tendon problem found in kids 12 to 15. She plays b-ball with no problems but biking gives her probs. Doc says she'll grow out of it but it's hard on her now.

I have a bad knee too, but mine is due to injury. i lowered my seat height and that helped. have her ride with the seat lowered some and see if that works. but not too low so she's not hitting her chest with her knees!
and i've ridden with a knee wrap. that helped too. and after riding, if the pain is too much, i put a heated pack on it.

I have had 2 surgeries on my right knee. Try to have her ride in a lower gear and spin faster. In my experience, the less resistance, the less pain.

Riding my bianchi makes my knees hurt. The lowest gear is 42/23. The solution was to slap on a new 53/39 crank.

Lower gears plus spinning more helped a whole heck of alot. Also my doctor told me to take some tendon supplement stuff, it's basically ground up tendon in a pill that supposedly helps the tendons to heal faster.

Had a good 8 mile mtb ride with my 13 yr old daughter today. She has Osgood Schlatter problems in her left knee. She is very strong and a good rider. About 3 mi. into each ride she has bad knee pain. Any help on this one?

Howdy,
I had Osgood-Schlatter syndrome when I was 17. I wish I could offer some cycling specific advice, but I wasn't riding then. Having run through a year of high school track and cross country, I sympathize with your daughter! I grew 6 inches the summer before my senior year of high school, and then two more throughout the year.

IMHO, even if the bike fits her properly, there may not be much you can do to alleviate the pain. As I understand Osgood-Schlatter's, it's caused by the bones growing faster than the connective tissue. Seeing as the knee is the joint that connects the longest bones, that's where it pops up. I'm not a doctor, nor do i play one on TV. It sounds like you've already seen a specialist if you know she has it.

For me, the short term solution was ice and shorts (even pants brushing my knees hurt too much). Long term, nothing worked but time. Good luck! I hope hers goes away quicker than mine did!

Hi,

Sorry, but seat height etc. really won't help her very much. She should rest and take antiinflammatories (Advil, etc.) if okayed by physician. It is usually short lived problem, here is a portion of an article from Web MD.

A Short History and Some Interesting Facts about Osgood-Schlatter Disease

This disease was named after the two physicians who defined it in 1903, Dr. Robert Osgood and Dr. Carl Schlatter. Recently, a Finnish study found that 13% of the teenagers of Finland had symptoms of Osgood-Schlatter. Today there are over 25 million children in the United States of America, and over 350 million worldwide, who are in the typical 8-16 year old age group that is most susceptible to Osgood-Schlatter. The condition is caused by the powerful thigh muscles pulling on the attachment point of the patellar tendon on the tibial tuberosity (see below) during activities such as soccer, basketball, track, wrestling, hockey, baseball, gymnastics and other sports. It is also a common problem for ballet dancers, as well as participants in Highland, Irish and other athletic dancing styles. Originally Osgood-Schlatter was reported as being more common in boys. However with increasing participation in sports by many young ladies, it is becoming almost equally as common in them. In fact, perhaps because of the more delicate skeletal structure in girls, they could be more susceptible. They have a smaller tendon attachment point, with greater tension per mm². It can even appear spontaneously during a child’s “growth spurt”, and has often been called “growing pains”.

If you go to the web Md web site, and put in Osgood-Slatter's it includes a picture of the knee, and it's anatomy, and how the "patella tendon" is becoming strained at it's insertion. Let her rest until symptoms abate.
Good luck

For MOST people, with no unusual problems, things that help are:


-avoid strenuous rides, such as hills, rough trails, riding fast for long distances

-stay in really easy gears, so the legs are spinning rapidly, but against very slight resistance

-stay off the bike a day or two if the knees are hurting BEFORE the ride


I was able to ride three or four days a week with sore knees using these methods. As the muscles above and below the knee got stronger, the problems gradually went away.


Most younger folks that I see riding use really tough gears. Boys, especially, take macho pride in riding on the BIG ring. That little ring is there for a reason.

It sounds like it would be a good idea to have a doctor monitor the knee. The symptoms that can be cured by a couple days of rest are very similar to injuries that can end up getting serious.