hillcrawler

I think I ****ed up my knees for the good. I am waking up with pain around my knee joints in the mornings. I am 34 year old yet. I think it is a bit early to have arthritis. I have knee pains since 2 years, doctors told me I have no cartilage defect but it is thinned in some areas.

If anyone is having the same symptoms here, could you tell me how to deal with it?

Carbonfiberboy 

Well, yes. There are approximately a zillion knee pain threads started on this forum and about 10 zillion replies about things that could be done. There are many things that can go wrong with one's knees, hence the proliferation of these threads.

Take me, for instance. This morning I woke up with some nasty pain right above my left kneecap. That's the knee I had the meniscus surgery on years ago and it has shown a tendency to be an occasional hassle ever since. Anyway I quickly diagnosed it as tendinitis and took 600 mg ibuprofen. Then I got on my rollers and did an hour including 2 X 15' 70 cadence tempo intervals in zone 3, being sure to push forward at the top of the stroke, right when it was paining me. The knee felt a little better, so I went to the gym and lifted for an hour, including my current max squats. Several hours later, it still hurts a bit but is much better. I think it got a little tweaked yesterday when I did 297 floors in an hour on the Stepmill. I'll do another 1/2 hour on the Stepmill tomorrow and I expect it to be pain free for the Sunday group ride.

I believe in diagnosis and treatment, even if you have to be your own doc and PT.

So . . . "pain around my knee joints" is a little vague . . .

Machka 

And about half of them were started by the OP.

Machka 

I can't remember ... are you taking glucosamine?


And arthritis can be diagnosed through an X-ray.

Carbonfiberboy 

Now Machka . . . he's only started 43 of them.

sprince

Breakfast of champions, coffee and ibuprofen. And most important, keep moving.

Machka 

Oh right ... so sorry ...

hillcrawler

Yes, I haven't started a new thread for a while. This is a new symptom I am experiencing. It is very common against arthritis sufferers but I know I don't have it yet. I think it is due to the lateral compression on my knee joints which is putting too much pressure on my cartilage. I am trying to strengthen my glutes and core to be able to balance out the things. I can't think of any other solution atm.

Machka 

Get an X-ray. Find out if you have arthritis. You can get arthritis at any age.

hillcrawler

Machka, I've visited almost 10 different doctors during 2 years and went through lot of x-rays and MRI machines. They never told me I have arthritis. They just tell me I have a thinned cartilage line and laterally tilted kneecap. If I had my kneecap properly aligned, I wouldn't have this kind of symptoms.

cellery

If you have not already, try quadriceps strengthening exercises such as simple leg extensions with a little weight added. This strengthens muscles around the the patella through the knee's movement range and stabilizes for better alignment. At least this is what a sports doc told me to do, amongst other things. It seems to help me with patellar pain anyway.

hillcrawler

I tried them of course but they worsened the situation. I was having inflammation around the tendons after the exercises. Maybe I have tendinosis or tendinitis.

Wanderer

SalonPas,,,,,,,,,, helps old joints work better by decreasing pain....... I buy it by the case................

RISKDR1

Actually you want to strengthen the quads especially around the knee. The way to do this is with short arc leg extensions on a leg extension machine. Don't do full arcs since this can create stress on the back of the knee cap. This will help keep the knee cap tracking properly. You may also have a need for some arch supports or orthotics which will help with joint alignment. See a podiatrist who will be able to tell if something in your feet are causing a misalignment that extends to your knees. You may also want to see an orthopedic guy who can look at the whole picture.

Carbonfiberboy 

+1.
And, as I've advised before, straight-legged high kicks, which don't involve any motion at the knee joint. Oddly, I also get benefit from doing one-legged calf raises. To get a strengthening effect from any exercise, it should be done to exhaustion. Otherwise nothing much happens.

Besides strengthening, there's also the issue of correct timing of nerve firing, IOW neuromuscular coordination. I get the greatest improvement at this at the lowest cost by doing very high cadence low effort spinning on my rollers. A trainer also works, but doing it on the road does not. By "very high" I mean certainly over 105, preferably more up around 115 or so. By low effort, I mean keeping it down to zone 2, IOW slow deep breathing and sweating, but never feeling the legs load up with effort. This means a gear in the neighborhood of a 39X25 or maybe even lower. Strong riders will use a slightly higher gear. Toe out slightly to fire your VMO and pedal with the shoe's upper, not the sole. Warm up, then pedal continuously until your legs are tired which should be at least 15 minutes, up to 45. Try that once a week for a few weeks at least.

If you don't have a trainer or rollers, get a set. It's too difficult to go easy enough outside to get therapeutic benefit when you're hurting.

Carbonfiberboy 

Also do these stretches:
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...l#post15372967
3 X day is probably a bit much, but at least 1 X day.