Originally posted by iamlucky13
I usually go mountain biking once a week, hard trail riding/light XC, but find that my knees are a little tender the next day. I stretch a little before I ride and start out slow, and cool down when I finish if it has been a real hard ride. It also happens when I do running sports like football (soccer for those who think with their.... TV).
Does anyone have any advice for good exercises to strengthen the muscles and tendons around the knees? The only injury that worries me more is a head injury.
Any other tips? Football and Biking are essential to my happiness (well, I like to think they are anyways).
Building your legs up is important. They're NOT strong enough to handle what you're putting them through. Given what you said, they need longer to recover.
I am a 53yr old x-football player, played tournament 2man sand VBall, and still nortic back country ski, golfing and mt & road cycling. And to do those things to my knees, I have to have 3 weekly visits to the gym. I had a bad backcountry ski jumping accident in "78", distroyed my right knee completely... Got a 11" track and a great big two prong staple in there to keep things in place... And, I use leg lifts all the time to keep the muscles surrounding my knee strong and tight... I have a BikeMax TecTrix at home that I put in 20-30 mins ever other day, and use the bench leg press to 400lbs, leg lifts up to 400lbs and leg & calf extensions to 80lbs to keep my leg muscles very strong
If it wasn't for the gym and my work outs, I'd be couch riding remembering when ... Work outs keep me in the game and able to stay up with the younger bucks
