Originally Posted by
KC8QVO
The actual diagnosis is patellofemoral arthralgia. The spacing between my bones was OK but the doc said my kneecaps track "high", though they didn't think that was in and of itself a "problem". Exercises include rolling out IT bands, hamstring and quad stretches, lots of varying leg exercises, and a lot of manual therapy with ligaments - both my IT bands and some internal work on my bad knee from the front and back of the knee.
My left leg is the bad one. If I am correct with how things look - my kneecap appears to ride out to the left (my left) with the motion of my leg. I noticed, also, that when standing with my knees locked, if I tighten my quad and pull my kneecap up it moves diagonally up and to the left. I asked about that today and showed my therapist and he seems to think that's just the IT band being real tight.
I had my knee taped up a few weeks ago. I didn't notice a whole lot of improvement there, but then again I never got on the bike to test that.
That's another term for patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS), which might be a better search term for you. Some of what you have is ordinary and fairly easily fixable. You may have some abnormality however that renders it less easily fixable, i.e. some abnormal tendon length or attachment, etc.
Here's one of my posts on how to fix:
http://www.bikeforums.net/training-n...l#post16081392
IME on these forums the IT band has nothing to do with it. So look at the guy on the podium in the above link. See his VMOs? Those are the potato-sized things above and to the inside of his kneecaps. Those are supposed to pull to that side and cause the patella to track straight up, even though it is pulled to the outside by his other quads. When you flex your quads, do you have a nice big VMO? When I flex my quads, the VMO is very noticeable.
My wife had a brief bout with this last fall, but mild. Her knee would hurt after say a 4 hour bike ride. Using the leg extension machine at the gym twice a week fixed her right up. You want to do them only though the last 30° before the leg is completely straight, and with as much weight as you can use to do say 3 sets of 10 reps. You shouldn't be able to do an 11th rep on the last set. Yes, it hurts muscularly but it shouldn't hurt your knee. If it does, reduce the weight until it doesn't hurt your knee, but keep doing the exercise. The knee pain should gradually go away. The other exercises in the above link are good too.
Keep doing all the rest of the stuff they're having you do.