Glenn1234

For those that remember, I've been here in the past. Anyhow, I had an incident where I ended up hiking 3 miles with the bike coupled with a knee injury that kept me out of riding last year, along with life getting in the way otherwise. All coming together to discourage me away from it.

The main point of this is the knee injury so I'll describe that. Basically part of my left knee on the left side stressed when I was doing a hill climb that required a lot of strength load and I ended up limping back with it sore and ended up resting for 2 months until it stopped being sore.

Anyhow, I got started riding again and the knee problem kept cropping up again. Basically put, about 1-1.5 miles in, the knee would stiffen up and be sore when I would get off the bike and walk. I could rest it a little bit and continue, though, without the stiffness. I'd rest it a day and be fine.

I did push the other day and get 10 miles (kind of close to average), but my knee is kind of sore all the time now. But it's not excruciatingly bad sore. I managed to mow the yard one day for about 2 hours or so and I did a mile walk yesterday and didn't have any more negative effects than what I was already experiencing.

I can't say I know entirely what's going on given my non-existent experience with sports and sports medicine in general, so I'm asking here. Is there a general way to distinguish this between something a doctor needs to be looking at and something I just need to be aware of and make some kind of rehab plan in my rides so I'm stressing it but not really pushing it? I'd kinda hate to go to the expense of the doctor and find out it's just a training management issue I could have dealt with all along. I doubt a bit because I feel fine for most part while I am in the act of cycling and the knee actually felt kind of loose while I was on semi-flats and could spin pretty well. But otherwise, it gets sore when I'm just standing and feels a little weird otherwise.

So any suggestions on this?

Seve

Seeing your Doctor is by far the best thing you could do as you should not be experiencing continued knee pain unless there is something wrong.

You may well be running the risk of damaging your knee further and thereby causing yourself more grief by not having the issue properly diagnosed.

Good Luck

late

Yup, see a Doc.

This could be several things. A lot of Righties have a weak left.
You may simply need to strengthen it.

It could be shorter than your right leg.

Do your sneakers wear more on one side than the other?

The bike may not be properly fitted to you.

A pic would help. From the side, with the pedal all the way down.
Preferably both sides.

A video of taken from behind you, of you going up a hill, would be even better.

Neil_B

See a doctor.

Bianchigirll 

see your Dr right away. I was out for my brisk morning walk last Sept. and stepped on something and felt a pain in my knee. I let it go and it subsided after about a 2 weeks. but when ever I tried to excercise or even walk alot it came back. I finaly went to the Dr in Mar and I have torn ligements in my knee. see your DR

Glenn1234

I had a medical professional look at it today (a bit more anyway). They seem to think I have a LCL strain. With the situation that it occurs under (pairing what doc person said with what I've been reading about LCL strains) and the symptoms that are present, it seems to be more of a rehab issue than anything else. They gave me some ideas, but I'll have to figure out how to execute them. Any ideas/suggestions are welcome.

late

I googled this..
https://www.physioroom.com/injuries/k...prain_exer.php

I have injured my knees several times.

Get an ankle weight, 2 pounds.
Sit on the bed. Raise your leg going from roughly
1/3 extension to 2/3 extension. What you want is to work the
Vastus Medialus, which is a teardrop shaped muscle above and to the inside
of your knee cap.

When you start exercising more vigorously in rehab, look for knee friendly
strengthening exercises. Walking has worked for me, just as an example.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Performa...56/pzmc12D72vI

It looks like what caused this is not answered.

Did your Doc talk about that?

Glenn1234

Actually he did somewhat, but coupled with the page before the one you posted (https://www.physioroom.com/injuries/k...prain_full.php), it's pretty obvious what caused it and I will seek to address it as well as I can.

(For those that are unfamiliar, I'll relate what the doctor explained) The LCL is the ligament of the knee that's on the outside of your leg. It's stressed when you bow your knee to the outside for any reason. For example, if you sit down and move your leg so your foot is next to your body and then gently move your leg down to the outside, that stresses the LCL. It is also stressed by sitting and then standing (think cycling here too, the same motion is involved), twisting the knee (pivoting). Force applied to the knee laterally will also cause stress and sometimes strain/break the ligament.

bassjones

Go get a professional fitting done. Tell them about your knee injury and they can set you up to accommodate.

Peter_C

I am not a Doctor but...

I have had knee issues for 30+ years, and eight knee surgeries ending with a TKR with rescission.

The short version is to see a Doctor. But please, if possible, see an Ortho, rather than your family DR that may or may not be up to speed on joints.

Some basic info to consider:
If after 3 days of rest the pain has not lessened considerably - see a Doctor
If you have swelling that does not diminish after 3 days of rest - see a Doctor
You actually *can* do more damage to an injured knee without causing more pain

The biggest problem here is a simple muscle strain can hurt for much longer than three days, yet seeing a DR (in this case) does nothing but tell you you haven't injured the knee.
The flip-side of what I just wrote is simply by walking on 'broken ground' when stiff, a person can do a partial ACL tear, that if not looked at right away, can cause permanent damage - so, see the Doctor, and if nothing is wrong, SMILE and be happy~!

geo8rge

As for as a bicycle goes the standard answer is get a new saddle, move the saddle back or foward, up or down, Maybe change the crank arm length, otherwise try a different bike. Needless to say try to use lower gears.

You should post on a knee specific msg board.