Have I injured my quad? Is this muscle strain?
 

My quad hurts strangely every time after biking for a certain amount of time (45-60 mins). It hurts sharply on a very small area on my right leg, only after I bike when I stretch my right leg or when I rub it a little bit. Otherwise it doesn't hurt at all on the day I rest or even a day after I trained, only when I press my leg firmly and directly to the hurting area that I could feel a very little pain deeply in my muscle. No swelling no bruising no redness. This keeps happening to me for a week and I couldn't train as long as I want.


Are these the signs of muscle strain? Please advise how long should I be resting, or can I still do some active recovering ride for 30-45 mins a day? Thanks a lot.

See a bike mechanic or a doctor.

Sure sounds like a muscle tear to me. In the spring of 2019 at the gym I tore the right quad doing squats. Two years to heal, and only this fall has the right quad started to not feel tender to the touch. I never allowed it to rest completely, as I continued to ride, however I did stop doing squats, and will not resume them with heavy weights.
Seeing a doctor will likely be informative and is a good idea.

Thanks a lot for sharing. I might let it recover a bit along with doing some easy recovery rides, hope it wouldn't take too long.

It's been my first month for biking and I've been having a lot of fun. Taking a few weeks off is the last thing I want, lol.

If you believe the injury is serious and/or If you are too worried, please seek professional advise. And you may be prescribed an MRI,whhich can give enough details about the injury.

I've got exactly the same injury in my left quad/hip flexor. It primary hurts on the upstroke, when riding with power or climbing a hill; and is really bothersome after a half hour. My background, a bit older now (57) but very seasoned cyclist. I just pulled something in my leg stepping up onto a 2' ledge this fall, something I should be able to do effortlessly. I didn't take it seriously at 1st, as at my age pretty much everything hurts anyway. But after returning after a complete stop for a month (for other reasons) I found now improvement at all; if not slightly worse. In reading, I've found this can be a common injury for cyclist due the repetitive nature of cycling; I probably had it coming on before I tore something on my step-up.
I haven't seen a doctor as I think the strain isn't so acute as to require surgery, so they would only prescribe PT. So I looked up PT for quad strains; pretty much gentle stretching of the glute (not so much the quad), with butt bridges, side leg raises, clam shells, donkey kicks (carefully; those pull my quad some). As winter is upon me now, also will be moving indoor to the trainer & can keep power down for lower intensity sessions.
A week into this; no change in my quad but interestingly the knee pain I've been having all year as all but completely vanished. However, it normally takes a month or two for PT to make a difference; so I'm going to stick with this for the winter.
That's my plan anyway; good luck

See a doctor. Could be a lot of things, including a blood clot.

Big quads is not a sign of bad anything. Your quad muscles are going to be doing the majority of the work, so size is going to vary widely depending on how much and how hard you ride. Also genetics. No one I've ever seen pedals like they're kicking a wall. Seriously, just stop with this. The stuff about being concerned with your quads getting too big is just straight up bad advice.

Not knowing your age or anything about your past history of working out and especially cycling, I to will say see a doctor.

Us old people sometimes have issues with blood clots in our legs and that's bad news if not caught. But I wouldn't think the quads would be where you feel pain from them. I'd think the calf and the femur biceps and that other muscle group on the backside of your femur. But I'm not a doctor or healthcare professional. So don't trust me.

If you are new to cycling, I might just think you are trying to push a big gear at a 30 rpm cadence for way too long. Pedaling should be very easy most of the time. Your hard efforts should come in shorter intervals where you use a lot of power.

Unfortunately, I have a history of blood clots developing where they're supposedly never going to. One or more of them apparently started in my thigh and ended up migrating to my lungs, causing a small heart attack. The extreme localization of this pain is not typical of post-workout pain. I'm not saying it's a blood clot, but it could be that or some other localized injury.

It's a medical question, it's not a good question for an internet bicycling forum.

Or wearing underwear under chamois, or not shaving legs

gm

How much and how hard you ride have almost no effect on quad size. In fact, if you look at the podium at the end of any major European stage race, you'll see that the professionals who are capable of winning and who do the most mileage in training look almost emaciated, including having small quads. Road and track sprinters can have very big quads, but they end up sprinters because of genetics, not because they're doing more or harder riding than the climbers.

When you see the podium at the end of any major European stage race, you are looking at genetic exceptions just like you are with sprinters, and their quads generally are quite large in proportion to the rest of their bodies. See e.g.
https://m.psecn.photoshelter.com/img...n-Vialatte.jpg

https://todaycycling.com/wp-content/...n-der-poel.jpg

https://www.letelegramme.fr/images/2...6x354p.jpg?v=1

The only parts of those bodies that aren't skinny are the quads.

In any event, the notion that big quads are a sign of bad pedaling "like kicking a wall" is absurd.

And yeah, I'd describe sprinting as a special kind of very hard riding. The stage race winners are, by the nature of the event, selectively smaller people for reasons of endurance, but if you're claiming that they don't get larger quads than they'd have if they didn't ride so much, I ain't buying it.

So obviously, Peter Sagan doesn't know how to pedal:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/uV3KdLgo4TY/maxresdefault.jpg

You claimed big quads are caused by bad pedaling. I'm not claiming all champion riders have big quads, only that that was a ridiculous assertion.

Hill climbers tend to be small guys. I'm not, so I really don't care what technique works for them.

I have no idea what you're talking about when you contrast to a stroke that looks like kicking a wall.

Yep.:rolleyes:

Here's a bit of advice--people have all kinds of bodies, bicycles, routes, goals, knee conditions, fitness levels, muscle sizes, etc. It's really not helpful to insist that what works for you is the one ring that rules them all. You have no idea whether or not I or OP could be faster using another technique, or if OP's pain is at all related to one or another pedaling technique, And let's get serious--Eddy Merckx was sui generis, no one pedals like he did in the size of the gears he was using. Neither of us is Eddy Merckx, and I'm not sure he was without the PEDs.

Are you purposefully doling out inaccurate information or grossly informed? I am going with the former.

One 20 year old study. Impressive. NOT!

And I have heard of no such Vitamin C hype. Sure you are not confusing Vitamin C with horse de-wormer? I can see how you might.

I REALLY wish the mods would put an end to this.

Yet you cited a 20 year old "maybe" study.

Ya' got nothin'.

Time for me to get rid of you. Should have done it a long time ago. You and your socks cheapen this place. By a lot.