Nagging knee problem...
 

Hey all!

After overdoing it on the bike back in March, I had what felt like some quadriceps/knee tendinitis on the right side. I backed off on mileage for a while, iced and took ibuprofen, then was travelling for work for a while and was completely off the bike for a few weeks. The swelling went away at that point, felt like the tendinitis had cleared up.

When I started riding again though, I noticed a sort of rubbing or pinging feeling when moving the knee from 90° to 120°. This rubbing or pinging happens at a consistent spot, which is close to the top of the kneecap, on the inside (left) part of the quadriceps tendon. I usually don't feel any soreness in the knee or weakness in its motion, but the pinging is very obvious if I place my hand on my knee. It happens with essentially every motion of the knee through this range.

Thanks to having been hit by a car out on the road and having my collarbone broken, I just spent 4 weeks completely off the bike. I've been able to start up on the trainer again at home, but the issue with the knee is still 100% there. The time off seemed to not lessen it whatsoever.

I have been to an orthopedic doc, himself a cyclist, who said that it didn't seem like anything too serious, that I should focus on stretching and flexibility through the leg, and come back to him for an MRI toward the end of the summer if the problem persists. Unable to ride out on the road, I'll be limited to stuff on the trainer anyway when I'm not travelling for work, so I won't be overdoing anything.

In the meantime, I'm curious if anyone has experience with something like this or an idea as to what might be going on?

Ugh, I had that same exact issue a few years back. Had to re-evaluate my bike fit and shortened my cranks to minimize the knee angles and raised the saddle.

Not exactly the same issue but I have pain in the same area that rears it's ugly head pretty consistently after about 2.5 hours into a ride. The area, (left knee on the right side.) is even sore to the touch. Nsaids aren't helping at all, time off didn't do a thing either. I tend to blame all these types of things on being an older rider but if it keeps up I'm going to have to go see the doc. Good luck on find a solution to your ailment, I wish I had some actual useful info.

I had similar issues a few years ago. I did a complete bike fit (as suggested by my LBS) and it had zero effect on my knee pain. So on my own I traded in my Look pedals (which had minimal float) for some Speedplays (with lots of float) and the knee pain went away.

I used to always have knee pain on the right side as long as I had been biking. There were 2 things that got rid of it:
- Switching back to flat shoes
- I did barbell squats which strengthened something in my knee and no longer had knee pain even with clipless. Unfortunately, I continued doing barbell squats and really messed up my leg later, so...fix one problem cause another.

Short cranks and spinning easy gears keeps my knees from hurting.

I have recurring knee pain - just took 8 years off all the while trying to get it to go away. Solution for me was working diligently with a physio and a series of weird exercises to strengthen and stretch various leg muscles. This took about 6 months with no riding and exercises every day. I'd suggest a visit to a physio who can diagnose what is wrong (it is usually a supporting muscle that is not doing it's job to keep the patella in alignment) and keep up the boring exercises. Often with a physio you only need go a couple of times to get the exercise regime and then do it at home. And for me, MRI & ultrasound found nothing wrong.

I have some (mild, at this point) knee pain. I had a pro-fit done and that made a huge difference... but I still feel that my knee is a bit "tweaked" at times. However, I have found that it responds to very subtle changes in posture. When it hurts, I tend to tense up all the way through my core and up to my shoulders and this just makes things worse. Relaxing my arms/shoulders while ever so slightly flattening out my back causes the knee pain to disappear instantly.

Counter-intuitively, riding harder/faster has a similar effect of stopping the knee pain. I think that when I ride hard, my body naturally adopts a more aggressive position that is good for my knee. Also, I end up using more/different leg muscles which also clears up the knee pain.

I'm in the same camp as Bluehills, post #7 . I do knee exercises fairly regularly for a slightly troublesome right knee. When that knee acts up, I step up the exercises and the discomfort goes away. Those exercises consist of lateral moves such as side lunges and others sown in the link. The side leg raises I do with 10# leg weights. https://www.google.com/search?client...w=1302&bih=616

Thanks all for the replies. I do suspect that, as with other issues I have from running, etc. that work with a physio and the right exercises and flexibility will change things a lot. Seems as though these problems are as a numerous as there people who have them.

As such, I've decided I really do need to try to have it diagnosed, since it has been hanging around for a couple months. Having had a good winter and a promising start to the year, I've lost a good chunk of the summer and would love to be able to ride again at least a bit when I'm in the Dolomites for work in 6 weeks...

What are the exercises?