jsfountain

i had some knee pain on the outside part of the knee. only hurt when i was riding. a sharp pain. but off the bike there was no pain at all.

ended up going to a physical therapist and she had me do some knee, leg stretches. turns out the knee with the pain was due to over used and tight muscles in my leg. this was causing my ITband to get inflamed against the knee when peddaling. i began a 3 week strethcing routine: 6 different leg stretches each day. she showed me which muscles i had overworked and showed me how tight they were. after the first week i could tell a difference. now that i have been stretching daily for 3 weeks i decided to give the bike a try. i was able to do my normal 20 mile loop with no pain whatsoever.

my advice for one who had struggled with knee pain for 2 months:

1. get re-fitted on your bike
2. check cleats
3. see a sports medicine DR; or physical therapist

jeff

ebf1974

How about those stretching exercises? I would love to think that I could stretch my way past the knee pain I am experiencing right now.
Congratulations on being pain free.
Thanks in advance.
Eric

jeff[/QUOTE]

Toyota_4Runner

Yea! You tell us about some stretches and dont tell us how to do them comon.

jsfountain

my leg stretches were prescribed to me by my physical therapist because of the specific muscles that were too tight in my leg. they may or may not be the same as yours. and your pain may be in a different area of your knee. basically, she had me do ITband stretches: stand with legs crossed and bend down and touch toes and hold for 30sec to 1 min. this stretch helped me most.

there were another 3-4 stretches that i had to do. i do not know what they are called. another stretch that helped just about as much was where you lay back on a table and let your leg (with pain) dangle off the end. you bring your other knee up into your chest and hold it there with your hands. the other leg you let dangle loose. it should drop straight down from your knee... because my muscles were so tight, my leg actually did not have a 90 degree bend at the knee but more of a 45 degree angle. it also did not drop straight down but shot out to my right. (this was my right leg). this proved that i had an ITband issue as well as another issue with other muscles. you have to have someone slowly bring your leg back flush with the knee and make it bend to the 90 degree angle down. my therapist actually had to massage my muscles there pretty intensely and she gave me an ultra sound there on my knee just to break up the muscle mass and lossen up the muscle.

another stretch that helps this condition is to lay on your side with the hurt knee/leg side on top. now grab that foot and bend your leg so that your heel is touching your back and your knee is pointed toward your other foot on the floor. bend the leg as far back as possible and even bend the knee back further than your straight leg. you will feel the stretch. hold this for at least a minute.

all of these stretches you can find on-line by doing a leg stretch search. but again, your condition may be different than mine. i think it best to call your doctor and ask to see a physical therapist. they know exactly how to spot which muscles are not loose and they can prescribe the stretch that is right for you. even if you go just once...it is worth the piece of mind knowing how to fix the problem. in my circumstance i needed a few visits to continue a muscle massage to help loosen my muscles so that they would stretch out better. and as i said i even needed an ultra sound to help loosen them. who knows what you may or may not need. my therapist even did a technique on me where she released tension on pressure points at my hips where all these muscles join at.....and i can not even begin to tell you what a difference that made alone. but it is something i could not even begin to explain how she did or how you could find those spots. only someone trained in that area knows what they are doing.

i hope this post helps anyone struggling with the issue. my simple adive: go see a physical therapist!

NZLcyclist

Also seeing a chiropractor can help. I was getting knee pain (knee cap area) on low intensity rides of 30Mi or less. Went and saw the Chiro, got some Xrays done etc. Found that I had a curve in the spine (laterally), my pelvis was crooked giving me a leg length differince of 5mm and my head was forward 33mm to where it should of been. I was clicked back into place and now I can hammer away on the bike and my knees are fine.

Hope this is of interest.

Brendon