sapo916

So my bike fit on my road bike is pretty much fine for me but my knee will exhibit occasional brief but sharp pain in the rear area. This pain is rarely present when I cycle but I do feel it a couple of times throughout the day. The pain doesn't even last one second but it does hurt and it has been like this for a few months. I went to physical therapist and she said the hamstring was much weaker than the leg without pain. Any ideas here? I definitely have a lot of room to grow with my training but if it's smarter for me to stay off the bike and just keep doing those hamstring exercises I will do it.


Thanks

chasm54

If there's an imbalance between the strength of the hamstrings you definitely need to work on that. But before you decide you need to stay off the bike for a while, try lowering your saddle a fraction. Just a very few millimetres. If that doesn't work, I don't know what to suggest.

sapo916

I guess what I meant to say is will cycling be adequate enough for me to get my hamstrings equaled out or are the additional exercises really necessary. So far my physical therapist hasn't said to stay off the bike but she kept thinking I ride motocross instead of bicycles even after correcting her multiple times. I rarely feel the sharp jolt of pain while cycling but I will lower my seat that little bit as I've been thinking about doing that anyway.

chasm54

I'd doubt if cycling alone will even up the hamstrings. It's more likely that you'll unconsciously allowthe stronger leg to do most of the work, and that could compound the problem. So while I wouldn't stop cycling, I would do some specific off-bike exercises for that hamstring.

nkfrench 

See if one leg is longer than the other. That was one thing that was checked with my pro bike fit. They shimmed one of my cleats to even out the slight difference.
One-legged cycling might help strengthen the hamstrings and increase their endurance.
Maybe some stretching after your rides?
If you're muscling it up a steep hill where you can barely move the pedals it should motivate you to use the hamstrings in order to get the pedals back to the one o'clock position.
Hmm, maybe PT exercises and weights don't sound so bad after all.