ckaspar

I have refrained from posting in here for hopes that it would go away but alas...it has not. Let me explain my situation a bit.

I bike commute to work 3-5 days a week depending on my schedule. It is about 16 miles round trip. 5 in and 11 back, my wife drops me off at a park in the AM. I have been doing this since March or April. For the last few weeks I have been feeling pain in my knees. Picture the pain this way. Put your flat foot on the ground with your knee bent at a 90* angle. Run your finger from the front of your knee cap to the "divot" just behind your knee cap on your thigh. It hurts right in there. Not while I am riding. Mostly when I stand up from a seated position or when climbing stairs. It is not excruciating. More of a dull ache. I did some reading on line and it SOUNDS like patellar tendonitis but all the references I saw of that was from pain on the front of the leg just below the knee cap.

I should add that when I ride I try my hardest not to mash the pedals but I am usually riding fairly hard. At first I wanted to blame it of HIIT workouts I was doing when I got home from work but I have done far less of those and the pain is still there and nagging.

Oh, I'm 32, male and weigh about 175lbs.

I have adjusted my saddle both up and down in small increments with no relief. I suppose I could go see my PCP but that is no fun.

Any thoughts?

10 Wheels

Cycling answer:

Saddle too low.

Medical answer:

See a doctor.

Yo Spiff

Try adjusting front to rear, or maybe a little tilt one way or the other. Are you riding with clipless pedals? If so, perhaps your feet are being held just slightly off from the best postion and you need to tweak your cleat position a bit.

If it is tendonitis, it may take some time to get rid of it. I have a bit of that in my arm (tennis elbow) for a few months now. It comes and goes and I sometimes wear a band around it to relieve the strain at that spot. Maybe a doctor's visit is in order.

ckaspar

Nope, flat pedals. I had pulled the saddle forward a bunch when I was getting used to it. I'll try moving it back and icing the knees to see it that helps. I also noticed that if I spin more that mash harder my feet will get numb if you think that would factor into your suggestions for saddle adjustment as well.

ckaspar

LOL. I am afraid that if I go too much higher I'll be like a little kid who can barely reach the pedals anymore. I'll raise it and do the suggestion of moving it back a tad to see if that helps. If I get no relief in the next week or so then I'll make an appt to see my doc. He is expecting blood work from me anyhow so I need to get in there as it is.

Who knew getting healthier would hurt so much.

10 Wheels

Saddle too high will cause sharp pain on the back side under your knee.

ckaspar

Nope, none of that. I'll go with the saddle suggestions and see how it goes. If I get under knee pain I'll split the difference from now to the new adjustment.

PedalingFool

You might want to consider taking joint vitamins...
Something like Flex-A-Min

I recently started getting a lot of knee pain lately and started taking the vitamins about a week ago and the pain is starting to decline.

Note: I'm not a doctor or nutrition expert... just telling how I helped myself.

ckaspar

I thought of that too but then it just makes me that much older. Where are my twenties where I could eat donuts for breakfast, chili cheese dogs for lunch, pizza for dinner and lose weight and FEEL healthy?

daven1986

This website has helped me in the past: https://www.cptips.com/knee.htm

charbucks

That's what finally solved my knee pain while touring. Someone gave me the advice to keep moving it up until it hurts on the back of the knees, and then back off a bit. Worked like a charm

MAK

I had the same problem. Couldn't go up or down steps, hurt when I rose from a chair, felt great while riding.

The best advice above is to see a doctor. It could be your IT band that needs stretching or other problems.

I'm convinced that what fixed me was a change in shoes. I had been wearing SIDIs and switched to Specialized. The Specialized shoes have a built in varus wedge that properly aligns the knees during the pedal stroke. Within two weeks of riding my knee pain greatly dissipated and I feel great. Check out their web site where they explain the "body geometry" features of Specialized shoes and other Specialized equipment. BTW...I made no changes in my saddle height or general bike fit.

Good luck.

bikerbert

Little late to the post, but improving glute strength, hip and thoracic spine mobility goes a long way toward keeping the knees happy.

poplid

Isnt there some special pedal you can get so your knee can move around more?

enroper

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. But I am a nerd/analytical type who went through a 3 month long ordeal of a knee injury ultimately starting out as suspected patellar tendonitis and resulting in ACL damage and surgery. What I'm saying is I read every goddamn thing on knee pain I could find.

In my unscientific, complete layman do-not-sue-me opinion, it's a classic case of patellofemoral pain syndrome. What from? You're a new rider. You overdeveloped your quads but your VMO aka vastus medialis often does not developed as fast since biking does not work it. This imbalance causes vague knee pain since the knee cap is not tracking right and irritates all the stuff underneath.

Since you're still walking, I highly doubt theres any damage like an ACL or meniscus tear. If there was, you would have waaaay more pain.

If you want to DIY it and save money on the co-pays for multiple specialist sessions and PT, you can do the same exercises they will prescribe you in PT yourself. Basically, what will happen is your doc will send you for an x-ray. That will show nothing. They then will send you to PT, and do these exercises I'm about to link. Then if you're not better, they will order an MRI and send you to a specialist who will tell your its PFS.

Do these exercises for a _minimum_, and I mean that, unless your knee is hurting you night and day ( like mine was, thats how i knew something was indeed damaged ), of 4 weeks before you begin to see results

Here ya go :: https://mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org...m28-180773.pdf

Also, stretch your hamstrings , calves, and quads 5 minutes after warming up, and then after you finish your ride.

After my surgery I developed PFS symtoms in my unaffected knee due to overcompensating for the bad knee, and doing these exercises as well as stretching religiously has been keeping it in check

Sorry for the long post, but like I said, I went through the f'ing wringer with knee pain, and I learned a lot. Bottom line, if its not hurting all the time or doesn't hurt to bear weight, its probably PFS and you can self treat it. Try it, if not worst case is you've lost 4 weeks and now have to go to the doc.

enroper

Additionally, PFS usually doesn't cause swelling or pain when bearing weight. If either is present, disregard everything I said and get thyself to a doctor asap.