[Closed] Sorting knee pain via squats

is your knee tracking straight? i had something similar and did a few romanian single leg squats which engage your glutes too for stability. could see the increase in size of the other muscle in days (vastis medialis?)

is your physiocycling specific? he may of missed something like knee tracking if not.

Do them in front of a full length mirror to make sure your legs / knees don't bend inwards

I've got a similar problem, I've also seen the physio and also a podiatrist, I've now got inserts in my shoes which have helped no end.

Physio does cycle and has first hand (ie personal) experience of knee and ankle rehab. Didnt mention knee tracking, but will mention at follow up. Was also going to ask about bike fit next time, too.

Would I be most correct to think that cleat position and saddle fore/aft are most important for knees?

Short hamstrings, poor adductors and weak / disengaged glutes

The curse of the IT worker / cyclists

Been through a lot over the last few years and I'm still trying to find the balance between doing lots of physio and being sore when exercising. Some of it is age-related and some is to do with an inability to make time to go to the gym. Slowly getting better tho but it only works when I remember to keep mobile / exercise

(Btw - cleat position / saddle stuff is fine if you're on a road bike but it won't help you off-road. That's what your hips are for)

yeah thought my riding days were numbered, but works for me 🙂

also stopped sitting x legged.

Most of the research says you can not target a specific part of the quads, they all work together. But supposedly the VMO section (inner part of the quads becomes more active in the last 30 degree of knee extension so theoretically it may not get worked as hard with cycling if your not getting good knee extension on down stroke of peddling.

Just my opinion as I have not seen you so hard to say if what you are doing is appropriate for you but sounds like your heading in the right direction. so long as your technique is good squats are fine, great for building leg strength. Can also make quite hard with minimal equipment. However, if you have access to weights, I personally would focus on deadlifts as the lift is technically easier than a squat (most people squat technique sucks), you work the gluts which is often poorly developed, you do not get so much knee bend so is a bit kinder to a painful knee but still get to work the last bit of knee extension that may not be worked very well cycling (unless you stand a lot)

You have not said, but I am guessing your pain is coming from the front of the knee (Patella femoral pain). If that's the case try not to aggravate it to much as it is a git to get rid of once established.

As said, bike set up is very important so might be worth looking at that and if your peddling technique is good, and try and use higher cadence as can be bit kinder on the knees when pain present.

You could also look to see if you have any trigger points (google quad trigger points if interested) that may / may not be contributing to pain.

Hope your knees get better soon.

Had squats recommended by physio and consultant, really sorted my knees out. Make sure you're doing them right, keep them knees in line with ankles

Also worth checking out stretches that open up the hips

Interested to read about the inner quad stuff, I've had knee tracking issues but my podiatrist was very quick to rule out VMO as he said it was perfectly well developed, maybe a healthy balance of walking/hiking as well as cycling has kept ot strong, or what dis40 said.

My physio gave me some pretty hardcore quad stretches to do (not your usual standing hell to bum stretch). 8 x 30 seconds a day which I've found surprisingly difficult to do as the stretch requires you to lie on the floor and is quite tiring on my puny arms 😳

@13th - any photos/drawings/descriptions you can share of these excersies ?

I have a real problem with quad muscle wasting as a result of knee injury and the meniscus damage makes it hard to do certain exercises and Doc said squats would be particularly bad.

I can cycle sitting down no problem at all, but if I stand, I can't bring my left leg back round, I can just about drag it round if I'm clipped in, but for mountain biking it's a disaster!

jambalaya:

It was just a stretch, similar to this one

[img] [/img]

but obviously not quite as easy on the eye! Also, he has me pulling the knee of the non-stretched leg towards my chest (i.e. her ^ lower leg)

The slightly more convenient version was a standing version of this:

[img] [/img]

but with the stretched knee supported on the seat of a static chair, and the non stretched leg in front, slightly bent.

Assuming good technique, is there any possibility that squats could aggravate an injury? Could it just be muscles adapting to changes in strength elsewhere, therefore take it easy but it shouldn't be doing any harm per se?