Jun 10
I was talking with Lauri an accomplished adventure racer/cyclist, telling her of my knee problems. When I mentioned the pain walking up the stairs after a ride of 2000+ feet of climbing she thought she knew what it might be. She has gone through something similar during the Texas 500 relays. She sent me a link on Cyclists Knee Injuries and it does describe what I'm going through.
There are many causes that can lead to this, poor quadriceps function, vastus-medialis insufficiency, subtalar-joint pronation, poor muscle flexibility, abnormal lower-limb biomechanics, incorrect bicycle and equipment settings (saddle height, cleat position, cleat type and shoe type), abnormal fore-foot and rear-foot alignment, leg-length discrepancies, and varus or valgus knee malalignments. Out of that list there's only a few that I know what they mean and can pronounce.In my case I'm not sure exactly what the exact culprit is, it could be any combination of the causes. One thing I do need to do is get to the bottom of it and fix the underlying cause as best I can as no matter how much I rehab it and get it better if the cause is still there it will never go away it will only postpone the pain.My gut feeling is that it's a combination of the quadriceps muscle weakness, flexibility, bike/cleat fit. Since spring I've tapered off my weight training from 3 days down to 2 days. Truth be told I've missed more weight training sessions than I've probably made. Since bulking up isn't my focus I haven't felt bad about missing a weight training workout. I had been doing more on the bike muscular workouts like single leg pull thrus. However, my knee strength is not balanced, I think without doing leg press, leg curls and squats (I do sumo squats, I don't have a squat rack or a spotter) I've started to lose muscle and could be causing some side to side movement.Besides lifting weights I also plan to do some cross training. I think it's time I break out the slide board and inline skates. I'll also hit the ice for some ice hockey. This will also help as I've been asked to play in a hockey tournament July 4th in College Station, TX.
I'm also going to get a bike fit to make sure everything is fitting properly from saddle height to cleat positioning. I'm not sure what direction to go on this one. Given the nature of my past sports injuries, how messed up my feet are I'm not sure if a traditional bike fit would cover everything. Or if I need the new fancy 3D fitting. My thought is that having the computer data that can show any abnormalities in my pedal stroke or wiggle and wobble in my joints would be detected and hopefully corrected or compensated. However, since I've never had a traditional bike fit by a trained professional maybe they can offer the same level of service at half the cost. Locally, Bicycle Sport Shop offers a 3D fitting.
There are many causes that can lead to this, poor quadriceps function, vastus-medialis insufficiency, subtalar-joint pronation, poor muscle flexibility, abnormal lower-limb biomechanics, incorrect bicycle and equipment settings (saddle height, cleat position, cleat type and shoe type), abnormal fore-foot and rear-foot alignment, leg-length discrepancies, and varus or valgus knee malalignments. Out of that list there's only a few that I know what they mean and can pronounce.In my case I'm not sure exactly what the exact culprit is, it could be any combination of the causes. One thing I do need to do is get to the bottom of it and fix the underlying cause as best I can as no matter how much I rehab it and get it better if the cause is still there it will never go away it will only postpone the pain.My gut feeling is that it's a combination of the quadriceps muscle weakness, flexibility, bike/cleat fit. Since spring I've tapered off my weight training from 3 days down to 2 days. Truth be told I've missed more weight training sessions than I've probably made. Since bulking up isn't my focus I haven't felt bad about missing a weight training workout. I had been doing more on the bike muscular workouts like single leg pull thrus. However, my knee strength is not balanced, I think without doing leg press, leg curls and squats (I do sumo squats, I don't have a squat rack or a spotter) I've started to lose muscle and could be causing some side to side movement.Besides lifting weights I also plan to do some cross training. I think it's time I break out the slide board and inline skates. I'll also hit the ice for some ice hockey. This will also help as I've been asked to play in a hockey tournament July 4th in College Station, TX.
I'm also going to get a bike fit to make sure everything is fitting properly from saddle height to cleat positioning. I'm not sure what direction to go on this one. Given the nature of my past sports injuries, how messed up my feet are I'm not sure if a traditional bike fit would cover everything. Or if I need the new fancy 3D fitting. My thought is that having the computer data that can show any abnormalities in my pedal stroke or wiggle and wobble in my joints would be detected and hopefully corrected or compensated. However, since I've never had a traditional bike fit by a trained professional maybe they can offer the same level of service at half the cost. Locally, Bicycle Sport Shop offers a 3D fitting.
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