Your knees can be irritated by the repeated motion of cycling, especially if you try and do too much too quickly, or your bike set-up isn't quite right. Here are the most common causes and solutions to the overuse knee pain that cyclists sometimes suffer.
- Specific exercises for fixing cycling knee pain
- Exercises for avoiding back pain when cycling
- How to get your seat height right
We’ll look first at the different types of knee injuries for cyclists and where exactly they occur, then examine the main causes of knee injuries. These can include changes to your riding patterns, changes to your bike set-up, and biomechanical quirks that everyone has to some degree. We’ll follow up with some recommended solutions for each cause.
Overuse vs traumatic knee injuries
A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine of more than 1,500 cyclists undertaking the six-day Cycle Across Maryland ride in the US found that 24% of all riders reported knee pain, with inexperience and lack of pre-ride conditioning accounting for many of the overuse injuries described – those not caused by direct trauma or accident. It’s important to draw this distinction, as traumatic injuries result from a very different mechanism and are treated quite differently too.
ADVERTISEMENT
Overuse injuries arise from repetition. The accumulation of excessive loads over time exceed the body’s ability to dissipate energy, leading to damage on a microscopic level which, if not given chance to recover, sets up a chronic cycle of improperly healed inflammation and tissue degeneration, experienced as pain, weakness and stiffness.
Where exactly do knee problems occur?
This requires a basic explanation of the anatomy and biomechanics of the knee. In simple terms the knee is a hinge joint between the femur (thigh bone) and the tibia (shin bone), acted upon by the large muscles of the thigh.
So what are the main causes of knee injuries?
1. Cycling-specific causes
- Greatly increasing distance & duration of rides
- Sudden increase in training intensity
- Riding more hills than usual
- Using high gears & low cadence
2. Bike-specific
- Saddle height and saddle setback
- Length of cranks
- Cleat position or excessive wear
- Femur– the thigh bone, the biggest bone in the body, with the hip joint at one end and the knee at the other
- Patella – the kneecap, a ‘floating’ bone which sits in the tendon coming from the quadraceps
- Tibia – the shin bone, where the muscles of the thigh attach in order to lever the knee joint
3. Cyclist-specific causes
- Anatomical discrepancies (e.g leg length)
- Legacy of old injuries
- Inflexibility & muscle tightness
- Muscle weakness (including core muscles)
What are the solutions to knee pain?
- Have you changed your position, or components on the bike?
- Have you started training differently, or further or harder?
- Have you reached a threshold you just don’t seem to be able to progress beyond without knee pain?
1. Cycling-specific solutions
2. Bike-specific solutions
3. Cyclist-specific solutions
What else can be done about knee pain?
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
via BikeRadar All the latest from BikeRadar.com http://ift.tt/2e0pDxz
No comments:
Post a Comment