Knee injury

After cycling about three months, I experienced a similar "niggling" in my knee. I did some research on the web (there's an article about knee pain on this forum in the "articles" section, too). I found a couple of common causes:
1. Too much lateral movement of the knee while pedaling. Keep your legs in a straight up and down plane, fairly close to the top tube.
2. Too sudden/jerky up or down shifting, (esp. shifting into a higher (harder) gear). Like driving a car, make sure you ease up on your pedaling so that you don't put too much pressure on your knee when you go into a higher gear. Think of your knee as the clutch.
Hope that helps. 🙂

ok I see

Thanks for your help

Exactly where is the 'niggling'?

the pain happens just behing the patella. When I'm runnig in seems to stiffen up the leg and make it all very painful.
Had a busy training day yesterday and can feel it today!

any ideas would be gratefully received

BrowningJ said:

the pain happens just behing the patella. When I'm runnig in seems to stiffen up the leg and make it all very painful.
Had a busy training day yesterday and can feel it today!

any ideas would be gratefully received

I'll assume chondramalacia. That's some form of irritation of the lining under the knee cap. This could result in damage to the cartilage under there and that in turn would lead to continual pain and grinding.
Whenever I'd start to feel this from running, the solution was to strengthen my quadriceps in the weight room with leg extensions. I wasn't cycling then, so it's possible that cycling negates the need to strengthen the quads.
Whenever I got this cycling, I would readjust my cleats to change the angle of my foot. It never made much sense, but I could turn my foot so the toe is out (heel nearer the crank spindle) for relief, then after a while it would come back and I could find relief by moving it the other way again.
Lately I've been feeling a bit of 'niggling' in my knee and have readjusted and am noticing that it feels much better when I consciously pull my knees in near the top tube.

If running is the primary contributor for you then I'd ensure you have good shoes, I'd ensure your quadriceps are strong via leg extensions (but not squats/presses as they don't seem to pull the kneecap in to alignment). If all else fails then stop running for a few weeks while focusing on cross training...such as cycling/swimming.

jyeager said:

I'll assume chondramalacia. That's some form of irritation of the lining under the knee cap. This could result in damage to the cartilage under there and that in turn would lead to continual pain and grinding.
Whenever I'd start to feel this from running, the solution was to strengthen my quadriceps in the weight room with leg extensions. I wasn't cycling then, so it's possible that cycling negates the need to strengthen the quads.
Whenever I got this cycling, I would readjust my cleats to change the angle of my foot. It never made much sense, but I could turn my foot so the toe is out (heel nearer the crank spindle) for relief, then after a while it would come back and I could find relief by moving it the other way again.
Lately I've been feeling a bit of 'niggling' in my knee and have readjusted and am noticing that it feels much better when I consciously pull my knees in near the top tube.

If running is the primary contributor for you then I'd ensure you have good shoes, I'd ensure your quadriceps are strong via leg extensions (but not squats/presses as they don't seem to pull the kneecap in to alignment). If all else fails then stop running for a few weeks while focusing on cross training...such as cycling/swimming.

I'm recovering from this at the moment. Strengthening the Vastis medialis obliques (on the inside of the thigh near the knee) and glutes by doing single leg dips, stretching the ITB and taking anti inflamatories seem to be helping a lot.

At first I couldn't do one single leg dip without having my knees wobble all over the place. I can now do 100 dips with the left leg and 50 with the right leg. It is a matter of being patient as doing too many dips too soon will actually make you weaker.

I suggest that you see a good phsio or sports doctor before the situation gets any worse.

xbgs351 said:

I'm recovering from this at the moment. Strengthening the Vastis medialis obliques (on the inside of the thigh near the knee) and glutes by doing single leg dips, stretching the ITB and taking anti inflamatories seem to be helping a lot.

At first I couldn't do one single leg dip without having my knees wobble all over the place. I can now do 100 dips with the left leg and 50 with the right leg. It is a matter of being patient as doing too many dips too soon will actually make you weaker.

I suggest that you see a good phsio or sports doctor before the situation gets any worse.

When you say 'dip' do you mean a squat? If this is a one-legged squat, what's the proper technique? Is the other leg off the ground behind you?

jyeager said:

When you say 'dip' do you mean a squat? If this is a one-legged squat, what's the proper technique? Is the other leg off the ground behind you?

I have the other leg in front of me, with the knee straight. I dip by about 2".

Do it in front of a full length mirror to ensure your knee and hips aren't wobbly.