So I recently have been noticing a lot of fatigue and muscle burning in my knee and right above my knee (Tips of my quads). Also after a season of racing i noticed my lower quads are very apparent where as my upper quads aren't even visible. Should i be feeling the majority of the work in my mid quad region rather than my lower quads and knee? If so i may be positioned wrong. Anybody have some insight?
Where should you be feeling it?
- Thread starter PGHZISSOU
- Start date
I always feel it the most right above my knees as well. I'm interested in hearing others input on this.
I'm not sure where the pain is exactly. If it's right above the knee the first I would look is your seat fore and aft position, if the seat puts your foot to far forward on the pedal you could experience this sort of pain. Try moving your shoe/foot position back and see what happens. You can check this by using a weighted plum line let it hang from the bony pertrusion of you knee at the 3:00 position on the crank with your foot locked onto the pedal, the weight should intersect with the pedal's axle. If you bony knee is forward of the axle then readjust your foot position to line up with the axle.
Then your saddle height is the next area, when the pedal is at the 6:00 position with you seated in the pedals, your leg should have between 25 to 30 degree bend and no more.
Here is a video showing what I'm talking about: http://www.ehow.com/video_2361711_adjust-bicycle-saddle-height.html
These locations, especially the fore and aft are starting points. If you already have the bony part of the knee lined up with the axle then you may need to put it slightly behind the axle. There is a lot of trial and error involved with this sort of thing, but if you take the time to readjust, test and ride you can get it right on your own, there is no need to go and spend $150 or more to have a pro do this for you. A pro fit is designed to get you in and get you to spend additional money on products you may not need in the name of fit. Over the 40 years I've been riding I've seen dozens of riders get pro fits done and about 50% would come out better while spending an average of $400 to do that, and the other 50% came out worse and spent the same average!! I have 8 road bikes, and all the bikes range from 55cm to 58cm and I adjusted them all and have no fit issues whatsoever. Can you imagine the cost of having to get a pro fit on every bike? It's lunacy unless your a pro racer then you get a pro fit for free anyways.
Also if your cadence is too slow this puts stress on that same area, increase your cadence to maintain an average of over 75rpm, this means you ride in a lower gear which makes the crank easier to turn at higher cadences which in turn takes off stress from the knee.
Then your saddle height is the next area, when the pedal is at the 6:00 position with you seated in the pedals, your leg should have between 25 to 30 degree bend and no more.
Here is a video showing what I'm talking about: http://www.ehow.com/video_2361711_adjust-bicycle-saddle-height.html
These locations, especially the fore and aft are starting points. If you already have the bony part of the knee lined up with the axle then you may need to put it slightly behind the axle. There is a lot of trial and error involved with this sort of thing, but if you take the time to readjust, test and ride you can get it right on your own, there is no need to go and spend $150 or more to have a pro do this for you. A pro fit is designed to get you in and get you to spend additional money on products you may not need in the name of fit. Over the 40 years I've been riding I've seen dozens of riders get pro fits done and about 50% would come out better while spending an average of $400 to do that, and the other 50% came out worse and spent the same average!! I have 8 road bikes, and all the bikes range from 55cm to 58cm and I adjusted them all and have no fit issues whatsoever. Can you imagine the cost of having to get a pro fit on every bike? It's lunacy unless your a pro racer then you get a pro fit for free anyways.
Also if your cadence is too slow this puts stress on that same area, increase your cadence to maintain an average of over 75rpm, this means you ride in a lower gear which makes the crank easier to turn at higher cadences which in turn takes off stress from the knee.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Froze .
If it's right above the knee the first I would look is your seat fore and aft position, if the seat puts your foot to far forward on the pedal you could experience this sort of pain. Try moving your shoe/foot position back and see what happens.
I hope you're doing this just to intentionally confuse people.
Shoe/foot position over the pedal will effect the recruitment of the calves and change very little with regards to quads.
Changing saddle position fore/aft may effect how the quads/hamstrings/glutes are used if everything is in good working order - ie hip flexors are not massively tight and inhibiting the glutes from doing what they need to do - ie allow you to hammer on the downstroke.
People seem to blame bike position far too easily before considering that it could be an overuse injury. Pshgizzzosodsssszoodooo, have you been doing anything extra with regards to training/racing that you weren't doing before? This includes off the bike stuff like weights, being a parent to a fast growing child and lifting them all the time etc etc...
From:
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t/487553/messurements-are-they-important
7 bikes, 8 bikes - 57cm, 58cm... is your bike stash like a merry-go-round?
Will next week bring the tally to 9 bikes with the biggest being 59cm?
Yes my stash is like a merry go around and your going for a ride. Actually the Fuji Club is a 58, I forgot to mention that size because I forgot that one was a 58. At this time I have 7 road bikes and 1 mountain bike (actually I have 2 mtb's but one my wife uses so I don't count that one), so the numbers of 7 and 8 reflect that difference. But I appreciate the attack, you make me realize just how much your related to Alienator.
I may have misspoke when i said muscle "burning". What i'm referring to isn't necessarily an injury but generally where I am feeling the burn when I am putting out any sort of effort. I just was wondering if i should be feeling leg fatigue in more of my mid quad rather than my lower quad/knee, because it does seem to get uncomfortable. But yes i have been doing other things off the bike recently that I hadn't before, namely tennis.
I'm a relative newb but here is what I have noticed over the past year:
I started out with my seat too low and got very sore quads. I ended up going to a bigger bike frame and 175mm cranks. This helped a lot. I have come to like my seat quite high. At the 6:00 position my leg has about 10-15 degrees of bend and with the 175mm cranks the 3:00 position lines my kneecap up with the pedal axis. Now my soreness is relatively evenly distributed amongst my quads, hams, glutes, and calves. It also greatly reduced numb bun syndrome.
I started out with my seat too low and got very sore quads. I ended up going to a bigger bike frame and 175mm cranks. This helped a lot. I have come to like my seat quite high. At the 6:00 position my leg has about 10-15 degrees of bend and with the 175mm cranks the 3:00 position lines my kneecap up with the pedal axis. Now my soreness is relatively evenly distributed amongst my quads, hams, glutes, and calves. It also greatly reduced numb bun syndrome.
