Knee Pain

got a physio appointment tomorrow and was actually planing on asking if I have either varus/valgus forefoot.

and to check leg legth.

The only place online ive found anything about back of the knee cartilage is here http://bikedynamics.co.uk/kneepain.htm

Many cyclists have very large lateral movement of their knees and suffer no ill effects at all. Others do suffer discomfort, either a degenerative condition of the joint menisci....

which is why I want to check if I need wedges

Also got a bike fit tomorrow morning to see if they see any knee tracking issues.

Can BUPA not pay for bike fit?

Sounds like throwing money is working!
Where are you getting fit if I may be nosey?
You may still need £$€ speedplays and the rest but the first you go for a surprisingly long ride and it works - unbeatable feeling.
For me the cheap specialized insole wedges are still working OK.

i doubt it?

some class A bullshit if not .. isnt that your primary mode of transport to work? yes .. if you cant cycle will your employer pay for the tube? no (I guess) .. then they (BUPA) should pay for it

just my local bike shop (outside of london)

They probably aren't the best, but they will know more than me. I just want someone who knows what they are looking at to see if they can see any issues. They are cheap (normally I really have to persuade them to let me pay them) so if they dont have the solution then it won't matter anyway & I can go somewhere more specialist.

are you using something like these?
https://www.cyclestore.co.uk/specialized_bodygeometry_shim_kit-ID_60193?gclid=CjwKEAiA_s2lBRCe1YPXxtSe-DcSJACCIh3LZtG00l6FroW3baPHgbwta-pEQnmHqoVTuK3peJKXfhoCv_nw_wcB

Yep. Got two in one shoe one in t'other. Had reduced it when my miles were up to a single in one, but back on bike now after hiatus and back to square one..

had a look through the bupa docs, cant see anything relating to anything remotely similar

Can you get rear knee pain from a saddle too low?

Just got fitted and they raised my saddle 5mm as well as some few mm cleat changes (to the non bad knee side)

I thought it was the other way round. Posterior knee pain is usually associated with a saddle too high.

I have been off the bike since before Christmas with a swelling above the outer side of the knee on my left leg.
There was no specific incident which caused this but I have upped the training and returned to track in the last few months. I was just starting to get a few results too so this is really pissing me off.
I have been to a physio and I have had 6 sessions but it has made very little difference. They believe it may be quadricep tendonitis and I am going to be referred to a knee specialist.

Its really depressing me as I have never had a leg injury before. Had anyone ever had this and what was the recovery time. I have been given stretching exercises etc which I am doing but I'm a bit doom and gloom right now :(

I have to exercise though so I am swimming using a float on my legs, otherwise I will go mad.

Only good thing is I get health care through work so can see a specialist and they will cover the costs.

had a bike fit, raised seatpost a touch, cleats all ok. Still getting pain in the back of my knee hours after cycling.

Running out of things to try, almost tempted to take a few weeks off and see if it recovers itself. Could it be muscle damage that keeps getting aggravated before able to repair??

@mikec i feel your pain! hopefully we will both get our knees sorted asap

@mikec I feel you man, I was there for about 7 months and am only getting on the road to recovery now. Really really depressing time.

My issue is over tight outer leg muscles + ITB syndrome and weak VMO and inner leg muscles that are needed to track the knee. I need stretching and loosening of outer muscles + strengthening of the VMO. If correct exercises and stretching is done repetitively then improvements can be seen within weeks.

@Husy @apc

After another couple of physio sessions he believes it is what you describe above. The hip flexers and vastus lateralis are extremely tight and swollen leading to the knee being pulled out of alignment and not tracking correctly in it's groove. He has given me a series of stretches which I am trying to stick to.
I think he is right about this and I am back on the bike commuting only at it does not seem to make it worse. In fact I think lack of cycling was making it worse, mentally anyway. Another thing I noticed was the effect this has on my ham strings. I have started swimming, both in an attempt to resolve this and to build up stamina and I am getting terrible cramps in my hamstrings. Its almost as if my entire left leg is a little out of kilter.
I really hope to resolve it soon as I need to get back on track

I am still going to see a knee specialist just in case

Fuuuuuuuuckinghell.

Anyone had pain on the inside of the kneecaps? By inside I mean the inside of the knee, just around the edge of the patella.

I've had it on and off for about 3 years, but recently an upsurge in running (cross country, in spikes) has triggered it something rotten, to the point where it now hurts on the bike after a big run.

Sports massage person once told me it was tight adductors but just looking to see if anyone's had the same. I foam roll my adductors like a bastard.

3 month waiting list for a nhs referal physio

fuuuuu

I had a consultation regarding my knees the other day with a surgeon. He reckons there's grounds to go in and have a look just on the basis of my symptoms. I had an MRI about 18 months ago, but he doesn't think it's worth getting a fresh one. I'm pretty reluctant to have surgery since the evidence for arthroscopy over physio seems pretty equivocal and my knee has been slowly recovering since the injury, so my plan is to really go at the physio exercises and see if that sorts it out.

Has anyone abandoned planned surgery due to better-than-expected recovery?

arthrososcopy is pretty minimal tbh. if your knee has been bad for a while I would say go ahead with it. i know it's diff for everyone but my surgeried knee feels better than my non surgeried knee. a few years back i had surgery at the end of august and started my ski season in october and my knee felt/feels great.

Why would my right knee pain that has been persistent be getting better after doing loads of heavy squats and lunges?

It is the classic pain over the top of the patella and riding definitely aggravates it but since incorporating new squat/lunge routine it seems to be getting better. Better joint location? More stability?

Doing squats was one of the exercises I got given in order to try and get my knee to track properly. Providing you are doing squats in correct form it should encourage better stability.

My right knee rotates inwards, although we are unsure if this is due to muscle imbalance as the strengthening/stretching exercises had no effect thus far. It could still be ligament or muscle damage. I have no idea if my knee has always had some internal rotation..

My private physio did not book me in for another session as she didnt want to keep taking my money for an issue she couldnt find/fix and suggested that nhs and getting a scan may be the only option..

Figure 2: Gluteus maximus weakness creates a cascade of events that increases the likelihood of injury. GM weakness causes a contralateral pelvic lowering, ipsilateral internal rotation of the femur, which results in a valgus position of the knee and compensatory hyperpronation.

could try incorporating side leg raises or single legged squats to target GM?

Woo! I'm back in this club after a 100 miler on Saturday.

Left knee, inside, usually below patella. Hurts when I walk which is new.

Think I'll just double up on the stretching (mostly hip focused) and introduce some glute strengthening e.g. monster walk, single leg bridge thing, based on advice from my physio last time this happened.

Took a month to recover last time but I managed a whole season of cyclocross after that.

I do exactly that for my knee, same symptoms. It just works. I think it have something to do with cycle related muscles being too stiff and causing unbalance, that puts the knee back on track.
Try bag of hot water in 5 min intervals, been good to me too

Cool, glad I'm not making stuff up then! When I do the squats andlunges I'm very aware of form - as soon as it gets wobbly I stop or lighten the weight. It is definitely helping. I should add this is in addition to stretching, which helps, but I've never really had an inflexibility problem, so that wasn't the cause.

Also, the glutes are the bit's that get really sore - so they must be comparatively weak compared to the rest - makes sense!

2 weeks off the bike, switched back to atacs from road shoes and my knee pains gone

hopefully its as simple as that..