Knee exercises

7 years ago someone opened a car door into me while I was going fast down a hill.
I flew 18 feet (measured by the fire department because they thought I would want to know) and compressed my knee cap.
I'm pretty sure that after so long and so much abuse I need to have surgery, but Titta has done awesome things for it in the meantime. She is an acupuncturist and chinese medical practisioner, and she's made my knee go from being utter shite to livable.
PM her, she has reasonable rates, she's Tee on here

after three weeks my knee is actually starting to get better. I slowly developed a dull ache in my left knee which at first I attempted to ride off.
I had never had an injury that didn't go way by itself after a couple of days and especially one that didn't arise from a trauma. It got to the stage where I had to leave my bike at work after riding in. There was no swelling, just an ache that seemed to be at the joint surface...I got quite emotional at points, I worried that my cycling had come to a rather mediocre end. I was jealous of every cyclist I saw mashing away without giving it a second thought.

The recovery has been painfully slow but I can feel that I am making progress. The Physio thought maybe it was knee cap tracking or bruised cartilage. I still feel scared to put any kind of power down though and am attending a yoga for cyclist class tonight to work on my flexibility as recommended by the physio. Root cause of it though is almost certainly my hip, an untreated injury in Taekwondo (felt like I ripped my groin open attempting a kick) means that something is 'impinging' (I took this to mean getting trapped) in the joint, it's not really a problem for me but it means the hip doesn't have full range of motion approx. 95%) and is generally a bit tight.

I'm not really sure of the point of this post but when I was injured I trawled through the forum to find out if anyone else has experienced anything similar and how bad the news might be.

ps I can highly recommend the physio who advertised on the forum - bluerip

Thanks for the feedback, glad to hear you feel you're making progress. I'd be happy to advise on and look at any knee concerns, afterall they are the one joint that you really can't ride well without.

Root cause of it though is almost certainly my hip, an untreated injury in Taekwondo (felt like I ripped my groin open attempting a kick) means that something is 'impinging' (I took this to mean getting trapped) in the joint, it's not really a problem for me but it means the hip doesn't have full range of motion approx. 95%) and is generally a bit tight.

hip pain is classicly felt in the ipsilateral (same-sided) knee.

--d0cA

(Bodyweight) Squats are known as the king of excercises and are supposed to be very good for the knee's. Hindu squat's (which are also supposed to be good for the knees) are what I've started as I seem to have pretty weak knee's that get sore easily

YouTube - Hindu Squats and Bodyweight Squats

er... I would like to advise anyone with any form of knee complication/injury not to do these kind of squats! Way too dynamic.

er... I would like to advise anyone with any form of knee complication/injury not to do these kind of squats! Way too dynamic.

I agree. My problem is my knees are weak and need to htfu so these are good excercises for me to strengthen them. I don't really have any injuries as such. I think more gentle, rehabilitation type excercises would be more appropriate if you have an actual knee injury

Gotcha! Sorry mate, i thought you were offering them as rehab.
That said, i have had some patients that i would love to have offered them to......

Personally I like isometrics for rehab. I also have a long term back injury and was unable to cycle due to it but doing stuff like " bridge" and "plank" got me back on my bike

er... I would like to advise anyone with any form of knee complication/injury not to do these kind of squats! Way too dynamic.

I concur to the highest degree, squatting on tip toes puts immense stress on the knee, allowing yourself to bounce off your legs in that position effectively tears your joint apart.

I would also recommend to all you cyclists that bike riding focuses on knees & quads plenty. Cyclists are mostly lacking in posterior chain development which can cause pain and such in the knees.

Power comes from your hips/posterior chain. For most people and especially cyclists improving leg/hip/knee health, strength, power, sports performance, posture, vertical jump and back ache can all be dramatically improved by focusing on hip dominant exercises.

Oh and listen to pistaboy, hes a professional.

I would also recommend to all you cyclists that bike riding focuses on knees & quads plenty. Cyclists are mostly lacking in posterior chain development which can cause pain and such in the knees.

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I've been advised to do deep lunges to help with this

Personally I like isometrics for rehab. I also have a long term back injury and was unable to cycle due to it but doing stuff like " bridge" and "plank" got me back on my bike

I have found single leg planks to be one of the most intensive things for working on stability of one of my knees which had torn ligaments earlier this year.

People often forget that the spine is not really up to flexing about under load, all the muscles in your torso are mainly there to stabilise it. Things like bridges/planks use this muscles in their intended function unlike situps/crunches which are effectively spine destroying.

I've been advised to do deep lunges to help with this

Lunges and any unilateral movement are great for improving flexibility, knee stability/strength and the core. But it is rather difficult to engage tension in hamstrings and utilise glutes in a powerful way. Largely the difficulty in locking torso/preventing hips from tilting and the complicated balance aspect of being on a single leg in a split position. With deep/deficit lunges in particular (I take it you mean the 'reverse' type) it is particularly common to find yourself leaning forward to shift yourself back up to the box/step.

If you really want to hit your glutes/hamstrings more intensively I thoroughly recommend any deadlift variation as long as you use good form. Hell, you can even use a cable machine. Make sure you keep back in locked in neutral, lower torso while shifting hips back a little and youll quickly feel the tension in hamstrings and reach your end of range of motion. Push hips forward contracting glutes hard to get torso back up.

Perfect.

Because of my back injury I'm VERY wary of anything to do with weights. I just stick to bodyweight excercises. Thanks for the info though :0)