New Knee Oddness

[Jezston]

I used to have a bit of a problem with my old bike over long distances due to it being a little too big for me - I'm 6 foot, but have relatively short legs. This would result in me getting pain in my knees after long rides.

However with my new bike this has mostly been fine.

Until recently, as the weather has turned. I must be grinding a higher gear, especially as I've been riding fixed more (have two exchangable rear wheels - one SA 3-speed, one fixed), although I'm not finding it difficult to ride up a slight long hill at a 2.8:1 ratio, but I've certainly been putting more stress on myself in the last month or two.

My knees don't hurt - not at all - but sometimes they feel a bit 'funny' - a bit loose or something, and when I stretch they click a great deal.

I realise I really need to be taking exercise other than my bike commute (I'm pretty sedentary otherwise) and doing more stretching. Squats have helped when I was getting over my previous pain, but I've been slack lately, and I'm concerned by the clicking now I've started doing it again.

Any tips on getting myself back in shape and my knees happy?

 

[Jezston]

Bump?

Is clicking and groaning when doing squats something I should be worried about?

 

[vickster]

Certainly if painful and if sudden onset. Squats aren't generally the most friendly exercise for knees

 

[HLaB]

I'm no physio but clicking was the sign that my patella wasn't moving smoothly, I stupidly ignored it and ended up in crippling pain for longer than needed, only then did I seek physio advice. IT band issues were diagnosed for me and since with a little bit of stretching, when the problem has reoccurred its disappeared within a week without escalating to crippling pain. I like to follow the stretched the physio prescribed and the ones here. I also found swimming, in particular the breath-stroke was good for me it seems to exercise the muscles/tendons/ligaments that are underused by cycling.

 

[albion]

I got the clickety click a good while before extreme knee inflammation.
The crunch click is usually a sign of wear resulting in bone hitting bone.

I'm now cycling at a higher cadence, especially on hills.
The 28/38/48 on my 700C hybrid bike was not quite right so it is currently now 22/32/42.

If your knees do feel loose it sounds like wear, a pre-cursor to major problems later.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

If you have worries go to a GP, ignore everything he says, and just keep saying 'refer me to a physio' until he does it, or throws you out of his surgery.

Cyclists tend to have crap patellar tracking due to the quad muscle strength compared to the oblique (so I'm told). So quad stretching should be part of the routine.
As far as squats go, the sort where you lean back against a wall with an exercise ball between are regarded as best - as the knee does not extend outward beyond your toes. They were part of the routine I had during physio to rebuild muscle and correct tracking problems.

The current thinking on mine is that I've stripped the cartilage from the back of my kneecaps. But 3 months of ignorance by a GP led to a hell of a lot more complication and over a year of constant pain.

 

[fimm]

I had a funny clicky sort of knee which seems to be developing into full on ITB problems. It probably doesn't help that I run as well as cycle and that I'm trying to manage the issue until I run a marathon in April (rather than being sensible, pulling out of the marathon, and getting it sorted). Clickyness mostly on the outside of the knee. "Clams" (google it) are a good exercise for your ITB I believe. The other thing for knees is if you ride clipless (which I guess you must, riding fixed?) you need to make sure your cleats are alligned correctly.