Mountain Bike Reviews Forum banner

Knee pain after a difficult climb

15K views 34 replies 14 participants last post by  flynbryan19 
#1 ·
I have developed some knee pain recently after a riding trip I took where there was a rather steep/short hill that took all my effort to over come. I obviously started the climb quickly and with lots of momentum, but the last 10-15 feet was a very slow cadence and ALOT of effort. Had to do this twice.

After my ride I noticed that the ligaments/muscles below my knee cap have been sore/tender after my rides or spin classes at the gym. This has gone on almost 2 months. Usually the pain comes after the activity not during. I took roughly 2 weeks off of riding anything and the pain went away. I started back again yesterday at the spin class and though not as severe the pain seems to be creeping back in. Should I rest longer? Are there any stretches or therapy I can do to solve this issue? I've NEVER had any knee pain in 3yrs of riding before now. I'm hoping I haven't done permanant damage.
 
#32 ·
Ooh, patellar tendonitis .. I was out for a year with that, on crutches for about 4 months. You gotta take it seriously. Long story, but another injury sidelined me for a year and when I got back into action my quads were totally atrophied (your patellar tendon is an extension of your quads) and I pushed it too hard too early and put myself out for another year. Pretty sad when I think about it, I basically lost 2 years of my life, if you can believe it.

I found the that physiotherapists just made everything much worse, maybe you have a good one, I don't know. They didn't like the fact that I was able to do my own internet research. I really should have sued the ass off mine because she is what started the whole downhill spiral, turned a simple minor structural sports injury into a major problem that threatened the future existence of my leg.

Anyways, I did lots of research on patellar tendonitis. I discovered that the best way to rehab it is with eccentric exercises, basically you stress it while the tissue it's lengthening, not contracting (concentric exercise). This means that you would put force on your leg when you go down a squat, but not back up. It seems to do amazing things. Google it.

Me, I'm basically up to 100% now, I totally rebuilt my scar-tissue laden, almost non-existent patellar tendon. Tendons are not like muscles because they have very little blood flow and they take a long time to heal, whereas a muscle heals in weeks or even days. Be thankful that you haven't screwed up your knee ligaments because you never fully recover from that, but a patellar tendon can be totally rehabbed.

At least the silver lining to all this is that I now know everything about tendonitis, how to recognize it before it gets out of hand, and to deal with it, so I can say I'm never going to have another tendonitis problem again!
 
#33 ·
Mark its ironic you say your patellar tedonitis was started from atrophy, because I believe that's what may have happened with mine. Though they were sore/painful for so long I don't 100% remember the initial pain I was feeling I believe my tendonitis came after I was doing PT for my kneecap tracking issues. I tried a couple different times to explain to my PT that I felt my pain was NOT from the tracking, but they brushed it off.

I finally ended up going to another Orthopedic doctor that would listen and was indeed diagnosed w/ tendonitis. My tendonitis issues didn't start getting substantially better till I stopped doing my knee cap tracking exercises and if I had simply listened to my original PT and not done my own research I believe I would STILL be regressing instead of improving. In short though most doctors are very intelligent with MUCH more education than myself, but you also need to have a mind of your own and explore ALL potential options. ;)
 
#34 ·
Glad to hear. With tape and foam roller I had improved symptoms a lot. My goal was to enable 4-5 hours rides pain free and with tape on no issues. If I forget to apply tape I'm good for an hour or so but then pain starts coming back slowly. Also what makes it worse is wearing armor. Spent week in Mammoth, and pedaling with knee pads brings pain fairly quick.
Hope I'll be able to fully recover in the winter. Right now riding is just too god to slow down.
 
#35 ·
Got a little over-zealous two weeks ago and did 3 days of riding in a row. Felt fine the first two days and didn't hurt during the activity the 3rd day, but come the fourth day I had some pretty good knee pain again. Took a full week off and started back up again yesterday. So far no pain. I guess I'm just gonna have to stick to my on one day off the next routine I've been doing. With ice each day and advil(ibuprofen) after my rides I seem to be good to go. ;)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top