The summer season provides the perfect opportunity to hop on your bicycle and explore a new part of Minnesota. Not only can you travel longer distances with ease on a bicycle, but riding is also a great form of exercise. Whether you’ve been riding a bike all your life or you’ve recently gotten into the hobby because an exercise like running has become harder on your joints, we want to help you continue to enjoy each and every ride!
However, because biking is still a physically demanding habit for your lower body, it’s not uncommon for cyclists to develop a variety of injuries, and one of the more common locations for pain to develop is within the knees. If you’re dealing with knee pain during or after a bike ride, let the team at OrthoRehab help you get back to pain-free cycling. Below, we take a closer look at some of the causes of knee pain while cycling, and we explain how a physical therapist can help you put this discomfort behind you once and for all.
Causes Of Knee Pain While Cycling
Your knee is a complex joint that consists of a number of strong muscles, ligaments and tendons, and because it is a pretty stable joint compared to areas like our shoulders or wrists, it typically takes a fair amount of stress for an injury to develop in the knee. That said, we also ask a lot of our knees with every step or pedal we take, so it’s not uncommon for our knees to be overloaded with acute or repetitive stress. This can serve to weaken these soft tissues until an injury develops.
If you’re dealing with knee pain during or after cycling, you could be dealing with a number of different issues, but some of the most common injuries among amateur and competitive cyclists include:
- Patellafemoral Syndrome – Patellofemoral Syndrome, also known as PFS or overuse syndrome, is a condition in which injury or overuse leads to pain in the front of the knee.
- Tendonitis – Tendonitis involves inflammation, irritation or damage to one or more tendons. In the knee, it typically affects the patellar tendon, which is the band of tissue that connects your patella to your tibia. Again, overuse is typically the leading cause of tendonitis.
- Arthritis – Arthritic degeneration, sometimes referred to as chondromalacia patella when it develops in the knee region, involves a breakdown of protective cartilage that helps to facilitate normal movement within the joint. When this occurs behind your kneecap, it can lead to your kneecap rubbing against your femur and shinbone, causing a painful or grinding sensation when bending or straightening your knee.
Treating Knee Pain From Cycling
Don’t let knee pain interrupt your riding efforts any longer. For the above conditions and many other mild to moderate knee conditions, you can find relief by connecting with a physical therapist in your area. Your physical therapist is well versed in body mechanics and can assess your knee mobility and function through a simple screening test. They’ll also talk with you about your symptoms, when pain develops and how you are currently working to overcome the issue. From there, they will develop an individualized recovery program that sees you make small tweaks to your life to make big strides in your knee function.
Some of the ways that working with a physical therapist can improve your knee function include:
- Strength training
- Range of motion and flexibility exercises
- Posture and form correction
- Correction of muscle imbalances
Aside from addressing some of the physical issues in your knee, they can also take a step back and help improve your riding habits as a whole. For example, our team can ensure your bike seat is positioned optimally for knee function, we can talk with you about different riding gear that can help protect your knee during or after a ride, or we can help develop a training program if you are trying to work your way towards a specific cycling goal. Hitting your cycling goals is a lot like training for a marathon, and if you don’t pick the right program and gradually take on greater challenges, you can risk overstressing your knee and causing more problems for the joint.
Cycling should be a fun activity, so don’t let pain keep you from cycling or take away from the enjoyment of your ride. Instead, connect with a physical therapist and overcome the knee issues that are currently affecting you. For more information, or to talk to one of our physical therapists, reach out to our team today at (612) 339-2041.
PT of Costa Rican National Soccer Team for 2007 World Cup in Victoria, CAN. Clinical Instructor for University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy Affiliations
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