Ok, after a good couple of months off the bike due to a bust knee, I am going to get back on the beast today and see (and hope) that my knee does not swell back up to the size of a small balloon.

Any tips on excerises that I can do whilst I am sat here in the office that will help strengthen the knee? Also any things that I should avoid whilst riding (should I hammer it up the hills, or slow and steady etc etc)

Cheers!

just enjoy the ride and stop if it hurts

http://bit.ly/JF7r4v

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-59900.html

http://www.livestrong.com/article/221653-knee-strengthening-exercise/

I started doing a bit of singlespeeding to help strengthen my knee..

In my mind SS kind of dictates the pace a bit, and I was finding that riding geared I could sometimes push on a bit too far with very low intensity pain which was counter productive..

SS I was finding it much easier to feel when to stop and rest, and just riding at a bit more of a sightseeing pace in general..

This very quickly built up to attacking everything and attempting to tow a trailer up steep hills as often as possible though.. 😳

but.. I guess that means that it worked for me..

Single Speed means pushing a larger gear than you need alot of the time, which I imagine is no good for an inflamed knee.

Before I went skiing this year I put some rigid forks on my HT and went cycling on the road, with clipless pedals.

On every uphill incline I would shift to a hard gear and stand up to pedal. I would back off one gear so the gearing was not hard enough to support my weight with one leg, but making me spin both the pedals.

I found that I was able to run longish distances on consecutive days where I would normally be getting knee pain by not taking rest days.

I think that the spinning usefully strengthened up the muscles that support the knee.

Single Speed means pushing a larger gear than you need alot of the time, which I imagine is no good for an inflamed knee.

which you imagine maybe.. but a few on here including myself have found it to be very beneficial.. I can’t tell you why

I broke my kneecap about 15 years ago and its constantly swollen. When I started cycling again ignored stretching and paid the price. My muscles in the leg with the bad knee went all out of alignment. Because one leg was stronger than the other the strong leg compensated for the weak. A visit to a physio sorted it. As for exercises – squats, step ups, lie on your bed on your front, with your legs hanging off the end horizontal from the hip and raise them one at a time, and lie on your side with your bad knee on top; bend both legs at the hips and knees and then imagine your knees strapped together; raise and lower your foot. One final piece of advice from my doctor – keep riding – it’ll lengthen your life, your knee may hurt though

I had a dislocated kneecap and damaged ligaments a few years back (windsurfing crash). I also had the imbalance between leg muscles due to over compensation for damaged one.
On the subject of easy strengthening excersises in the office, I did these;
1. Wall squats. Stand with you back to a wall and gradually slide you back down, so that you are in a sitting position against the wall. Never letting your knees go beyond 90 degs. Don’t go further than you knees are comfy with. Try holding the position for longer progressively.
Works your quads well too.
2. Office shuffling. Sit upright and adjust your chair so your knee is at about 90degs ,again, if you have room and even if your co workers dont take the piss too much, use your feet to pull you along the floor, both pulling and pushing.
3. One legged phone calls (!). Try standing by your desk, whilst on the phone. Keeping your back straight, try to stand one leg as long as poss, “dipping” on the weight bearing leg occasionally,til you need to swap legs. Next call, lead with the opposite side to last time !

May all sound a bit nuts, but certainly helped me. Don’t over do, or overbend your knees if it’s still “early days”.

Single Speed means pushing a larger gear than you need alot of the time, which I imagine is no good for an inflamed knee.

which you imagine maybe.. but a few on here including myself have found it to be very beneficial.. I can’t tell you why

+1, I have a really bad right knee, singlespeeding doesn’t cure it, but it seems to be better for it than gears.

I think it’s the combination of strengthening on the uphills and the taking it easy on the flats/downs (rather than mashing a huge gear).

first thing – why do you have to sit in the office?

second – have you got a balance board. i spent a couple of months using one regularly and it helped lots with propreoception.

since then, i find riding singlespeed occassionally strengthens my knees and has changed the way i ride even with gears. I also run which puts different stress through the legs and seems to help keep the leg muscles balanced.

I have no experience of singlespeed riding other than when I was a kid, riding miles on my old clunker.
However having had to get my knees back to working order and strength, I can’t imagine anything worse, particularly regarding “tightness”, I honestly think variation is the key. Easy spinning til warm, then alternating between pushing big gears and spinning, gradually increasing the taller gears, but spinning to warm down. Be guided by what your knee “tells” you. Off the bike strengthening is very important too; my physio had me standing alternate one legged (include the “good” knee too)on a trampette throwing a ball at a wall and catching it, very good allround knee conditioner, that.
I’d agree with the balance board thing too, but only when your knee can cope with fairly sudden lateral movement again.

[quoteI honestly think variation is the key. Easy spinning til warm, then alternating between pushing big gears and spinning,[/quote]

Singlespeeding then (as long as your ride doesn’t start at the bottom of a 1in3 for the warmup)

Singlespeeding works well for me too – it definitely provides the high/low resistance variation that seems to work well. I’m a long-term singlespeeder anyway, but after a bad knee injury a couple of years ago I found that riding the singlespeed helped significantly in regaining strength. I try and mix up geared and singlespeed riding now which helps with the knee maintenance.

That said there’s a level of strength that you won’t get back through riding alone (at least not very easily) and you should sort out a good set of exercises to build knee strength and stability. I started by seeing a physio (when I felt my recovery had plateaued a bit) and he outlined a range of plyometric exercises to get some power and stability back. I ‘ve followed that up over the last year or so with a load of exercises, mostly focused on getting it back in shape for skiing – all variety of lunges and the like with weights etc and also exercises aimed at single-leg balance improvement.

Balance board sounds a good idea (as said ^^^) although I’ve never used one. Perhaps I should!

3 knee athroscopies in the past. For me : spinning rather than pushing big gears, floaty pedals, lots of floor and swiss ball exercises, regular wobble board…..keeps it to a grumble

Cheers for all the advice folks, went for a quick spin over Lantern Pike, took it easy generally, spinning as much as possible and light on gear changes, seems to have done ok, bit achy this morning but generally ok! Nice to be back on the bike again 😀

…or maybe not! The next day it was ‘clicky’ and now its back to it seizing up, swollen and sore. I give up.

Hey sorry, that’s rubbish. Really recommend you see a good physio. I go to Ali Mills in Hebden Bridge which might be a bit far but she’s a cyclist and understands the back-on-the-bike desire and putting broken mountain bikers back together.

I used my bike a lot once I’d had the green light from the physio, but lterally a mile max on the flat for a week or two to begin with, to start with that was painful too!