Knee pain only on turbo trainer

Kind of related to the zone 2 chat(s). Now it’s dark and wet and generally bloody grim, I’ve started doing an hour on the turbo in evenings.

Now this happened to me last winter too, but it’d gone away 99% since all the outdoor riding. But I get knee pain in my left knee when only when turbo’ing.

The bike is the same road bike I use all summer, so same position etc.

Does anyone else suffer with this?

Yes, I used to get it , don’t know if it was because my position was more static on the turbo, never found an answer. Bought some rollers and never had the same problem.

It’ll be due to movement, or lack of, on the bike. The back end is bolted to a big ass lump of steel that doesn’t really move, so your position is fixed and any issues are exasperated somewhat.

Whatever you do, don’t carry on if it hurts, you’ll make it worse and worse. If you are intent on keeping the turbo action going during the winter have a look at a rocker plate, probably with fore & aft movement also to possibly alleviate any non-movement issues.

That might be it @steve_b77 . I can feel the pedalling motion/body is different on the turbo now I think of it. Perhaps when outside I waggle a bit more and don’t notice.

Also there’s a difference in the inertia of the turbo, I think this is what manufacturers mean when they talk about ‘road feel’.

Depending on the setup/turbo, there sometimes isn’t ENOUGH intertia so the wheel will slow down almost instantly if you stop pedalling. In real life this means even during the dead spots of your pedal stroke the wheel will slow down enough that you need to accelerate it again as you come over the top of the stroke.

I notice this less now than I train almost exclusively on rollers, I’m *hoping* this is because I’ve developed a smoother pedal stroke and don’t have as much of a dead spot over the top, also I run oval rings but that’s a whole other can of unproven worms 😎

I think newer wheel on turbo trainers have much bigger flywheels/more inertia so this probably helps, but I think you will always notice this effect to a degree until you’ve logged enough hours and generally toughened up your knees! Worst case, start small/slow and generally be attentive to stretching and rolling your quads to give the tendons around your knee a chance to recover. I typically give my knee a brisk rub with some deep heat before a workout as well, in some very unscientific attempt to ‘loosen it up’ before I start.

zone 2, on rollers?! 😫

Headphones on, just pedal away, you’ll also use more of your body maintaining balance. Rollers are much better than people think for training.

I have the same problem – i rarely get any knee pain when riding outside, but 40min on the turbo is about my limit before it develops into a noticeable pain.
Same bike, same position, same knees, etc…

Ok thanks guys. Will have a look for some used rollers. I’ve never used them before. But the benefits raised above do make sense.

Only recently bought the bloody Kickr!

I found that the knee pain on the turbo was actually a wake up call for ergonomic and fit problems that i’d had for years but they never been bad enough to cause an issue. Just treated as “that was a hard session, my legs hurt”.
That lack of movement highlights *any* weaknesses you have.

Ended up making some tweaks to position (cleat setback, saddle) and an experiment with shorter cranks. Worked very well. Now have different issues that won’t be fixed by changing my position!

I also use the tacx galaxia rollers (and a tacx neo) they both have some movement built in (Neo rocks side to side, galaxia goes back and forth).

Only limitation on the rollers is i can’t go much over 275/300W, which even now i can hit, with bigger tyres and lower pressures i’ve heard you can get nearer 400. Whereas neo will go to 2200, which i used to be able to get within about 800W of, on a good day, 20 years ago. The other rollers i had years ago had massive aluminium drums for rollers (3″ i think) that would do something like 4-500 watts…

zone 2, on rollers

To be honest, I assumed it would be more tolerable on rollers, bit more movement, but more concentration required. Will maybe try on my old Kinetics just to see how it feels.

I don’t think you need to go away and buy rollers though, maybe just ease yourself back in to the turbo, maybe try working on your pedal stroke so you don’t lose as much momentum through the deadspot (I think this is what ‘ankling’ or ‘scraping the dog dirt of your shoe’ pedalling is all about)

Elite Arione Mag rollers here with 3 levels of magnetic resistance, I think will do up to 500W but I’ll not be troubling that very often, all my workouts are based around 50% to (rarely) 120% of 320W (not my FTP but what the Elite power curve says is my FTP). so unlikely to be much over 400W.

Be like Eddy

I’m going to make a suggestion… It’s psychosomatic.

I don’t make that suggestion glibly: It’s based on my experience (I’ve has 3 operations on left knee, still suffer pain and also a reasonable knowledge of thought/pain processes).

At it’s most basic, you have little else to think about on the trainer and your mind/body recalls/relives its experience of pain. I am not at all saying it’s all in your mind! This pain is real and can cause further issues through affect on biomechanics.

If your indoor set-up is definitely the same as your outdoor bike (saddle/bar positioning, etc can be thrown out if the turbo isn’t level… same shoes?) and your trainer isn’t providing too much resistance over TDC/BDC, then it might be worth exploring the mind-pain process.

EDIT- Possibly get the softer cups so the Kickr has more movement too?

I’ve got a very worn Molteni cotton cap in my kit drawer, so good to go! 😁

@stanley I have experience of what your suggesting I think, with chronic (now resolved) back pain. Read some stuff from Sarno, and others. TMS/neuroplastic pain. It’s quite fascinating.

But I think this is different, as the knee aches afterwards. It could be though..

I started getting similar turbo-only pains last year on a set up I’ve been using for years. Probably something to do with starting to do some running as well.

Anyway, much like @mert, I realised that it was a fit issue that the turbo exacerbated. A bit of trial and error with cleat position sorted it for me, but I can imagine some saddle adjustment might be part of the equation. It took a few weeks of making a tweak then pedalling very mindfully for 10-15 mins at a time feeling for the twinge (or stopping if it hurt).

A bit of a tedious process but now I can do a couple of hours of turbo with no problems.

@barrysh1tpeas if you decide to look for some second hand rollers and live anywhere near Swinley, I have some in the garage somewhere that I haven’t used in 10+ years. I think they are Ecotrack, like these:

https://www.timslife.com/brancat/trainer/train4.php#item3

They have the magnetic resistance thing too:

https://www.timslife.com/brancat/trainer/train4.php#item4

Depending on the setup/turbo, there sometimes isn’t ENOUGH intertia so the wheel will slow down almost instantly if you stop pedalling. In real life this means even during the dead spots of your pedal stroke the wheel will slow down enough that you need to accelerate it again as you come over the top of the stroke.

I’m completely new to indoor training. Borrowed a Elite Drivo for K to do some injury recovery on and stuck my own bike on it once to do an FTP test…
….and I got knee pain that I don’t think I’ve had on the bike when used outdoors.

Having swapped the bikes on the Drivo once immediately took decision that sharing a turbo or using one with a bike you also want to ride outside over winter is too much faff and bought a second hand Wattbike.

I’ve done 3 sessions on the Wattbike without any knee pain (and it’s replicating my road bike position pretty accurately I think) but the flywheel on the Wattbike definitely feels different to me (I don’t remember the Drivo ever feeling like it was freewheeling, whereas the Wattbike definitely does when you reduce the cadence sharply.