I’ve been out of commission for 8 months with an ITB injury. Literally tried everything to get it fixed and I think I’m slowly coming around. I’m starting back by doing easy workouts and noticed today that the knee of my injured leg kicks out at the top of my pedal stroke. My non-injured leg/knee is straight as an arrow throughout the pedal stroke.
I tried exaggerating the kick by pushing my knee further out and I noticed pain in my ITB. I’m not sure but perhaps the “kicking out” of my knee is part of the ITBS cause.
Does anyone know why this might be happening? Tight abductors? Weak adductors? Fit problem? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
I’ve seen riders with a “tick” in their pedal stroke quite a few times.
My first impression was initially, “Oh no, that is wrong, we’re going to see an injury here at the worst and at the best that is a loss of efficiency.” Then, out came the shims to try to “correct” the issue by changing the varus or valgus tendency of the pedal stroke.
Like many things in life and nature, the tendency was to “make things right” or straight. The assusmption has alway been that a straight, vertical movement of the leg is optimal- so initially fitters would try to get to that point, never mind if that was how a person pedalled best. It simply didn’t look right, so we tried to fix it.
My primary guinea pig was a man named Pierre, an accomplished and experienced cyclist and an expert mechanic. Pierre had the worst “tick” in his pedal stroke where his knee would kick out at the top of his pedal stroke. Over the years we tried a lot of ideas to try to “fix” Pierre. All of them resulted in more problems. Left to his own devices, with good basic fit and position, Pierre was fine with riding- the “tick” at the top of his pedal stroke, where his knees would momentarily swing outboard in a vargus type orientation, was his normal. Trying to fix it resulted in more problems.
Now, this can’t be applied as a generalization though. Some horizontal knee travel is a problem- saddle height, cleat adjustment, muscular imbalance or- most likely- some confounding soup of all those factors could be contributing. However, I opin that it is a mistake to blanketly call patellar mal-tracking a problem. It is simply the way some riders pedal. You even see top riders in the Tour de France exhibit this on occasion.
I’ve been out of commission for 8 months with an ITB injury. Literally tried everything to get it fixed and I think I’m slowly coming around. I’m starting back by doing easy workouts and noticed today that the knee of my injured leg kicks out at the top of my pedal stroke. My non-injured leg/knee is straight as an arrow throughout the pedal stroke.
I tried exaggerating the kick by pushing my knee further out and I noticed pain in my ITB. I’m not sure but perhaps the “kicking out” of my knee is part of the ITBS cause.
Does anyone know why this might be happening? Tight abductors? Weak adductors? Fit problem? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Was it doing this before the injury as well?
I had a similar issue(not because of injury, but did have a lot of lateral knee movement) and it turned out to be bad cleat position on the shoe. You might have a fitter put your bike on a trainer & watch you pedal.
to add to all the other good responses, at times some people have a different orientation of their hip which causes this (retroversion or anteversion) however the fact that you feel the pain as you exaggerate it would lead me to believe its part of the issue. one thing I see alot in cyclists is lack of hip joint mobility anteriorly which causes compensations in max hip flexion (ie at the top of your pedal stroke)… just another thought.
My guess would be tightness/knots/scar tissue in your glues and the small stabilizing muscles and too much drop, no surprise that ITBS happened on this leg.
If you’re talking about your tri bike, I bet it happens when your in aero but not sitting up on the bullhorns and if you’re on a road bike it happens in the drops but not when sitting up in the hoods/tops.
Have you tried seeing a chiro or phsyio that does ART? I had some similar issues. He basically reset my joints and retrained the muscles to work correctly. Has made a world of difference.
I’ve seen riders with a “tick” in their pedal stroke quite a few times.
My first impression was initially, “Oh no, that is wrong, we’re going to see an injury here at the worst and at the best that is a loss of efficiency.” Then, out came the shims to try to “correct” the issue by changing the varus or valgus tendency of the pedal stroke.
Like many things in life and nature, the tendency was to “make things right” or straight. The assusmption has alway been that a straight, vertical movement of the leg is optimal- so initially fitters would try to get to that point, never mind if that was how a person pedalled best. It simply didn’t look right, so we tried to fix it.
My primary guinea pig was a man named Pierre, an accomplished and experienced cyclist and an expert mechanic. Pierre had the worst “tick” in his pedal stroke where his knee would kick out at the top of his pedal stroke. Over the years we tried a lot of ideas to try to “fix” Pierre. All of them resulted in more problems. Left to his own devices, with good basic fit and position, Pierre was fine with riding- the “tick” at the top of his pedal stroke, where his knees would momentarily swing outboard in a vargus type orientation, was his normal. Trying to fix it resulted in more problems.
Now, this can’t be applied as a generalization though. Some horizontal knee travel is a problem- saddle height, cleat adjustment, muscular imbalance or- most likely- some confounding soup of all those factors could be contributing. However, I opin that it is a mistake to blanketly call patellar mal-tracking a problem. It is simply the way some riders pedal. You even see top riders in the Tour de France exhibit this on occasion.
I’ve been out of commission for 8 months with an ITB injury. Literally tried everything to get it fixed and I think I’m slowly coming around. I’m starting back by doing easy workouts and noticed today that the knee of my injured leg kicks out at the top of my pedal stroke. My non-injured leg/knee is straight as an arrow throughout the pedal stroke.
I tried exaggerating the kick by pushing my knee further out and I noticed pain in my ITB. I’m not sure but perhaps the “kicking out” of my knee is part of the ITBS cause.
Does anyone know why this might be happening? Tight abductors? Weak adductors? Fit problem? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Was it doing this before the injury as well?
Yes. It was doing this before the injury. In fact it’s been doing it as long as I can remember. The ITB really flared up when I tried to gradually increase mileage. Perhaps the sway in my knee reached it’s breaking point?
I had a similar issue(not because of injury, but did have a lot of lateral knee movement) and it turned out to be bad cleat position on the shoe. You might have a fitter put your bike on a trainer & watch you pedal.
Thanks. I was fit by the Retul guys in Boulder. Maybe I’m due for a tune-up.
to add to all the other good responses, at times some people have a different orientation of their hip which causes this (retroversion or anteversion) however the fact that you feel the pain as you exaggerate it would lead me to believe its part of the issue. one thing I see alot in cyclists is lack of hip joint mobility anteriorly which causes compensations in max hip flexion (ie at the top of your pedal stroke)… just another thought.
Lately I’ve felt a lot of tension or restriction in the front of my hip during flexion. That could be a part of it. Thanks for the thought.
My guess would be tightness/knots/scar tissue in your glues and the small stabilizing muscles and too much drop, no surprise that ITBS happened on this leg.
If you’re talking about your tri bike, I bet it happens when your in aero but not sitting up on the bullhorns and if you’re on a road bike it happens in the drops but not when sitting up in the hoods/tops.
I’m actually working with a Massage therapist now. There is plenty of knots and tightness in my left glute. Ironically the right one is free and clear. I’d have to double check but I’m almost certain the sway at the top of my pedal stroke gets worse as I close my hip angle by getting aero or getting into the drops. I’ll double check this. Thanks for the thoughts.
Do you think clearing this knots up will fix my issues?
Have you tried seeing a chiro or phsyio that does ART? I had some similar issues. He basically reset my joints and retrained the muscles to work correctly. Has made a world of difference.
I’ve been to 4 PTs, 2 ART Docs/Chiro and a list of other doctors. We are currently working through my adhesions and tightness as I strengthen my weaknesses with the PT. It’s been a long road.
Well once the adhesions are cleared up then exercises and you should be able to get the leg back to “normal”. Have you actually shown your physio etc… your riding issue?
find a PT with a manual therapy certification who knows how to mobilize a hip joint and/or one familiar with sahrmann’s movement dysfunctions. pm me and I can help you find someone
Well once the adhesions are cleared up then exercises and you should be able to get the leg back to “normal”. Have you actually shown your physio etc… your riding issue?
Yes I have. He took a bunch of video of me riding from all directions.