Dealing with some medial knee pain and notice after even just an hour of easy spinning my right knee wants to dive inward toward the top tube at the top of the stroke. Also feels like my heel wants to kick inward and almost brush the crank arm. Any suggestions as to what can often cause this would be greatly appreciated
If it is causing you pain… change your cleat position
This however is what I have trained myself to do because it reduces some drag (opposed to knees being out like a frog)
Glute weakness or inhibition
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One leg longer than the other? Need spacers?
Glute weakness or inhibition
Second the glute weakness. Try bandwalks or bridges to strengthen and see if that helps.
Glute weakness or inhibition
Second the glute weakness. Try bandwalks or bridges to strengthen and see if that helps.
This is my first thought as well. Basically, a strength imbalance between the gluteus medius and hip adductor. If that’s the cause, the cure is strengthening the gluteus medius and stretching the adductors.
Here’s a page with a more detailed explanation: http://www.maximumtrainingsolutions.com/Gluteus-Medius-Hip-Adductor-Interaction.html
Glute weakness or inhibition
Yes. Medial glutes could be weak. Do abduction leg raises while lying on your side. Extend your hip on the leg you’re working just a bit so that the leg is no longer parallel with your torso. Make sure your pelvis doesn’t fall backwards. This will isolate the medial glute. Also, the clamshell exercise works well. Do this a few times a week and your glutes will strengthen in no time.
You can also stick a wedge under between your cleat and shoe to help solve the issue.
Exact opposite, left knee and leg stays nice and tight and right one frogs out at the top of the pedal stroke, I just thought it was a flexibility issue.
That’s what I did many years ago to solve that issue
jaretj
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You have a knee tracking issue, as do many others. If you are months down the road still with no solution, maybe you can look to muscle imbalances. I hear they are hot right now. But for starters, you should go see a reputable bike fitter who knows how to use a cleat wedge.
The cleat wedge is the simple solution.
Searching out and correcting a muscle imbalance is the complicated solution.
When simple shit, like riding a bike, doesn’t go well, always look first to the simple solution.
Dave…just saw that you posted. I am sure there will be many of us excited to have you back contributing to this community! Welcome back (I’ve been offline for a few days so if you were back earlier, then I am late)!
Dev, thanks. I have been back a few days, but this might have been my 2nd post.
Great to have you here. The community is stronger with your contributions. I am sure my sentiment is shared by many. A good example is your recent second post. Keep them coming! One useful post can improve the lives/fitness/experience of many around our sports. I think this is the biggest value around here. Knowledge is great when it is in your/our heads, and it can only be multiplied verbally so many times, but when in writing, it really helps more. It’s like you came back to the Gutenburg printing press of tri (only thing, Slowman will not die penniless like Gutenberg).
By the way, to add to Dave’s post, I have more knee issues while riding with neutral shoes, whereas when I use specialized shoes with the “built in wedge” my knee health is a lot better
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You can also stick a wedge under between your cleat and shoe to help solve the issue.
+1 That’s what I did to address this issue for me with my Sidi’s. For my Specialized shoes I don’t need the wedge.
i had this issue addressed a few months ago getting sized for a custom road bike. the fitter took a front shooting vid to show how what he was doing was changing my pedaling.
i have feet that are as flat as western kansas so i pronate horribly plus i have ‘knock knees’, the opposite of being bow legged. at the top of my stroke my knees dang neared hit my top tube. (again, this is on a road bike with a flat top tube, not sloping.) he used the esoles footbed inserts to correct my issue. i wear orthotics in my everyday shoes and when i ran wore them in my running shoes, but have never worn any sort of support in my cycling shoes. i have some some buddy’s who have bought the same inserts and made adjustment on their own as to what felt good vs felt bad in their shoes. if you’re using them to adjust a tracking issue i almost think you’d need a fitters help, so you can pedal naturally without looking down and taking a chance of altering your technique. or perhaps you could set up a web cam with your computer in front of you so you’re in keep your position on the bike while watching your pedaling.
the other thing i’d be concerned about when messing with your knee position is are you doing something that you shouldn’t do re:where you are positioning you knee with the use of inserts or wedges. i don’t even know the questions to ask addressing positioning stuff so i did some research and came up with a shop who had good reviews when bike fitting.
good luck
I second the eSoles. I have flat feet and the right is worse than the left. After rides I would sometimes end up with large bruises on the interior of my right knee from smacking it against the top tube on the downstroke. I also had paint wear away on my right chainstay from my heel rubbing it. The eSoles do what a cleat shim would do, only inside the shoe. Since I started using them, my legs are much more vertical throughout the pedal stroke.
I believe the knee motion you’ve observed is the result of normal biomechanics.
This can be observed with a simple experiment: stand with your feet shoulder width apart and note the direction that your right foot is pointing. If you raise your right leg you will notice that your foot rotates outward, clockwise, from its position when your leg was extended. If the right foot was fixed, e.g. to a pedal, then instead of the foot rotating outward the knee would rotate inward when it is flexed.
It’s possible that pedal and shoe systems, muscle balance and flexibility issues can help you adapt to this motion but are not the cause of it.
You can also stick a wedge under between your cleat and shoe to help solve the issue.
I must admit that I cringe any time someone says “get a cleat wedge” without seeing if there is a difference between the tilt required at the rear foot to correct pronation vs. the tilt required at the forefoot. I just worked with a cyclist last week who needs varus tilt for her heel and forefoot on one leg and a varus/valgus combination on her other foot. If you add a wedge you are correcting tilt only if you have the same varus or valgus tilt issue in both locations, otherwise correcting one will really mess up the other…
I do agree that it starts with the shoes/feet. Get checked to see if you have podiatric issues that can be solved with insoles or wedges. Then concentrate on muscle balance.