I have been training with a great amount of intensity on the bike lately working on raising FTP. One thing I had noticed during this training cycle that I don’t ever recall before in my past years of training is the depth of fatigue in my vastus medialis of both legs as compared to my other muscles. Maybe It is just the higher level of training I have been doing but I thought I would asked people’s thoughts on which muscles would you expected to feel fatigued after weeks of threshold training and longer endurance rides?
Are you sure it’s the VM? Not the adductor longus? (Asking because odd that the VM would fatigue more than the VL or VI.)
Yes I am sure. Right above the knee to the inner side. The tear drop shaped muscle. I never feel anything in the VI or VL. Also not high and to the inside where the adductor longus would be.
Interesting! The VM does not work independently or with more intensity than the VL, as they receive the same nerve supply. There should have the same fitness.
Have someone video you from both the front and rear while pedaling hard. Sounds like you are pedaling with your knees outward, akin to genu varus (bowlegged stance). If that’s the case, or really regardless, try pedaling with your legs in a neutral stance/position.
I’ll check it out.
I had this problem a few years ago. Mostly in my right leg. Usually, it would begin to hurt, or burn, at the beginning my my rides. It would mostly subside after 30-40 minutes, but not always. I started stretching and foam rolling the heck out of my legs after every ride and it solved the problem.
I know what you are talking about, but mine isn’t pain. It just feels like fatigue. Really felt tired after yesterday’s ride when I started walking down the stairs.
But just to address your comment I do stretch and roll.
VM - more specifically VMO (O= tear drop area) is generally engaged during last bit of ROM (~15 degrees). Makes sense you’re noticing this area is fatiguing during high intensity cycling because you’re possibly having a stronger knee extension.
Solution:
“Poliquin step ups” are a great exercise to strengthen VMO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZzevnhTE34
VM - more specifically VMO (O= tear drop area) is generally engaged during last bit of ROM (~15 degrees). Makes sense you’re noticing this area is fatiguing during high intensity cycling because you’re possibly having a stronger knee extension.
Pardon the interruption. Your comment doesn’t make sense to me… because I’ve spent considerable time in human cadaver dissection labs searching for the “VMO” rather than trusting anatomy books. In most cases, there is no subdivision of the VM or a change in the direction of VM fibers that might represent the VMO. The “tear drop” shape of the VM that appears more with knee training is an outline of the rectus femoris and adductor longus, and this surface anatomy is the basis for the so-called the VMO. Also, because the VM receives only one nerve supply throughout, it is hard to imagine that only the distal attachment could engage stronger in the final degrees of knee extension. What happens is the hip adductors pull the thigh inward and thus also the knee. This adduction enables the VM force to balance the VL force on the patella.
I have no explanation why OP feels more fatigue in the VM, since this muscle shares sensory nerves with the VL and VI.
I had this experience a few years ago and it affected both my cycling and running. Simply put, my entire race (criteriums and marathons) would slow down because my VM would be cramping so bad. I did a little research and found the best workout would be to stair climb, which engages the last portion of the leg extension. So for six months prior to my most important marathon, I would climb up 30 flights on stairs on my building (I live in NYC) and would do six sets (effectively 180 flights) in one session. Sometimes I would carry a 25 lbs sack of rice on my backpack to make the workout harder. My VM got stronger and I set a PR on my marathon and never had the problem on the bike again. I don’t do the stair workouts as often but I still make sure I do my leg extensions on the gym to strengthen my VMs.
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I had somewhat of the same problem, the main portion of my quads would not be tired, but the portion a few inches above my knee would get “tired” feeling (distal rectus femoris, I think…).
A bike fit solved all that (almost 3 years ago) and my muscles all feel much more uniformly-taxed, if that makes sense.
-Physiojoe
just curious, did they lower or raise your saddle, move it fore or aft from where you had it before when you had the VD pain?
just curious, did they lower or raise your saddle, move it fore or aft from where you had it before when you had the VD pain?
Saddle was moved lower and farther back- that seemed to recruit the quads more evenly.
-Physiojoe