Knee pain after exercise

[otolith]

I've had this for years now, noisy knees and occasional discomfort going up stairs. I had it looked at some years ago, some blood tests were done, presumably looking for inflammatory markers for arthritis, nothing came of it. In recent years, I thought since I was a few stone overweight (not massive, but certainly fatter than I should be) that maybe if I lost some weight it would clear up.

I'm 39 years old. At my heaviest I was about 15.5 stone, I'm 12 stone now. I've been doing a lot of exercise over the last 18 months or so, but I've tried to keep it fairly low impact - we have an elliptical trainer, I have been swimming, cycling, a little running on the treadmill (not too much of that), rowing machine and static bikes and a bit of walking. Particularly lots and lots of cycling, recently, about 600 miles in the last month.

I'm finding that after a bike ride or a session on the elliptical I'm going up the stairs like a cripple. The discomfort is round the front of both knees. It's usually ok again after a day's break, NSAIDs help and it doesn't cause me a great deal of discomfort when I'm not putting weight on them, but it does worry me.

I suspect I should go back to the doctor and get it looked at again, but what realistically is he going to be able to offer other than the suggestion I cut back on the exercise? I've adjusted my bike seat height and my use of gears, which has helped a bit, but I fear that he's going to say that it's just wear and tear and nothing can be done.

Any experience of this?

[grumbledoak]

I cannot stand those eliptical trainers; I've always had less pain after a treadmill than after those. Low impact my arse! I just stopped using them in the end.

Not sure about the cycling, you must be able to make that comfortable, surely? Are you just using pedals, or clips?

Either way, I too suspect that the doctor's advice will be the traditional 'Well, stop doing it' crap. Try to see a specialist.

[Halb]

Cutting back would seem wise, and not using anti-inflammatories around exercise.
Have you tried resistance work to help your knees?

[S10GTA]

I posted a guide to cycling based knee pain here

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[otolith]

S10GTA said:

I posted a guide to cycling based knee pain here

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Yes, it was on very similar advice that I raised the seat a bit and used lower gears more - it certainly improved matters but wasn't a cure. I don't think the cycling is the root of the problem, though, I think it's just aggravating it.

Going to have a couple of weeks holiday with only swimming and gentle walking for exercise, so it will be interesting to see how much a break helps.

[otolith]

Halb said:

Have you tried resistance work to help your knees?

I haven't, though I got the impression that was more of a help for pain at the sides of the knees?

[Ayahuasca]

Sounds like a version of 'Runner's Knee'. Lots of info if you google it.

[Tallow]

I have knee pain periodically, too, and I've experimented quite a bit to try and get to the bottom of it.

My trainer (who is married to a physio, incidentally), believes it is caused by tight hamstrings and glutes due to not stretching enough after exercise. Doing more stretches definitely helps with it.

It might be worth a session with a physio so that they can give you an idea of what kind of shape your legs and lower back are in. I had an ex-girlfriend who had issues with shoulder pain for years and it helped her a great deal.

[otolith]

That's worth considering, there is a good local physio.