Safety and Education Committee Report - Archive

Your bike and knee

President Bush had to give up running due to the damage he has done to his knees. His doctors have recommended that he take up bicycling instead. Done correctly, bicycling is one of the best exercises for the knees. Unfortunately, many people experience knee pain caused by improperly using their bicycle. “If it hurts you’re doing something wrong”.

I recently saw an ad for a constricting band purported to cure knee pain. A picture in the ad showed an obese person standing beside a very poorly setup “comfort” bicycle. He may have relieved his pain using this device but he was treating a symptom rather than solving the problem.

Compressing his sore muscles may alleviate the pain and stabilizing a joint will help prevent damage. Prolonged use of mechanical adjuncts allows the muscles to atrophy. Exercising muscles within their range of strength and motion should not be painful or cause injury. As muscles fatigue they develop micro-tears. Sore muscles after exercising are usually the result of over-use or improper motion. Balancing while standing on one leg will strengthen it without overloading.

The man was beside a bicycle with the saddle slightly higher than his crotch and the handlebars were above his waist. A properly adjusted saddle will allow motion between the angles of 105 o and 175 o. Bending the knee more than 90 o is called hyper-flexion. It is very easy to overload the knee when applying loads in a hyper-flexed position. The back of the kneecap can be injured and the small stabilizing muscles can be over-powered when hyper-flexed. Damaged stabilizing muscles hurt and cannot maintain proper alignment. Misalignment of the knees damages cartilage and the surrounding soft tissue.

Properly positioned handlebars support 45-50% of one’s body weight. Little upper body strength is required to hold the body in a neutral position (arm-body angle 90 o with the body bent forward 45 o,hips and hands same height). With the bars too close or low, you feel lower back pain. The neck and shoulders quickly fatigue when the bars are too far away. For people of the same height, women have longer legs and men have longer torsos. Most women riding a man’s bike will have the bars too far away. Women often raise the bars to relieve shoulder pain. Placing more of their weight on the saddle only moves the pain. To cure that pain they increase the padding, shifting the weight from the sit bones to the surrounding soft tissue (which can be injured).

If your legs hurt from bicycling make sure your bicycle is properly set-up. You can be sore on a proper fitting bike by pedaling too hard or slowly so be sure your cadence is correct (80-100 rpm). More on that later.

Bill Fisk- Safety and Education

Safety and Education Coordinator