knee pit pain

[rachelroo]

Hi all,
I decided to get back to spinning class yesterday. I used to go a few times a week, but work got crazy during the holidays... Anyway I had this awful pain in my left knee pit yesterday about halfway through the class. I hope its a matter of bad bike fit not a tendon tearing or something like that. I put the bike on the same settings as I usually do. I guess I have a two part question. What do you think the pain is from, and what do I need to do to make sure my spin bike is adjusted correctly? It's a revmaster if that makes any difference to all you knowledgeable spinners out there.
Thanks,
Rachel

[Thorn]

Others may have more detailed response, but when that happens to me, it is because my saddle is too high. Try dropping the seat height.

[tulip]

I agree with Thorn. I also wonder if you are spinning too fast. Some (many) spin instructors encourage wildly fast spinning and that's not good for knees. Neither is hovering, IMO. I hope you feel better soon!

[Zen]

What is a knee pit?

[ny biker]

What is a knee pit?

I was wondering the same thing. Is it the back of the knee?

[rachelroo]

Yeah right behind the knee, along the back of my leg. but not at all in the front of the knee. It's only there- which makes me think it's probably not an itb injury, but I have no idea.
-Rachel

[ny biker]

For starters, I would do nothing different except work less hard (lower resistance and/or lower cadence). If the seat height worked for you before, then it's probably still okay.

I've noticed sometimes while doing some kind of cardio exercise that I get a pain in my knee or foot or whatever, so I dial way back on the intensity and stop the exercise altogether if it doesn't feel better. Then I try again a few days later, and sometimes the pain is not there. So either the pain was caused by doing too much too soon, or it was just one of those days when things weren't lined up right.

[Wahine]

You've gotten a lot of good advice here already. I would second the suggestion to slow down your cadence if you're doing a lot of super fast spinning and focusing on movement control through the pedal stroke.

Over extending the knee can be the cause of knee pit pain as you call it. I love that phrase by the way. But that doesn't just come from saddle height, it also comes from not controlling the motion through the pedal stroke.

The tissues that often cause pain in the back of the knee are the popliteus (in fact the anatomical name for this area is the popliteal fossa), gastrocnemius and hamstrings. I very commonly see people with popliteal irritation from cycling. Often it's from incorrect cleat position in terms of rotation, so if you're clipped in, that's another thing to think about.

[Zen]

Be sure you're not pointing your toe. Drop your heel instead. Also stretchstretchstreth your calf afterwards.

Is there a lump?