Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Silver View Post
All good feedback. Went to LBS and will try getting refitted later in the week. Tonight I did 20 miles. Halfway in, I lowered my seat a bit and it may have helped.

Technical Question: Can we really strengthen a ligament?
Two things, you can strengthen a ligament. However in this case strength refers to tensile strength of the ligament structure, not contractile strength like muscles have. Proper recovery from injury strengthens weakened ligament tissue such that it returns to normal. Graduated increases in stress along the ligament's long axis will stimulate the ligament cells to lay down more collagen tissue, creating more strength such that the ligament can endure more tensile stress.

Think of a ligament as a rope with fibres. If I load the rope up with too much weight some of the fibers will break. The rope maker walks by and notices so he adds more fibres to increase the strength of the rope. But if you keep breaking fibres down with repeated or excessive stress at frequent intervals such that the rope maker can't keep up, eventually you've got a problem. If the rope maker has time to respond, he keeps making the rope stronger. That's what the cells do.

Now, the second thing. I agree with aicabsolut, I think it's more likely that you have an IT band problem leading to inflammation at the lateral aspect of the knee where it joins on to the tibia. In which case, you likely need to do some hip stretches to release pressure of the ITB. I've posted stretches several times on this forum. If you search IT band or ITB you should find them.