Quote Originally Posted by arielmoon View Post
I discovered that mashing felt better (with almost no pain) than spinning So I ended up doing a strong 24 miles: averaged 19.3 on my scenic route. I was so pumped and wired afterward! I love that feeling. And oddly enough, my knee feels better this evening that it has all week.
Yep, within reason. I found that as well. My theory (and I have NO basis for it because I'm not a PT or anything remotely like that) is that when you spin constantly very easy you are stressing your tendons and not using your muscles, and so your tendons do all the work, which they are not meant to do. So a bit of mashing (again within reason) uses muscles that work in concert with the tendons and ligaments, and every part does its particular job and there's no pain.

Some PT please explain what really happens.