I’m going to give a few of my ideas anyway:o
No worries. As much as I like to think I am, i’m not the forum ‘cop’. I think that Maestro’s job.
What I was trying to avoid was the ‘Did you try . . .’ responses, since short of hitting myself in the head with a hammer, there is not much I haven’t considered. But you clearly are bringing your own experiences to the conversation and even a quick scan showed me you know what you are talking about.
But moving forward . . .
I really want to try to keep this not so much about knees as it is about riding, not riding, riding with challenges. Physical challenges, mental, wanting to ride too much (and pissing off he/she who must be obeyed), stuff like that.
Let me clear something up. While I say ‘knees’ the issue is not with the actual knee. The issue is where the Quadriceps muscles join the tendons that attach to the knee cap. My knee bends fine, extends fine. The knee is stable, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to buckle.
When my knees have gone ‘tender’ from doing the wrong things (or sitting too much) the pain is when I bend my knee so that is where the whole ‘knee’ thing comes from. But much of my rehab would be right at home at knee injury/overuse recovery.
When riding you may be not keeping your knees in line w/ your feet. I noticed myself doing this soon after I learned, causing my knees to hurt (from reading here it seems common among beginners). My knees often whent in, so I had to focus on keeping them streight and sometimes exagerated and tried to ride w/ my knees going out. After about two weeks I could ride w/ my knees streight w/o thinking about it.
Yep. I tackled that same issue but I was fighting years of walking with splayed feet and moderate overpronation. But I have worked to decrease that angle and have been fairly successful. My calves used to rub on the frame when I rode, but now they don’t. I also worked on strengthening my instep. All of this has changed how I roll across my foot. I’m closing in on a much more ‘neutral’ gait.
Related to this is working to get my knee tracking over the 2nd toe like it’s supposed to. This has been a very long and slow process.
I think this whole ‘gait’ think is very important. This past year has been about address bio-mechanical issue and as I do, others reveal themselves and I start working on those.
What I learned, from reading and experience, is that foot bone connected to the shin bone, shin bone connected to the knee bone, Knee bone connected to the thigh bone is true, very true.
-I still can’t freemount because of the paralysis and every time my I push on my mounting pedal my knee would go in and I couldn’t avoid it. For me learning to freemount I bet would take a hour a day for at least two weeks and my knees could only take a few minutes of that abuse at a time, so I’ve done hardly any practive of this since.
Sometimes when people walk or run they hyperextend their leg. They have to relearn to walk and run properly w/ the help of a physical therapist. I’ve heard of people doing this for years until a PT pointed it out.
Funny you mention that because I think I’m going to spring for consultation with a PT.
I have worked to learn to engage my Glutes while walking. It’s a subtle thing but you ‘ride’ on your back leg just a little longer and let the glutes ‘pop’ just before starting the process over with the other leg. This might be the hyperextension you are talking about, not sure. But for now I think the benefit of the glute activation is key for me. When I first started learning about the knee I read that since most of us sit too much (damn computer and the web) that the glutes fire too late and the quads do more work than they should.
I have also worked hard to allow my leg to swing around more naturally (which I later learned about on a web site). When I started I had trouble walking with one foot directly in front of the other. Like on a tight-rope. So I worked on it. This helped the whole foot pointing forward in the comment above. After a time I started on walking with my feet crossing the line. For the first weeks I felt muscles in my hips I never knew I had. What I found was that if I stood with my feet on opposite sides of thin line my front knee is over the 2nd toe where it belongs and both of my feet were ‘weighted’ on the outside edges which is what I’m working towards.
There are suplements that help w/ joints, a couple I’ve heard are glucosamine vitamin E and.
I’ve known a lot of people who have used Glucosamine/Chrondrothin. Most say it works after about a month to 6 weeks of use, but that if you stop using it the benefit is lost after a time. I’ve also read you need to use good quality so that you are getting good potency.
A) it gets expensive, and B) my problem is not joint on joint pain.
But that is a good reminder for me to take my multis, Omega-3 etc. Which I’ve been slacking on.
Ultimate frisby: You may want to think twice about that. steveyo was dihard into it but it messed up his knees leading him to discover unicycling.
- It seems to me the problem may be intense side pressure exerted on the knee in sudden direction changes and hyperextending the leg.
- I think soccer would have similar problems and potential benefits. If you avoided the above, it could possibly be good for the knee.
Footbag: I think any side kicks would put stress on the knee. Sometimes when playing w/ friends I feel my leg hyperectend a bit. Comparing my footbag to minimal Uni skills makes me look like a master unicyclist 
All good concerns let me address them.
Frisbee. About six months ago I had a good running around frisbee catch with a friend, (he did not throw all that great so lots or running around) and I had no issues the next day. In fact I felt a general sense of having used my legs in an integrated way and they felt good (and no knee sensitivity)
About a month ago I was visiting family in los angeles and I got a chance to throw some frisbee with a some guys at the beach. Again the next day the legs felt like they had been used in a good way and no tenderness.
I have found that running forward tightens my quads (even though it’s great for working the hammies) and quad flexibility seems to be key for making progress.
While frisbee has some forward component, it’s usually only a few steps or very short burst of running.
Most of it is side to side and i think that and the fact that the forward movement is just short bursts, is why my legs seem to respond well. I mentioned Ultimate as something I would consider when/if unicycle (beyond the occasional, look what I can do) was taken off the table.
Hacky. The outside kicks do work the knee kind of hard but that action does not ‘tenderize’ my knee so i’m good there. The loosening of the hips and a good strengthening of the hip flexors has been the beneficial results.
Do lots of different standing yoga balance poses. Make sure the knee stays still and that you are primarily using your shin muscles to maintain your balance. To mix things up do the more basic poses on a balance board or
Strengthen your quads and hamstrings more, especially the hamstrings.
My thought on this is strengthen what is weak and stretch what is tight. So I do a lot of stretching of the calves and quads and work on the Hammies and Glutes.
Continue w/ a daily stretching routine w/ the goal of improving flexability. I’ve heard a good target for varios problems is Standing Forward Bend w/ comfortably puting your palms flat on the floor. Also quad and fip flexor flexability - the eventual goal of Reclined Hero. Work up to these levels of flexability w/ restoratve poses. For you doing RH as a stretch would prob be bad, I’d just see how low I could go once in a while as a check of flexablility, since this move can be hard on the knees. To build up these levels I’d do supported restorative poses.
Ditto everything you said.
My 3 main goas are:
Flat footed full squat with feet pointed forward.
Full Front splits (with torso upright to work front of legs)
Side/front/back plank - Each for two minutes
Oh one more: Pigeon Pose (with back leg extended)
Beyond this I have a comprehensive set of yoga/gymnast/martial arts stretches/exercises that I do. Also I work all the 'ductors both with weights and without. Of course lots of glute work and recently adding in bit more lower ab work to go with my pelvic tilt work.
Yoga rocks, I love it (not unicycle love, but I look forward to it most days).
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