Can Cycling Actually Help Heal Knee Pain From Chondromalacia Patella?

Can cycling actually help knee pain from Chondromalacia Patella in this video, I’m going to show you exactly how to use a bicycle to help your knee pain problem for the long term. I’ve collected tons of yours questions over.

First question is, Will bike riding even help Chondromalacia Patella, it depends on two factors that I need to explain in detail to you. The first factor is can you fully bend your knee and straighten your knee when you’re just sitting in a chair or standing around not on a bike. Because if you cannot fully bend or straighten your knee, then you’re potentially going to have trouble cycling on the bike.

Because the bike makes you bend and straighten your knee. So that is possibly going to aggravate your knee. If you’ve got a loss in motion for some reason, you need to hold on jumping on a bike until you get that motion back. And the second question is if you can ride a bike if your knees aren’t really stopping you as far as their motion is what’s your intent with riding the bike.

Because if it’s to heal your condemnation, patella problem to get your knee pain better than fantastic, you’re on the right track, but you need to make sure that you have a full-fledged plan to treat your kanji emulation problem. And bike riding is just a piece of that plan.

The other part of the plan that needs to be done is strengthening you need to involve some sort of strengthening exercise that is going to make your muscles stronger to take pressures off your knee joints that you’re depressurizing your cartilage behind your kneecap.

Next, let me show you how to adjust the bike properly. So you can get the right leg extension on the bike. A good place to start a guide is to get the top of the seat level with about your hip bone. So my hip bone is right here. So actually going to bring the seat up that this isn’t going to get you the perfect height every time.

It’s just a starting point. Now once you get on the bike, after you’ve adjusted it for your seat height, you should find that when you straighten out your leg, you still have a slight bend in it. So this actually works well for me here. So now when I go to cycle on the bike gets comfortable, I’m not overstating my leg, I’m not having to reach down to the pedal to cycle, I can comfortably get to the bottom of the pedal stroke, it feels just fine to me.

And then when I come up at the top, it’s not a ton of knee bending, it’s not excessive knee bending, because the pedals really close to me. Next, you want to adjust the handlebars for yourself. Now, when cycling here, you want to be in a more upright position, because you’re going to have to use your hip muscles in just a moment.

I’ll talk to you more about that later on in this video. But you generally want the handlebars as close to you as possible and as high as possible for your bike. So I’m going to adjust that on this bike, this one’s got a setting here that I can come up on, that takes it out. That’s going to be the highest setting right there. And then this knob here allows the handlebars to slide closer to me. Okay, there we go.

That’s as far as it goes there. So now I’m set up so that I can be more upright because what you don’t want to do is be down here. That type of bike riding is aerodynamic by grading. So you see people that are cycling on the road leaned over or they have those helmets that look very aerodynamic. the intent of that position is to reduce the air going against you so that you can go faster.

But since we’re not worried about racing, anybody here, you need to be more upright so that you can use your muscles properly to heal your constellation patella problem. Next, let me tell you about proper cycling technique. This is extremely important in order for you to fix your contribution patella problem, because people take this for granted, they think, well, you just move the pedals and go and that’s going to heal your knee problem.

But you’ve got to pay specific attention to which muscles you’re using most to do the exercise. And it’s difficult to tell at the beginning because when you’re just starting to pedal, you may not feel much muscle activity, you need to get a few minutes into it in order to start feeling the muscles work.

You have got to get your glutes working, not the quad muscles. Now that doesn’t mean that you won’t ever feel your quad muscles working while cycling like this. But you need to make sure that you’re actively clenching the glute muscle whenever you’re pedaling on the downstroke. So in other words, when I push this leg down right here, I need to think about making my right glute muscle tighten up.

And then when I do the same thing on my left leg, my left glute muscle needs to tighten up. What you want to avoid because this is what most people do is when they push down on the leg, the quad add muscle, the front of the thigh here is what is driving the force of your foot downwards to the pedal. And if you’re consistently pedaling like that, then you’re going to be using your quad muscles way too much.

And over time, you’re going to make these quad muscles even stronger. And they’re going to compress your kneecap further against your thigh bone, which is going to worsen the condom relation patella problem. Now, this is a tricky thing to master to get your glutes to properly fire every single time you’re pedaling.

So you’ve got to pay close attention to how you’re doing this. And I’ve got some tips for you to make sure that you’re using your glutes properly. The first tip is play with your knee position. Because if your knees are straight over your feet, you may not be able to get your glutes activated as good as if you angled your knees outwards like this. If you shove your knees outwards, it tends to put your glute muscles in a better position to fire.

 The second tip is to slow down. If you’ve been cycling kind of fast like this, you’re just not going to be able to use your brain to make the glute muscle fire and you’ve literally got to slow down to turtle pace. In order to make each glute muscles squeeze every time you push down on the pedal. And the third tip is to make this a very conscious exercise.

In other words, you can’t have the TV on or be listening to the radio or watching YouTube, you have got to think very clearly about how you’re using your muscles every single time that you’re pushing the pedal down, you’ve got to make your glute muscle activate, you can’t just assume it’s going to activate, you have to think about it activating.

And if you’re trying to do this, and you just can’t get your glutes to activate without your quads wanting to fire a whole lot to or maybe Liam feel your glutes working at all, then cycling is not for you right now. And it’s only going to make your knee cartilage problem worse your contemplation patella is going to progress over time into something worse, like knee osteoarthritis. If this is happening to you, you can’t get your glutes to work well.

You feel like you’re using your quads, mostly you get done with your workout, and it’s your quads that got tired the front of your thighs here, not the glutes, then cycling is not for you right now you’ve got to stop doing it. And you’ve got to go work on other exercises that are going to get you to use your glutes better, right now then once you feel like you’re using your glutes, well, you’ve got conscious activation over them, you can fire them on command without your quad muscles being used a whole lot.

Now it’s time to come back to the bike and it will benefit you at this point. Now a common question that I get is should I be wearing a knee brace whenever I’m using a bike to help my conjure Malaysia patella problem? My answer to this is no, absolutely not. The reason for wearing a knee brace is to take pain away. And if cycling is causing you more pain and you feel like you need to wear a brace, then cycling is not for you.

Chances are you’re overusing your quad muscles on the front of your thigh. And you need to go worry about using your glutes better in order to use the bike effectively without making your knee pain worse. I’m not saying knee braces are not good ever. If you feel like you put on a knee brace. If you have a comfortable ace patella problem.

And walking around during the day gets better, you feel like you can last during your daily activities, you feel like you don’t need as much pain medication, then use a knee brace and that’s totally fine, especially because your movements during the day are going to be more variable and you’re going to be moving in different directions stopping maybe stooping down kneeling getting out of the ground. Those kinds of activities.

A knee brace is proper for because it’s not a repetitive motion. But here on a bike, it’s a very controlled motion, you’re not putting your full body weight through your knee. So you should not have knee pain on the bike. You don’t want to force your way through knee pain while using a bike for exercise. So don’t wear the brace, it’s only going to be obstructive and you don’t want to train your body to rely on the brace for absolutely everything that you do.

The next question is, is there a benefit to pedaling backwards on the bike to go in the opposite direction. And I generally tell people no avoid this because it tends to make you use your quad muscles in the front of your thighs. There are some people however, that claim that they can use your glute muscles very well, whether they’re going forward or backward. And I tell them you know what if you can use your glute muscles going backwards on a bicycle pedaling backwards, then go for it.

All I care about for your Chondromalacia Patella knee pain to get better is that you’re moving your knees in a consistent way so that you’re taking pressure off the kneecap, you’re circulating the fluid inside the joint to bring nourishment to the cartilage and that you’re using your glutes because that depressurizes the cartilage in the knee joints whether you’re going forward or backwards when you’re pedaling isn’t as important as are you using the right muscles.

Now the question I get is How long should I be riding the bike like for how long at a time how frequently a week how long is it going to take for my congratulation patella problem to get better, the best place to start is to go for about 15 to 20 minutes, pedaling slowly, I mean literally at about this pace that I’m going right now, making sure that you’re activating your glutes and not overdoing it with your quads.

You don’t want to do 30 minutes or an hour at the very beginning, especially if you haven’t ridden a bike before, because you’re going to aggravate the cartilage in your kneecap. That cartilage is injured if you have compromised patella, and it needs time to accept the loads that you’re putting on it here even though they’re lighter, and get used to it. And then you need to have some rest time.

So you really should only be doing this every other day at most at the beginning, so about three to four times a week. Because during that rest time, your cells inside your cartilage on the kneecap, those cells are repairing themselves and they need to have time to do that. And it takes a day, sometimes two days if you feel you need to spend two days of rest between exercising on the bike.

If you have compromised patella knee pain, then do so listen to your body, that’s the ultimate guide, you should not be feeling worse when you’re using the bike. So started about 15 to 20 minutes a day going really slow, turn the resistance all the way down. You don’t want any resistance on this, and take your time so that you can fire the glute muscles properly. And avoid using your quads too much you can’t completely avoid it.

But you don’t want them to be the main muscle working here on the bike. Then as you get comfortable using your glutes properly, and you’ve gotten a week or two with your knees feeling well during the cycling and after the cycling. Then you can progress your way up to 20 to 30 minutes each time you get on the bike and I would still allow for at least one day of rest.

So you’re looking at three to four times a week of cycling, then you have to check with yourself and make sure that this is benefiting you. What you don’t want to do is force your way through cycling as part of your recovery routine for contemplation patella, and be in more pain, that is not a good thing.

Oftentimes people do that because their doctors telling them to do that their physical therapist or other healthcare professionals have said that cycling is the thing that you need to be doing for your contribution patella. But if it’s being done wrong, and it’s aggravating you or it’s just not the right time, because your knee pain is very, very severe right now and you just can’t move it. You have a loss of motion, are you using your quads way too much.

Those are all the reasons why knee pain is going to go into get worse on the bike, then you’ve got to stop and work on those other things first, before you come to cycling as your primary exercise for helping contemplation patella. Now, if you can tolerate 20 to 30 minutes, and you’re feeling well and you’re taking every other day off and you’re exercising about three to four times a week, then you’re probably good to go even more, maybe an hour and maybe even do it five days a week or more.

You’ve got to listen to your body on that though. Another thing that you’ll probably notice here is I have the pedals upside down here. I’m not using the little cages. There’s nothing right or wrong about that I could slip my feet into the cages and that’s just fine. Some people asked to Should I get the shoes that slip into where you can clip on to the pedals, that’s okay too. All I care about is that you’re using your glute muscles.

I just don’t like to use the cages because they kind of bother my feet. So I just flipped the pedals over so that I’m without the cages and that works just fine. Now what about the type of bike should I be using a stationary bike like this one and upright stationary bike or recumbent stationary bike, the one that you lean back on, it’s got a chair with a backrest. Now I’m a big fan of using the upright stationary bike for multiple reasons.

The first one being that you’re upright so you’re in a better position to use your glutes. If you’re more forward like this, or if you’re sitting like on a recumbent bike, you’re just not in the best position to use your glute muscles. And that’s the whole point of this if you’re trying to help your contemplation patella problem.

Another advantage of an indoor stationary bike is that you’re out of the elements you don’t have to worry about the weather, you can keep going with your plan despite it being really cold or really hot. Or if the weather is just not the best conditions for you. Plus your safety you don’t have to worry about traffic or dangerous situations or hills. If you’re having to climb hills and put a lot of strain through your legs.

You might potentially use the wrong muscles and aggravates your knee problem. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t use an outdoor bike. I definitely think you can if that’s all you got available, and you feel like your area that you’re going to go biking is safe and it’s not too hilly. That might be a good place to start for you.

You’ve got to assess what’s best for you. And same goes for recumbent bike, I think a recumbent bike could be beneficial to you. I’ve had patients here in the clinic that that’s all they use. They feel best using it and they can use their glutes properly. That’s all I care about. If you use your glutes, well, whether it’s a recumbent bike or an upright bike like this, then you’re going to be be successful in treating your Chondromalacia Patella.

But if you don’t have a bike and you’re looking to get one, then I would get an upright bike like this. Now this one is no longer listed on Amazon but I put a comparable one in the description below in case you’re interested in looking at the bike that I have to recommend.

Now the last question I’m going to answer in this video is his bike riding all I need to fix my Chondromalacia Patella problem, my answer to this is an emphatic no Chondromalacia Patella is a multifaceted problem. And bike riding although can be very helpful. It is more of a cardio endurance exercise than it is a strengthening exercise.

And even if you turn the resistance up to where you’re pushing quite hard, yeah, it could be more of a strengthening exercise at that point. But it’s my strong belief. And I’ve seen it happen with patients time and time again, that you have got to involve some sort of glute exercise, especially one like squats done right at the right time when your knees aren’t going to hurt more from doing them so that you can be more functional.

In other words, a squat is more like a normal movement than cycling. In everyday walking and getting up and out of bed, going to the bathroom, doing your daily chores, taking care of yourself at home, taking care of other people. If you take care of people or animals, you have to bend down and sit down and stand up and get in and out of vehicles. You have to move around. And squats are very important to translate to normal everyday movements.

They’re also important because you can load yourself you can put some weight on yourself, which helps with the strengthening component with a direct strengthening component. This is not complete in that sense.

Riding a bike alone, I think is not a complete plan to help your Chondromalacia Patella problem now might carry you quite far you might get a big improvement, but if you’re still having some knee pain, especially with more intense activities at home, then squats or other strengthening exercises are probably the missing piece in getting you completely pain free from your Chondromalacia Patella problem.

Now, very often people still have sounds and their knees like crunches and grinding in their knees. That’s okay as long as it’s not painful. If you have pain then you probably need to work on the strengthening aspect. In order for you to get full resolution from your knee pain from contemplation patella, we’ve got a program that teaches you how to solve the root problem of Chondromalacia Patella, there’s a link in the description below so you can learn more about it.

It’s called the 28 day knee health and wellness boosts program. It’s very comprehensive and don’t talk much about the bike in that program intentionally because you can get over Chondromalacia Patella without ever using a bike. That’s usually how I teach people here in the clinic. I tell them how to use the bike if they own a bike or are very interested in biking if they have a gym membership and they like to get on their bike.

If their focus is weight loss and they’re trying to burn cart burn calories to bring their weight down. Then we talked about the bike because it’s not a bad thing to do. It’s just not the main thing that anybody should be doing in order to fix contemplation patella problems.

Hey, hope you liked this video, please give us a thumbs up don’t forget to subscribe and turn on your notifications so you don’t miss out on any of the health of videos we post every week. Share this with a friend that needs to learn about how to use a bike properly for their Kandra relation with tele problem. I’ll see you in the next video. Bye