How to Relieve Knee Pain

The Tour de France is on, so today’s quick tip is how to relieve knee pain for cyclists.

Tight quadriceps cause knee pain and are also involved in low back pain. The reason is because your quadriceps originate either on the tip of your anterior pelvis (the rectus femoris muscle) or along your thigh bone, with all four of the muscles merging into the tendon that crosses over your kneecap – the patella tendon.

When the muscles are shortened by spasms, which are knots in the muscle fibers, they are putting a strain onto the patella tendon, and therefore putting pressure on your knee. The analogy I use is, if you pull your hair, your head hurts. Likewise, if the muscle spasms are pulling on the patella tendon, your knee will hurt.

Just as letting go of your hair will stop the pain you are feeling at your scalp, so will letting go of the tension in your quadriceps stop the pain you are feeling in your knee.

This treatment is so easy to do when you stop for a break.

How to Relieve Knee Pain:

Place either your elbow, or the heel of your hand, and press deeply press into your thigh as shown in the photo on the left.

Slide while keeping a deep pressure from the top of your leg toward your knee. As you press and slide down your leg, you’ll go over a “bump” and it will be painful. That tender point is a muscle spasm.

When you find a tender point, stop and keep the pressure on the spasm to release the tension in the muscle.

AFTER you release the tension in your thigh muscles, it’s important to stretch to bring the muscle fibers back to their full length.

You will enjoy your ride more, and that relief will continue on to all aspects of your day!

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