Is Cycling Bad for Your Knees?

The number-one way cyclists hurt their knees is by suddenly riding longer, faster, and/or harder than they have been. Your connective tissues are not conditioned to bear the load you’re putting on them, and your joints get inflamed and pipe up.

The solution: Increase your riding mileage or time progressively, by no more than 20 to 25 percent each week (to a point of course—there are only so many hours). You could even keep it at 10 to 15 percent to be safe (a good goal if you’re newer to cycling).

“Where you need to be most careful is not so much ramping up over a week, but on an individual ride,” says Hunter Allen, founder of the Peaks Coaching Group and co-author of Training & Racing with a Power Meter. “If your longest long ride is 40 miles, don’t go 80 next week. Instead go 50, then 60 the next week, then 75, maybe 80.”

Be similarly prudent when adding intervals, sprints, and hills. Don’t go from nothing to hill repeats and three sets of Tabatas. And always give yourself a proper warmup, so your muscles and connective tissues are warm and your synovial fluids (your joints’ natural lubrication) are flowing before you toss down the hammer.

Poor saddle fit can result in stress, pain, and injury. To perform a quick check, place your pedals in the 6-o’clock and 12-o’clock positions and rest your heel on the lower pedal, says Sara Bresnick, fit specialist and owner of Pedal Power Training Solutions in Medford, Massachusetts. “Your leg should be straight, which equates to a 20- to 25-degree knee bend when clipped in,” she says.

When both feet are positioned parallel to the floor (3 o’clock and 9 o’clock), the forward knee should be over the ball of your foot—not in front of the toes.

“As a quick rule of thumb, if the front of your knee hurts, try raising the saddle a bit or moving it back in relation to the handlebars. If the back of your knee hurts, try lowering the saddle a bit or moving it forward a bit in relation to the handlebars,” Bresnick says. “Remember, even moving millimeters can make a big impact, so don’t move your settings too much at one time.”

If your knees (or anything else for that matter) hurt despite following a smart riding schedule, have your bike fit dialed by a professional.

Pushing heavy gears at a low cadence—below 60 to 75 rpm—places a high load through the patella (kneecap) with each pedal stroke. That’s because the bigger the gear, the greater the force it takes to make it move and that requires your quads, which often shifts strain to the knee. Use your gears to lower the load and increase your cadence to spin above 80 rpm.

Bonus: Spinning faster in lower gears has been shown to improve your endurance.

What does your core have to do with your knees? Pretty much everything. Your core, which includes your hips and glutes, forms the platform from which you push off when you’re pedaling. It also keeps you stable in the saddle. When it fatigues, your pedaling mechanics break down.

In one study published in 2007 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research that involved 15 competitive cyclists, researchers found that the cyclists’ legs moved significantly more from side to side—placing more stress on the knee joints—following a core-fatiguing workout than when they pedaled with fresh, rested core muscles. Regularly strengthen those core muscles to help keep ‘em strong and fatigue resistant.

We can debate the merits of stretching for cyclists ‘til we’re blue in the face, but it’s indisputable that if you have poor range of motion, your pedaling may end up causing pain as your kneecap is unable to track in a healthy fashion.

Stretching and foam rolling all your major leg muscles can help keep pain at bay. Regular massage will also help break up adhesions and prevent muscles from getting knotted and “stuck.”

The catch is that with stretching should also come strength training. You want to make sure your legs—and especially your glutes—are strong enough to work through a full range of motion, too.

Your foot position has a direct effect on your knees, so it’s essential that your cleats are placed properly.

Position your cleats so the ball of your foot is directly over (or even a bit behind, if you’re prone to knee pain) the pedal axle. Your cleat angles should be aligned with the natural angle of your heels, because unnaturally toeing in or out can stress your knees.

When adjusting pedal float (or how much room for movement you have when clipped in), more is not better, cautions Bresnick. “Too much float allows the knees to toggle all over the place,” she says, which not only wastes watts, but stresses your joints. Aim for a sweet spot of about 4.5 degrees of float.

Proper squat form is a topic of ongoing debate. But one thing everyone agrees on is that it’s bad to lean forward and/or put weight on your toes (which forces the knees to go over the toes).

“It’s vital that your feet remain flat on the floor—don’t lift your heels—and that you keep your weight over the base of your foot,” says Harvey Newton, a former USA Cycling strength and conditioning advisor, and the creator of the Strength Training for Cyclists system.

Also, think about sending your butt down and back to lower into a squat, rather than bending the knees first. And make sure to move with control.

You can also do a little test during a squat to see if you need to strengthen your glutes to help with knee alignment: As you drive up from the bottom of the squat, do your knees collapse in? If yes, add some banded glute bridges, lateral walks, and clamshells to your routine.