I've had rather consistent nagging stiffness in the quadricep muscles in my right leg. No matter how much stretching or warming up I do I can feel stiff knotted fibres in the muscle that aren't present in those of the right leg. My right tibia is a bit bowed and my comfortable cleat (SPD) position has my heel turned in to the point where it just clears the chain stay.
I have been getting intermittent knee pain since the beginning of the year, which a physio had diagnosed was due to insufficient strength in my medial quadricep. I have noticed a pattern in which if my quadricep is warmed up and made to work (up the pace) the knee pain will go away. I have recently finished a loaded week long tour of Austria so I know I'm in reasonable shape.
I suspect that this stiffness could well have appeared earlier this year as a result of starting training a bit too hard at too early a stage, with insufficient warming up/stretching.
Should I be concerned about the stiff/knotted quadracep muscle? Is it something that will go away eventually with stretching? Is massage (by myself) likely to help much? What are the consequences of cycling on stiff muscles?
Originally posted by roliver I've had rather consistent nagging stiffness in the quadricep muscles in my right leg. No matter how much stretching or warming up I do I can feel stiff knotted fibres in the muscle that aren't present in those of the right leg. My right tibia is a bit bowed and my comfortable cleat (SPD) position has my heel turned in to the point where it just clears the chain stay.
I have been getting intermittent knee pain since the beginning of the year, which a physio had diagnosed was due to insufficient strength in my medial quadricep. I have noticed a pattern in which if my quadricep is warmed up and made to work (up the pace) the knee pain will go away. I have recently finished a loaded week long tour of Austria so I know I'm in reasonable shape.
I suspect that this stiffness could well have appeared earlier this year as a result of starting training a bit too hard at too early a stage, with insufficient warming up/stretching.
Should I be concerned about the stiff/knotted quadracep muscle? Is it something that will go away eventually with stretching? Is massage (by myself) likely to help much? What are the consequences of cycling on stiff muscles?
I had a similar problem several years ago. I received rolfing treatment and it corrected the problem. You can go to www.rolf.org to learn about rolfing and find out if a rolfer is near you.
