Your knee has started aching during or after rides, and pushing up hills or long days in the saddle now feel harder. Cycling is often kind to knees, but your bike set-up and how you ride can make a big difference to a sore one. A few simple changes can help you keep pedalling while your knee settles.

Why cycling can affect your knee

Each pedal stroke bends and straightens your knee, thousands of times on a single ride. Pushing hard in high gears, climbing hills or riding further than usual increases the load, especially at the front of the knee around the kneecap. A saddle at the wrong height, or cleats that hold your foot at an awkward angle, can add to it.

In most cases, the knee is irritated rather than damaged, and settles with a few changes.

Checking your saddle

Your saddle height affects your knee a lot:

• Too low often loads the front of the knee, as it bends more deeply with each stroke.
• Too high can strain the back or outside of the knee, and make your hips rock.
• A rough guide is a slight bend in your knee when the pedal is at the bottom.

Saddle position forwards and backwards matters too. Small changes, a few millimetres at a time, can make a noticeable difference. A bike shop or bike fitter can help if you are unsure.

Cleats and pedals

If you use clip-in pedals, cleats that hold your foot pointing in or out more than is natural for you can twist your knee. Setting them so your feet sit in their natural position, or using cleats that allow some float, can help. Riding with flat pedals for a while can also give your knee more freedom.

Adjusting how you ride

Some changes that can help while your knee settles:

• Use lower gears and a faster pedalling rhythm, rather than pushing hard in high gears.
• Choose flatter routes, rather than steep climbs.
• Stay seated on hills, rather than standing on the pedals, if that feels easier.
• Ride shorter distances, and build up gradually.
• Avoid pulling away from a standstill in a high gear.

Reading how your knee responds

A simple traffic-light check can guide your riding:

• Green. No pain, or a mild ache that settles within an hour. Carry on.
• Amber. An ache that lingers into the evening but has settled by the next morning. Keep riding at the same level rather than adding more.
• Red. Your knee is sorer, stiffer or more swollen the next morning. Ease back next ride.

Indoor cycling

An exercise bike or turbo trainer lets you control the resistance, with no hills. Keeping the resistance low and the pedalling smooth can be a good way to keep riding. In spin classes, keeping the resistance lower than the instructor suggests is completely fine.

Commuting by bike

If you cycle to work, using lower gears, leaving a little earlier so you can ride at an easy pace and avoiding the steepest hills can help. Getting up from your desk regularly also stops a sore knee stiffening. VIDA’s Pomodoro stretches, in the top right corner, can remind you to pause.

Warming up

Riding gently in an easy gear for the first 10 minutes lets your knee warm up before you push harder.

Building strength

Strengthening the muscles around your hips and knees helps your knee cope with cycling. Research on pain around the kneecap suggests combining hip and knee strengthening works better than knee exercises alone. Something to try two or three times a week:

• Sit to stand. Rise from a chair without using your hands, then lower slowly.
• Bridges. Lie on your back with your knees bent, lift your hips, then lower slowly.
• Side-lying leg lifts. Lie on your side and slowly lift your top leg, then lower.
• Reverse lunges, going only as deep as feels comfortable.

If you would like to follow along, VIDA has short videos of sit to stands, bridges and lunges you can use at your own pace.

Building back up

When your knee has been in the green for a week or so, you can start bringing back longer rides, hills and higher gears, one at a time. Your VIDA pain check-in is a good way to keep track of how your knee responds.

What to take away

• Saddle height and cleat position can make a big difference to a sore knee.
• Use lower gears and a faster pedalling rhythm.
• Choose flatter routes and ride shorter distances for now.
• Use the traffic-light check to guide each ride.
• Strengthen your hips and knees alongside your riding.

‍