What do you think the ‘worst exercise for arthritis of the knee’ would be?
Most people would probably say running I suppose. But I am going to put myself ‘out there’ and say that actually cycling is the worst! (So technically you could argue that running is worst because of the jarring, and yes that would be correct technically. But water running with a float belt and no foot contact with the ground at all would be absolutely excellent!)
So how can I make such a strong claim against cycling? Well because many people with arthritis of the knee are told to get cycling from their health professionals. But I say NO to cycling and with very good reason.
Why is Cycling the worst exercise for Arthritis of the knee?
To put this in context I constantly hear (and was told myself by several health professionals – before I was a Physiotherapist) that you should cycle to strengthen your knee muscles…
So while cycling has obvious benefits if there are not certain critical factors addressed first then the outcome can be more detrimental than beneficial.
The reality for nearly every sufferer of arthritis of the knee is that they will have knee muscle weakness, but they also have the more harmful problem of muscle shortening, tension and often trigger points in the knee muscles.
This often causes or adds to the joint pressure and thus wear and tear, not to mention the pain and stiffness.
In many cases I see the pain and stiffness is mostly attributed to the muscle tension of the knee muscles, and when we correct this the pain and stiffness either disappears or reduces significantly!
But resistance exercise (such as cycling) will usually tighten and constrict the knee muscles further, so if this is not addressed then the pain and stiffness can actually get worse.
So now to clarify the arguement…once the muscles are in a healthy state of function at a normal amount of tension and length (free from trigger-points) then and only then is cycling safe and most beneficial.
So please get the muscles working properly and then ‘get on ya bike!’