Spinning and your knees
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Spinning and your knees
| Mon, 02-14-2005 - 8:38am |
Hello - I have a question. I have never had problems with my knees and the past few weeks I have started a spinning class, has anyone ever had problems with their knees and spinning? I thought the bike was suppose to be good for your knees? But mine are killing me all of a sudden.
I also have been lifting more, more squats, lunges etc. I really almost 100% positive I am not doing them wrong, I do them in classes, with trainers and have been doing them for years and never had problems with my knees. So I am thinking it might be the spinning classes - any ideas????

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yes, spinning can be bad for your knees. a lot of instructors have you ride in a way that is bad for your knees. when you stand with your rear off the seat, you want to make sure you have your butt back over the seat, don't stand upright over the pedals. this is a really common thing for instructors to do (stand upright and "jog")
You're so right. He does tell us time and time again make sure your butt is back over the seat and it is much harder on your legs and butt that way. But sometimes I can see myself getting "lazy" and I do look like I am jogging. I was trying the spinning because it has been so brutal out lately that running is just not happening as much, plus I thought the spinning would be better on my back, less impact than running.
I have never had knee issues and so many people I know have them and ouch...yesterday morning I woke up and thought o.k. the only thing I am doing different is the spinning classes. But then I always see hockey players etc. using the bike to recover from knee injuries, but they are sitting. And one more thing at one point in the class on Friday I was watching myself and thought this is like jogging - guess I was doing it wrong.
Thanks for the advice.
thanks. Makes me feel better. I like the Spinning class, but it is not something I loved (like my kickboxing class). I am going to lay off it this week and see if gets better. Plus each week it gets warmer so I can get outside to run, I was looking for a cardio alternative.
Hi!
I am in a similar situation to you as i newly added spinning to my regimen over the past several months and am now experiencing knee symptoms. Spinning is the only new thing i have been doing.
I found some information that says that spinning can cause knee problems if you stand out of the saddle with low resistance. Since i was really out of shape when i started, i can probably attribute my problems to this. A really good site for some tips is http://www.mtbmind.com/spin.htm. Specifically, one of the pointers here is:
"Make sure you have at least 50% of your max resistance when you go up for a run or fully out on the handle bars. You can seriously injure your knees, as well as slip out of the pedals. Transistion slowly, your weight should push the pedals down but not instantly. If this is happening, add more resistance."
Here's a thought: maybe you can take spinning classes but stay seated in the saddle the entire class. That is, totally eliminate the standing up. I am thinking of doing this since i love the classes but am seriously having knee issues. Jen had the same advice.
Question: for the spinning experts on the board, do you think that it would be alright for me to take classes like this, where you just always stay seated? Would instructors be offended, or is it in any way inappropriate?
fuchsia
Edited 2/18/2005 9:29 am ET ET by fuchsia_g
That's a good link!
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