work4bike

I believe a lot of people suffer from knee pain (especially us aging folks) due to a weak posterior chain. Seems like the way most people get around puts more stress on the quads, but less on the posterior chain. Cycling is definitely more quad-dominate activity, even activities such as running is quad dominate. The act of sitting down or getting up from a sitting position does engage the posterior chain, if done right, but most don't engage the posterior chain, because they either use momentum to stand up (and gravity to sit) or they use a table or some other support to take a seat (and stand up).

What all this does is condition us to NOT engage the posterior chain (PC) and as a result it weakens and for many of us the imbalance in strength between the anterior chain (especially the quads) and posterior chain causes knee pains.

A good test to see if you engage your PC is to do dead-lifts and see what muscles contract. Do you feel you glutes contract? or do you have to make a conscious effort to engage you glutes/hamstrings? I found that when I first started doing dead-lifts that I was primarily contracting my quads and I really felt it in my knees, but as I learned how to engage my PC muscles (including the lower back and hip flexors) that it took a great deal of stress off my knees and now I do have much less knee pain -- all from doing proper dead-lifts. When you do a proper dead-lift the next day you will feel it in your PC, especially in the glutes and hamstrings.

I recommend this for all, but especially those of us over 50, it's helped me greatly. I learned the proper technique of the dead-lift from this guy's videos, he has a few of them just on the dead-lift, but here's one that should help and beginner.

LuckySailor

Thanks for this. I was going to start doing dead lifts today, but didn't get to them. Good instructions here.

BigAura

I'm a fan of the Romanian deadlift and have been using it for many years. Rather than the jail-house analogy an old girl friend told me to make believe I'm cracking walnuts. BTW: Her butt looked great and she didn't have a beard

OldsCOOL

Nice video, good info. Some of us prefer the Sumo form, however.

fietsbob

take the stairs when ever possible.

OldTryGuy

Walking up an escalator is faster and still provides exercise. It's all about speed.

BTW, thanks OP.

work4bike

OldsCOOL

If you want to really work that chain you guys are talking about, try the stiff-legged deadlift. Go light and go proper. Or just change the sparkplugs on your old V-6 import.

NVanHiker

OP, you are so right about making sure we adhere to the principle of working opposing muscle groups. It's also a good argument for cross-training. I also found less knee problems when I paid more attention to the rear leg muscles. I find they get worked better walking uphill (i.e. slopes) rather than stairs which are still pretty quad-centric. Snowshoeing uphill is especially good, as well as deep squats in the weight room. Then there's the good ol' leg-curl bench.


I deadlift in good form, but honestly I've never really felt it that much in my legs. It's a great exercise, though - I'm only(!) 20 pounds away from my goal of 3 plates for reps, which in my case would be 2x bodyweight. Came in handy when muscling in that new washer/dryer recently!

NVanHiker

Oh, and since we're including videos, here's an excellent one for working that posterior chain.

work4bike

Curious...when you say you've never really felt it that much in your legs are you speaking of the hamstrings? After a good deadlift session I really feeling it in my hamstrings, as well as my glutes and some in my lowerback; although, I don't feel it too much in my quads.

I uses to do deadlifts wrong and mostly felt it in my back the next day, but after concentrating on all the points in the video (in the OP), that's when it all changed and I realized I wasn't doing it exactly right.

I remember before understanding how to engage the posterior chain, only concentrating on the muscles around my knees, forcing them to straighten my knees; however, after practicing the concepts in the video, I found that using more of the hamstrings and glutes to handle the load took a lot of strain off my knees, not to mention I corrected how I hinged at the hips and kept the strain off my back.


Here's another video on deadlifts from the same guy, I found it very helpful.

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gl98115

That's a great video. Thanks for posting.

abrianb

The Deadlift bar path should stay very close to the legs. If it swings at the ends you are doing it wrong. I sometimes sport a shin scab after a heavy lift. It should be very close. When you grip the bar, squeeze your shoulder blades (think squeezing a pencil between them) shoulders ahead of the bar. Lift your butt a little bit to get a neutral back. Then lift.
Squats will also help stretch some of the musculature that is normally held in a limited range of motion during cycling.

bargeon

I prefer a CAP (sometimes called a trap) bar. No, that's not me.