Why Riding A Bike Is OK When You Can’t Walk Because Of Knee Pain

Ride a bike when your knee hurts

Have you ever been told you need to walk more for your health? Or maybe, my favorite, walk for 30 minutes a day… and you think to yourself “umm how?”

Many women who I worked with as clients, have talked to in my private Facebook community or know me personally have told me their doctor told them to walk more for their knee pain, and for it to be 30 minutes of walking a day. Many of these women can’t walk that long without a break so what are they supposed to do?

If they can’t walk for 30 minutes they could build up tolerance over time. Start with the amount of time they can walk and each week add 10%. That’s a safe and effective way to increase the amount of time spent walking. By progressively increasing the time by 10% each week helps decrease the risk of injury or flare ups.

If they can’t walk at all because of the pain they can ride a bike instead.

Eventually they’ll want to switch to walking but in the meantime riding a bike is a good option.

Why is riding a bike a good option instead of walking

Riding a bike is a good option when you can’t walk for a few reasons:

1. It takes less energy from the body to ride a bike the same time compared to walking

2. Riding a bike puts less pressure on your knees compared to walking

3. Riding a bike is a good way to exercise the legs

It’s less energy to ride a bike than walk the same distance

Because of the mechanics of using the bike versus walking your body won’t use as much energy to ride the bike as you would to walk the same distance. This makes riding a bike easier for many people who can’t walk some distances. If you have trouble walking because you get tired easy or don’t have the strength to walk the distance you want, try riding a bike instead. You can ride a bike outside when it’s safe to ride outside, or you can ride a bike inside your home or at the gym. If you have back pain consider getting a recumbent bike, this has a seat with a back on it and it’s not the narrow seat you think of for a typical bicycle.

Riding a bike puts less pressure on your knees compared to walking

One of the benefits of riding a bike when you have knee pain is that if you have the range of motion to pedal the bike it can be less painful to ride the bike compared to walking. Because you get to sit while riding the bike when you put pressure through your knee and leg to pedal the bike you aren’t putting as much of your body weight through your leg so there is less pressure on your knees when you pedal compared to walking. You also can control the amount of resistance on the pedals on a bike that has adjustable resistance. You don’t get to control the resistance and pressure on your legs when you’re walking.

Riding a bike is good exercise for your knees (and legs)

Riding a bike is good exercise for your knees because you get to work on flexibility, mobility, circulation, endurance, and strength for your legs. If you are riding a bike with 2 wheels outside you also work on core strength, stability and balance to maintain an upright posture on the bike. I’ll go over a few more benefits of riding a bike below. Keep reading!

And just because it’s easier doesn’t discount the benefits of riding a bike.

Benefits of riding a bike when your knee hurts

1. Less pressure on your knees

2. Get better range of motion

3. Get stronger knees and legs

4. Better circulation

I already talked about riding a bike has less pressure on your knees compared to walking the same distance. Scroll up to see that again.

Riding a bike can give you better range of motion

If your knees can’t make a full revolution (circle) on the bike yet, don’t worry! You can ride a stationary bike and rock the pedals back and forth. This is what I have my clients do after they have a swollen knee or just had surgery. Sit on the bike, recumbent or upright, and pedal as far forward as is comfortable and then pedal backward. This rocking back and forth can help warm up a tight knee and improve range of motion. It’s important to go as far as is comfortable, not any more and not any less, for this to work. Once the knee is loosened up (minutes to days of doing this) all my clients have been able to do complete revolutions on the bike. And riding a bike makes the knee go through more range of motion so it actually makes you practice the full range of motion more than just walking does.

Riding a bike can give you stronger knees and legs

If you have weakness in your quads, glutes, hamstrings or calf muscles riding a bike can make you stronger. In order to get stronger legs when riding a bike you need to ride a bike that has adjustable resistance. To get stronger the resistance level needs to be ramped up for a period of time. When I have my clients use the bike for strength I make sure they have the ability to go through full revolutions on the bike first. Warming up is crucial, ride easy for 5-10 minutes before increasing resistance. Then choose a resistance that is challenging, yet still doable.

Riding a bike can help circulation in the legs

When riding a bike and you make the legs go through full revolutions, moving the pedals all the way around, you are using your muscles and making your ankles, knees and hips go through a larger range of motion than walking so you’re pumping the blood and loosening up all those joints.

Ok let’s recap: Riding a bike is 100% OK when you can’t walk or can’t walk very far. Riding a bike takes less energy to go the same distance compared to walking, riding a bike puts less pressure on your knees compared to walking, riding a bike is a good way to exercise the legs because you can improve range of motion, strength and circulation. When you want to exercise can can’t walk, choose a bike instead. You can ride inside or outside, you can ride a recumbent bike or upright bike, it’s all good exercise.

If you’re looking for knee pain relief check out this free guide I created just for you