I made a few costly mistakes when it came to cycling cleats so now I'm focusing on rehabbing my knees/legs. From everything I've read and tested, it looks like my hip/inside thigh are significantly weaker than my quad/hamstring/VMO, so the imbalance created some knee cap tracking issue. I started using elastic bands to correct the imbalance but I don't really have a concrete plan for the long run. Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks
I've been wearing a Patellar strap, knee brace, ankle brace, and also finally realized I need arch support for my feet. It's amazing how one problem can blow up if the "track" is twisted (hip-knee-ankle-foot). I'm not in pain when I walk but I definitely can't generate my maximum watts.
I'm a big guy (6'3, 230) and I try to jog (on the road) to stay in shape. I take an ibuprofen before jogging to help with swelling and wear a knee brace with the knee strap.
I occasionally have to take a month off from running to relieve some of the pain in my knee. That's when I try to strengthen it by doing light weight squats (100 lbs), lots of aerodyne biking, and treadmill.
I also have pronated feet, so I wear arches when I jog, but it usually keeps me good enough to get some road work in.
I dealt with this as well as Osgood Schlatters disease REAL bad when I was young and playing sports.
The knee braces with elastic bands to help support your kneecap helped the patella tendon issue a lot, but I had to wear them basically all day for a long time for it to work.
Good luck, that shit really sucks when you're trying to be active and hurt all the time. This was about 20 years ago, I was around 15 at the time, playing 3 sports and working a physical job. 
Ive got little cartlige left under kneecap and have issues with it staying in tract. Im walking all day lifting stuff so investing in higher quality shoes helped a little. At the gym I do thirty sets each of the leg extensions or curls and hamstring curls. Barely any weight on each exercise and sets of ten reps with little rest. Usually my knee doesnt bother me when I do these. I use a brace from Zamst that has helped too. Being aggressive with it at the gym has helped the most.
Mrs Daz says look at the McConnell taping technique to correct the tracking and if you can, light weight leg extensions focusing on the last 15 degrees (without fully extending) as that's when the VMO kicks in. 
Had The same issue as a young man.
Had to focus on reflection, build all the muscles around in order to support the knee.
Everything, front, back, Side bands lots and lots of stretch.
Have patience, ice is your best friend, don't rely on drugs man, use them as a last resource
P749 - Had The same issue as a young man.
Had to focus on reflection, build all the muscles around in order to support the knee.
Everything, front, back, Side bands lots and lots of stretch.
Have patience, ice is your best friend, don't rely on drugs man, use them as a last resource
Man, I read your post in my friend's voice because sumbitch always talks to me in a similar way when I'm dealing with something rough. No homo, bro. Great tips, thanks.
My goal is to stay off the bike for the next 2-3 weeks but I plan to use that time to strategically train my core and legs.
Any suggestions on specific exercises or workouts for the legs to help restore muscular balance and stability?
Have you been correctly fitted with both the cleats and your bike?
I had about 4 months this year battling knee issues. Started off with bruising of the cartilage behind the knee cap which took close to 3 months to fully go away.
I now have a bursitis in the same knee and I can no longer run without pain but I can ride again.
All of this came about from shoes/cleats that were slightly ill fitting.
As far as moving forward I was told by both the orthopedic surgeon and sports physio that I need to incorporate weight training to help correct the muscle imbalance I have.
You kinda have it right but the wrong way round when it comes to vmo and theraband work.
The majority of knee tracking issues is as you correctly stated - an imbalance between your adductors - primarily magnus and vastus lateralis.
Vastus lateralis is a big muscle and will happily shoulder the work but with that comes the problems you mention.
To fix the imbalance however it is vital you get the adductors to fire (from pectinius, right down through brevis, longus and finally magnus. This will then bring vmo into play.
Vmo has a very controversial para-sympathetic relationship with magnus so will lose its signal very very quickly. For example, In pretty much all medial meniscus cases, vmo has atrophied to nothing.
Weight training as mentioned is vital but NOT until signal has been restored otherwise you will just make the problem worse.
To get it to fire is very very simple. When you wake up in the morning put a pillow between your knees and squeeze it for 10 seconds x 4. This will help restore signal through adduction.
For vmo - look for the tear drop shape just above the knee cap. Perform a leg extention until the leg is straight and feel if the muscle contract. If it feels soft then there is issue.
Keep the leg straight and then try and straighten another 5 % - this will look almost like a pulse motion and is usually enough to get the muscle to fire. Repeat for 10 x 4 sets.
It is vital you do this before weights.
When performing squats or lunges watch the knee. If it buckles in or sways there is issue and is often incorrectly diagnosed as vastus lateralis weakness - hence seeing people crab walking around with therabands around there legs. This can actually make it worse.
If it buckles the problem is actually in glut medius. This is the main stabiliser and isn't firing properly hence lateralis trying to compensate.
Hope this helps
JustSaying -VTFUP749 - Had The same issue as a young man.
Had to focus on reflection, build all the muscles around in order to support the knee.
Everything, front, back, Side bands lots and lots of stretch.
Have patience, ice is your best friend, don't rely on drugs man, use them as a last resource
Man, I read your post in my friend's voice because sumbitch always talks to me in a similar way when I'm dealing with something rough. No homo, bro. Great tips, thanks.
My goal is to stay off the bike for the next 2-3 weeks but I plan to use that time to strategically train my core and legs.
Any suggestions on specific exercises or workouts for the legs to help restore muscular balance and stability?
Versatu - You kinda have it right but the wrong way round when it comes to vmo and theraband work.I've been doing the "crab walk" with bands to strengthen my hip and glutes and to restore stability for heavy weight exercises.
The majority of knee tracking issues is as you correctly stated - an imbalance between your adductors - primarily magnus and vastus lateralis.
Vastus lateralis is a big muscle and will happily shoulder the work but with that comes the problems you mention.
To fix the imbalance however it is vital you get the adductors to fire (from pectinius, right down through brevis, longus and finally magnus. This will then bring vmo into play.
Vmo has a very controversial para-sympathetic relationship with magnus so will lose its signal very very quickly. For example, In pretty much all medial meniscus cases, vmo has atrophied to nothing.
Weight training as mentioned is vital but NOT until signal has been restored otherwise you will just make the problem worse.
To get it to fire is very very simple. When you wake up in the morning put a pillow between your knees and squeeze it for 10 seconds x 4. This will help restore signal through adduction.
For vmo - look for the tear drop shape just above the knee cap. Perform a leg extention until the leg is straight and feel if the muscle contract. If it feels soft then there is issue.
Keep the leg straight and then try and straighten another 5 % - this will look almost like a pulse motion and is usually enough to get the muscle to fire. Repeat for 10 x 4 sets.
It is vital you do this before weights.
When performing squats or lunges watch the knee. If it buckles in or sways there is issue and is often incorrectly diagnosed as vastus lateralis weakness - hence seeing people crab walking around with therabands around there legs. This can actually make it worse.
If it buckles the problem is actually in glut medius. This is the main stabiliser and isn't firing properly hence lateralis trying to compensate.
Hope this helps
I'm going to need to google 90% of your post because the terminology is that familiar to me haha.
can break it down in layman a term for me? I need to strengthen the inner thigh, VMO, and hip, first before I start to do squats?
Here are my leg muscles organized in order starting with strongest and ending with the weakest:
Quads
VMO (tear)
Hamstring
Inner/upper glutes
Hip flexor
Outer/lower glutes/hip
Inner thigh
Should I just tackle these muscles in reverse order (starting with the weakest) until I see noticeable strength increase? That's my understanding of the situation, "balance out the weak muscles until they're close to marching the strong ones"
Thanks again
Hauntedmemory - Have you been correctly fitted with both the cleats and your bike?100% poorly fitted cleats. It was my fault more than anyone else's. I went about the whole system like an idiot but I finally figured out so I'm trying to restore my legs so I can get back out there an do it all properly from the start.
I had about 4 months this year battling knee issues. Started off with bruising of the cartilage behind the knee cap which took close to 3 months to fully go away.
I now have a bursitis in the same knee and I can no longer run without pain but I can ride again.
All of this came about from shoes/cleats that were slightly ill fitting.
As far as moving forward I was told by both the orthopedic surgeon and sports physio that I need to incorporate weight training to help correct the muscle imbalance I have.