I Love Bicycling

I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.

How to Eradicate Shin Splints in Cyclists

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“Shin Splints” is a term often used to describe any sort of pain that runs along the lateral part of the shin bone. It usually starts to occur after prolonged activity and/or training in sports that involve a lot of impact, running or other repetitive movements. Shin splints and cycling have an interesting relationship, because cyclists experience very different forces through the lower leg as opposed to someone like a runner. 

Even more interesting, the two sports often overlap, with participants cross training in each for triathlons or the complementary health benefits in general. This leaves the often undertrained area of the shin vulnerable to excessive impacts and contractions it might not necessarily be prepared for.

woman with a shin splint

lzf/Adobe Stock

What Causes Shin Splints?

If we think about shin splints as pain along either side of the shin bone, it begs the question…

“What is causing the pain?” 

The answer is, it could be a number of things. 

While many people think this pain is primarily caused by tiny stress fractures in the shin bone (tibia) itself, this is actually unlikely, especially for cyclists, because the impact on your lower leg while riding is very minimal. There are several other lines of defense if you will that tend to be the culprits in a condition like this that develops over time. 

Your body uses pain to alert you to a problem that needs addressing, and the muscles of the lower leg are likely to be causing these problems far before the integrity of your shin bone is compromised.

Lower Leg Muscles & Shin Pain While Cycling

When people train the lower leg (and this includes cyclists), they often focus only on the back of it, where your calf muscles are located. Your calf muscles are responsible for plantar flexion, i.e. pointing the toes down. You use these muscles repeatedly while cycling, every time you press down on the pedal (particularly near the end of your downward stroke).

The front of your lower leg also has a huge muscle which performs the opposite function, dorsiflexion, i.e. lifting the toes up. This muscle is called your tibialis anterior, and it runs from just below your knee joint all the way down your shin before actually wrapping underneath the arch of your foot. All that to say, it has significant influence over a number of areas in your body.

tibialis anterior

maya2008/Adobe Stock

As you can see from the image above, dysfunction in the tibialis anterior might cause pain at the knee, at the ankle/foot and anywhere in between. It’s a muscle that can get incredibly overworked in our day to day lives and activities of all kinds, including cycling. Because of its function to lift up the foot, we are constantly using it unknowingly while walking, running and even pedaling.

Everytime you swing your back leg forward while walking or running, your tibialis anterior is the muscle that lifts the foot to avoid it from hitting the ground. Everytime you press through the first half of the downstroke and start to transition to the upstroke, the tibialis anterior becomes engaged (especially if you’re wearing cycling shoes or are strapped into a stationary bike).

The countless times that the tibialis anterior will contract leaves it open to overuse and irritation if it’s not prepared for that kind of exertion. As previously mentioned, because of our neglect for this part of the lower leg, this often seems to be the case in individuals who develop shin pain while cycling. 

Another function of this muscle is to help us decelerate when walking, landing from a jump or running. It absorbs a huge percentage of our impact and helps us to slow down, change direction and also to keep us from overextending in the direction of inertia. This is one of the key reasons why runners develop pain in their shins, and could be a factor in cyclists who experience shin pain and also cross train with running.

How Do I Prevent Shin Pain While Cycling?

There are two things that commonly need to happen in any athlete who is experiencing shin pain. One is to stretch and mobilize the area so it can relax and better receive blood flow and nutrients. And two is to strengthen it to the point where it can handle the forces you’re asking it to absorb so you can continue your sport without irritation and injury. 

Stretch

Here is a simple ankle/shin stretch from one of our daily stretching and mobility routines available at Dynamic Cyclist. This routine focuses on the calf and ankle. We have hundreds of routines available like this for every area of the body to address mobility, strength and injury prevention for all levels of cyclists.

Strengthen

An easy way to strengthen your tibialis anterior muscles is by performing an exercise called Tibialis Raises. It involves leaning flat against a wall with your heels slightly away from the wall (the farther from the wall the harder this will be). While keeping your legs locked straight, lift your toes up as high as you can, slowly lower, and repeat. 

Performing high repetitions of this exercise (20-25 rep sets) will train your shin muscles to work under load, and will strengthen them up to be able to better handle the repetitive nature of pedaling and any other exercise/activity you might involve yourself in.

Do You Want to Become a Better Cyclist?

Dynamic Cyclist offers comprehensive, all-inclusive, balanced programming designed specifically for cyclists. Our mission for ourselves and everyone in our community is to ride pain free, and we do that by addressing strength imbalances and mobility restrictions that hinder cycling performance in a systematic and well thought out way. 

If you’ve ever wanted to take the guesswork out of your training and be part of something professional and easy to follow, try signing up with us for FREE with a 7-day trial that you can find here! 

The Best Way to Avoid Cycling Injuries

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“How can you prevent injury while cycling?”

It’s one of the first questions you should be asking as a cyclist. We all want to get faster, stronger and better on the bike, and while there’s definitely tried and true methods to attaining those things, there’s also a guaranteed way to prevent them from happening: Getting injured.

injury while cycling

Being sidelined from the saddle is a cyclist’s worst nightmare. We all know the exercise-induced-junkie-type behaviour that is all too common in ourselves and our fellow riders. We love to ride and we love to ride often. Being “injured” is almost a misnomer for many members of the cycling community, and we’re all too inclined to take a position of out of sight, out of mind. 

But that can only go on for so long. Anybody who has been riding for a while knows that the aches turn into pains if you give them enough time, and because of the repetitive nature of our sport, cycling injuries in general tend to stick around longer than others. 

This calls for action, a plan, something to have in place and fall back on. It’s not a pill, it’s not a tool, and it’s not a quick fix. It’s more of a philosophy, a necessary component. Something you need to build yourself and your cycling practice around. Something that will help you keep your status not just as a cyclist, but as an overall strong, healthy human being. 

One of the best ways to avoid cycling injuries is by implementing a strength, mobility and conditioning program into your training. 

Common Cycling Injuries

Think about it, apart from falls and collisions (which, admittedly, make up a large percentage of cycling injuries), how do we get injured in our sport? There are no rapid changes of direction that blow out our ACL’s. No violent kicks, throws or punches to tear a hip or shoulder. No lifting of heavy loads to herniate a disc…it’s just different from other sports. 

There is one word, though, that could characterize the plight of the average cyclist…

That word, is overuse.

Overuse injuries are the bane of your existence if you are an avid bike rider of any kind. The bike keeps you in a more or less fixed position while riding, which is something the body can adapt to, but only so much. There comes a time where you cross the point of adaptation and creep into the realms of imbalance; a place where lurking, recurring injuries love to dwell. 

Knee pain, neck pain, lower back pain, groin pain, hamstring tightness, headaches, shortness of breath and so much more can all be the result of overworked muscles. Not necessarily just in the area of pain, but somewhere in the chain of the human body’s unbelievably complex web of connectedness.

How do we restore function? How do we get rid of pain? How do we find balance? It is something we have to achieve in our time spent off the bike. 

Strength Training for Cyclists

prevent injury while cycling with strength training

fizkes/Adobe Stock

Exposing your body to exercises that work opposing muscles from the ones you use while cycling are going to help pull joints back into alignment and strengthen the tissues that get neglected through our sport. It is common for cyclists to think that any time off the bike is wasted time, but going back to the beginning of this article, if you end up injured, you might not be spending any time on the bike at all.

Some people fear the idea of strength training because they don’t want to get too bulky, and are afraid it will actually hinder their performance on the bike. Nothing could be further from the truth. Several studies have shown that in both men and women, one of the best things you can do to increase cycling performance is to increase the cross sectional area (size) of your muscles. 

Remember this as well, building muscle is a slow and tedious process. It requires weeks, months and years of consistent week-in-week-out effort. So the idea that you’ll wake up one day and be too bulky to ride efficiently is a myth you should be all too willing to dispose of.

What Should My Program Consist Of? 

Dedicating time to bringing harmony back into your body is the only way to counter everything we put ourselves through on the bike. A strength training program isn’t all about lifting heavy weights, there are several other components as well to ensure it remains balanced and complimentary to your body and the sport of cycling. 

We can not only increase our strength, but our endurance as well. The higher our fitness level the less likely it is that our form will break down while riding, which can lead to our muscles being used improperly and adding significant stress to our joints.

We can also work on our mobility and flexibility to help keep tissues supple and vascular. Too much cycling activity can really start to limit our ranges of motion due to its relatively minimal amount of movement. The pedal stroke doesn’t take our hip or knee through a full range, and the rest of our body doesn’t move that much at all. Resultant stiffness can lead to constriction, which means less blood flow and nutrients delivered to the area, and an increased risk of injury.

How Do I Start? 

Starting to exercise off the bike can be the most intimidating part of the process. We’re taking you away from what’s familiar and plunging you into a whole other world that applies to not just cycling, but every other sport and activity that there is. Sometimes the best thing to do is hire a professional, but coaching costs can be discouraging. That’s why we decided to come up with something better…

Dynamic Cyclist is our partnered training platform designed by cyclists, for cyclists. We’ve integrated mobility, conditioning and strength training into one, easy to use, 100% online user interface that our members can use 24/7 to fit their schedules. There’s no need for a gym membership, because all of our routines can be done at home with little to no equipment!

Everything has been prepared for you with high quality instructional videos led by world class coaches. All you need to do is press play and follow along!
For a fraction of the cost of a single physio appointment or personal trainer session, you can become part of our community of cyclists who want to ride pain free and be the best version of themselves on and off the bike. Try it for yourself by signing up for our 7-day free trial!

What Muscles Does Cycling Work?

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It can be hard to discern just through sensation what muscles we actually used during a ride, and you might find yourself wondering what was really accomplished in terms of muscular activity. What muscles does cycling work? Some people say their lungs are working, but the lungs aren’t a muscle. It’s obvious our legs are working, but the leg is a big thing with many parts. Which of them are doing what? How? And at what time when we’re on the bike? 

The science of cycling is unique in several ways because our sport is quite different than most. There’s those sports where you operate on your own two feet, and others (like cycling, rowing and kayaking) that support and move you in a seated position.

Today we want to tell you, and give you a brief overview of the different muscles you use while cycling. Some are far bigger contributors to your cycling performance than others, and some are just completely misunderstood. So let’s start with busting a major myth right off the bat. The idea that cycling builds big glutes.

Source: Rattanasak/Adobe Stock

Glutes

Unfortunately, it does not. Not to any great degree anyways. If you’re cycling to lift things up, make them more round and so on – you’re going to be quite disappointed. That is unless you’re coming from a place of very low fitness and activity (i.e. cycling is your first real form of exercise), in which case you will likely notice a difference, but only the same difference you would notice if starting any form of exercise.

If you’re relatively fit with a healthy body composition, the sport of cycling just doesn’t stimulate the gluteus maximus (your butt) enough for any real development. The gluteus maximus is the body’s primary hip extensor, it’s strong and big, and responds to intense, powerful hip extension like you see in a person sprinting or coming out of the bottom of a full depth squat.

The reason cycling negates its use is due to the range of motion your hip goes through while on the bike. If the hip doesn’t go past a certain degree of flexion, your body will not use the gluteus maximus to extend it. It’s too expensive, and the body is an energy conservation machine. It will instead resort to your secondary hip extensors, which are the hamstrings.

Electromyography analysis of the lower extremity during pedaling. What muscles does cycling work

Source: Electromyographic Analysis of the Lower Extremity during Pedaling

Hamstrings

The graph above details this situation perfectly. This study placed individuals on a bicycle ergometer and had them pedal against changes in workload, pedal rates and other variables in seated and standing positions. The graph shows measures in electrical activity of different muscle groups throughout the test. Notice the difference between gluteus maximus and biceps femoris (your outer hamstring).

Your hamstrings have a primary function of flexing the knee, and a secondary function of extending the hip. When circumstances ask for hip extension, but the intensity requirement of that extension is low, your body resorts to a principle called synergistic dominance. This principle states that when a prime mover is inhibited (gluteus maximus), your body will use secondary movers (biceps femoris) to save energy and properly perform the function.

Conclusively, the hamstrings are far more responsible for hip extension while cycling than the glutes. On every downstroke your hamstrings are working to extend the hip down. Further, they also use their knee flexing function to start the upstroke. All of this work presents itself in the hamstring stiffness often seen globally among cyclists.

Woman holding a bridge pose

Source: fizkes/Adobe Stock

Quadriceps

Let’s move on to the real workhorse muscles used while cycling, the quadriceps. Particularly the rectus femoris, also seen in the electromyography graph above. There is extreme and vigorous activity of the quadriceps on every pedal downstroke you perform. That’s because the range of the movement and your ability to produce force is operated primarily via your ability to extend the knee, which is, you guessed it, the main function of your quads.

Particularly when standing on the bike you are going to get more of a pump in your thighs due to the fact that you’re contracting them with the addition of a huge percentage of your bodyweight that would otherwise be supported by the saddle. The quadriceps are big, powerful muscles and that burning feeling you get climbing a hill or doing a sprint is because of the lactic acid that gets accumulated as a result of all their contractions.

Knee pain, IT band tightness and even hamstring injuries can be the result of overworked, stiff quadriceps muscles. Using foam rolling, mobility and stretching exercises to help release some of the tension they’re liable to hold on a cyclist can do a lot to increase blood flow and allow other muscles to do their jobs properly while riding. 

Lower Leg Muscles

The all too forgotten muscles of the lower leg serve important roles while cycling. If they’re thought of at all we tend to only focus on the back of the lower leg, your gastrocnemius and soleus (calf muscles). These muscles work to flex the foot or point the toes down, which is a huge part of transitioning through the bottom of your pedal stroke.

It may surprise you to learn that there is also a whole other side to your lower leg! The tibialis anterior is a large muscle that runs along the front outer part of your shin with its tendons actually wrapping down into the arch of your foot. It’s responsible for picking your foot off the ground and lifting your toes. Which happens every time you transition to the upstroke and is accentuated drastically through the use of cycling shoes.

Cyclists with achilles tendon problems, knee issues and foot pain often have dysfunction somewhere in the lower leg muscles as well. We can mitigate a lot of those problems, however, by ensuring our lower legs are strong, supple and getting some focused attention in our training programs. 

A group of cyclists lower body pedaling

Source: pavel1964/Adobe Stock

Hip Flexors

Especially if you’re wearing cycling shoes, the hip flexors (primarily the psoas muscle) can help produce a more powerful upstroke while pedaling. Their function is in the name, hip flexion, but that’s not all they do. Because of their attachment to all five lumbar vertebrae, they are major stabilizers of the lower back.

Low back pain is one of the most common complaints amongst cyclists at all ages and skill levels. A good chunk of that responsibility has to fall on your poor psoas muscle, which can really get crushed if you’re putting in long hours on the bike. This is because the hip is always in a semi-flexed position, which for the psoas means a semi-shortened position.

If you constantly put a muscle in a shortened position you’re basically teaching it to stay there, and by chronically shortening a muscle it will eventually start to lose sarcomeres (base units of muscle), becoming permanently shorter. We want to avoid this at all costs, and implement stretching and mobility measures to return the psoas to its normal range.

Strengthen the Muscles Used in Biking

Our partner, Dynamic Cyclist, has intelligently designed programs to address all the stiffness, injury and common muscle weaknesses seen in cyclists! They have hundreds of follow along video routines that have been organized into balanced training programs for you to try, all for a low monthly cost! See for yourself by signing up for a 7-day free trial!

Here Are 5 Tips To Correct Your Cycling Posture

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As cyclists, we want to be economical and good cycling posture plays a significant role in doing this. Because of the countless hours we end up sitting on our bikes, it would be wise to figure out how best we can achieve efficiency in order to avoid damage to our bodies and improve overall cycling performance.

The question here is: How can we improve cycling posture? 

To become better at something, you need to become more efficient. The truth(s) we are actually seeking is how do we get better on the bike? How do we avoid overuse injuries? And how do we get more for less while cycling? 


torwaiphoto/Adobe Stock

A great question can sometimes be answered with an equation – and one for efficiency already exists. Borrowed from physics, it reads as follows

Efficiency = Output/Input

In cycling terms: Greater output (cycling performance) divided by lesser input (work done on the bike & wind resistance) will equal more efficient cycling.

One way to lessen the input is by improving posture.

Cycling Posture

After you’ve had a professional bike fit done to reduce hot spots and accommodate your unique proportions, the next thing to address will be your posture. The reason is because using the wrong postures at the wrong times (or just doing them poorly) while riding can make you a far less efficient cyclist…

Increased wind resistance, bleeding force, overloaded joints and overworked muscles are just some of the damage we do to ourselves and our biking when posture gets compromised. You end up putting in more work (higher input) for less reward (lower output), opposite of the desired variables in our formula above.

Today we want to give you 5 tips to improve your cycling posture so you not only feel better on the bike, but also increase your longevity, lower your injury risk, breathe better and enjoy yourself more – even on tough rides. 

#1. Adjust Your Hand Position

There are three hand positions that you’re going to use throughout your ride, and it’s important you use the right one at the right time. They each have significant influence over how the rest of your body will be positioned, all with their own advantages, disadvantages and specific use:

cycling posture

Tops

You should be using your tops when you’re at the front of the group, riding alone or climbing a hill. This allows you to be in a more upright position where you can take in deeper breaths, have a better view of the road, pedal hard and be overall more comfortable on the bike.

Hoods

This is where you’ll be the majority of the time, think of it as a maintenance position for when you’re cruising on flat terrain and maintaining a steady cadence. This is a good position to relax into and conserve energy with easy access to your shifters or brakes should you need them.

Drops

Your most aggressive position and ideal for descending down hills as it lowers your center of gravity. You’ll naturally be able to shift your weight back and literally “drop” into a more aerodynamic position; increased output (speed/distance) and lowered input (pedaling/wind).

#2. Remember To Breathe

Not getting enough oxygen in is going to force your body to compensate through your posture. You’ll start to crane your neck, your breathing will get erratic and exaggerated, your lower back will arch, and basically everything will fall apart. Breathing is not something you can mess with on a human being without some sort of consequence.

There’s a couple of ways to address this, number one is to improve your strength and conditioning so that the stimulus of cycling isn’t so stressful on your body. The better shape you’re in, the more calm you’ll be on the bike. You can learn to modulate when your body breathes deeply for recovery and when it should really push for a sprint or hill climb. 

Number two, maintain good posture even when you’re at the limits of your fitness. “Fake it until you make it”, in a sense. The reason is because you want to send the signal to your brain that you’re in control. Try your best to harmonize yourself with the stress, and you’ll recover faster when you hit flat ground or return to a more steady pedal rate. Keep it together!

#3. Engage Your Core

Maintaining some degree of stiffness in your core is going to help support your back (keeping it from collapsing) and give your legs something solid to push off of. The lower extremity is connected to your torso through the hip flexors, and pushes/pulls on the pedals in concert with the contraction of your core muscles in the front and back of your body.

Especially as you drop into a more folded position, it’s important to keep your tail slightly tucked (pelvis rotated back) to keep your core engaged. This will increase the power output from your legs, and also disperse the load more evenly throughout your body. 

Remember that any break in the kinetic chain (combined muscle activity to perform a movement) will cause force to bleed out and be wasted. For many people, this is the core, and it presents itself as an arched lower back on the bike or abnormal movement patterns that don’t look or feel natural.

#4. Relax Your Body

Too much tension on the other hand, is also going to affect the way you look and move on the bike. While the goal is to produce force, pedal hard and cycle fast while riding, we also need to be able to adapt, stay loose and complete the distance we’re setting out to do. 

Put that chattering voice in your head to work by giving yourself reminders throughout the ride. Relax the shoulders and bring them down from the ears. Soften the elbows so they can act as your built-in natural shock absorbers. Unclench the jaw and relax your face. Loosen the grip and use only as much muscle as you need.

Bodybuilders know the effects of this all too well – they commonly report extreme muscle soreness and fatigue after doing a posing routine on stage. All their energy goes into those poses, but it doesn’t need to go into ours. Learn to catch yourself wasting unnecessary energy and gain it back through small reminders to relax.


Pattadis/Adobe Stock

#5. Control Your Exertion

Bursting too hard out of the blocks is a common problem among many types of athletes. In our sport, it can have some seriously negative effects on your cycling posture. If you overexert yourself too soon and use up all your reserves, you might not have the capacity to recover, and form will just slowly break down further and further as the ride goes on.

A proper warm up can really help mitigate this problem. It gives you the time to get yourself in a good headspace, go through the race or training plan in your mind, and figure out how best to approach the peaks and valleys of this session. 

If you can stay relaxed in the right places, you’ll be able to fine tune the juxtaposition between your periods of recovery and moments of intense exertion (sprint, hill climb, attack, finish). This helps maintain overall composure, resulting in better race outcomes and training results over time.

Ride Pain & Injury Free For LIFE

If you’re looking for an all-inclusive training platform available to you 24/7 for a low monthly cost – check out, Dynamic Cyclist. They offer daily stretching and strength training video routines designed specifically for cyclists. Created by industry professionals, these programs will take your cycling to the next level and help you reach your full potential. So, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced rider, Dynamic Cyclist has everything you need to improve your performance and keep riding for years to come. Experience the results for yourself. You can try it for FREE by signing up HERE!.

Lower Back Pain & Cycling: The Ultimate Guide

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Introduction


More than half of cyclists report having low back pain, which should be reason enough for you to read through this article. Either you are one of these individuals, or in all likelihood will be at some point in your cycling career. Unfortunately, there are various things about our sport that almost guarantee an achy back with enough time and patience. 

If we are the ones to break this news to you, we apologize. But just the singular act of sitting on a bike can actually have serious detrimental implications for your lower back.

Today we will give you the information and guidance to eliminate cycling low back pain once and for all. A note before we dive in, ensure you have done (or have had a professional perform) a proper bike fit. Without this, all the following advice could be a non-starter. If that’s in order, then we hope you find this helpful. Here is a comprehensive guide to some of the most common issues relating to lower back pain in cyclists, and most importantly, how to address them.

Compression (Problems)

A famous study from 1970 showed that while standing you have (on average) about 100 kg of pressure on your lumbar discs. If you sit down, this pressure increases to 140 kg. If you bend forward while sitting, this pressure increases to 185 kg. 

Remind you of anything?


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Constant compression of your spinal discs not only puts you at risk for disc herniation, it is often the cause of weakness, numbness, tingling and pain that can radiate out from the back and into your limbs through conditions like sciatica. This might help explain why some people experience back pain after cycling, resulting from the increased compressive forces sustained during the ride.

Many people think back pain originates from things like hard physical labour, but the evidence says otherwise. There is a far higher percentage of people with back pain in rich, developed countries where people are more sedentary. The same phenomenon is seen when comparing people in urban centers to others in rural communities. A lot of this comes down to sitting. 

There is a devilish trick at play here, because people think getting on their bike is going to make them stronger, more resilient and LESS susceptible to common problems like low back pain. As we’re starting to see, this is not exactly true. So we need to find ways to counteract the compression we experience on our bikes, and in so many other areas of our lives.

Compression (Fixes)

You may have heard the interesting fact that you’re taller in the morning than you are at night. This is a result of gravity acting down on you throughout the day. As we age, the repetitiveness of this effect on our spinal columns (among other things) can actually cause our spinal discs to lose fluid, dry out, become brittle, painful and injured. 

There are however ways to give our spines the love they need, and preserve their integrity throughout our lives. That is by actively taking them through full ranges of motion, and doing exercises to neutralize the excessive compression forces we subject them to. Here are two things to help that you’re probably not currently doing:

Hanging


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Our ancestors have been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years, children do it on the playground, but for some reason as adults we don’t do it at all. You don’t need an inversion table, fancy boots or medieval torture devices to decompress your spine…all you need to do is hold onto a bar – and relax.

Hanging has a number of incredible benefits. It expresses full shoulder flexion, increases grip strength and decompresses your spine to name a few. A door frame pull up bar is inexpensive and easy to use. Try doing intermittent sets throughout the day to help loosen things up, especially after rides. 

If you’re not strong enough to hold yourself, or can only hold for a few seconds, use your feet on a platform or the floor to take some of the weight off.  It’s important to give yourself time to gradually get stronger in this position. Our modern lifestyles and the sport of cycling rarely take our arms overhead. So take your time, start slow and don’t rush.

Full Squats (Resting)


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Remember those lower income countries we mentioned? Their citizens often do something far better than sitting when eating meals, waiting for the bus or even just talking to friends. It’s the same thing every child does when they want to pick something up off the ground. Most of us know it as an exercise, but it’s actually fundamentally a resting position. The squat.

Sitting in a full squat is a natural position for our bodies; it helps us digest food, keeps our hips, knees and ankles mobile, and actually places our colons in the best position to poop (pooping in the woods, anyone?) It also has a gentle stretching and decompressive effect on our lower backs, with the force going through our feet and the ground instead of our backsides and a saddle.

This might be hard if you’re inexperienced, but you can use your desk or any other sturdy implement to hold onto while in this position. Placing a book under each heel can help as well. Try spending short periods of time down there, and you’ll be shocked at how mobile, supple and energetic you start to become. After the initial period of incredible discomfort, of course!

Core (Problems)

The core is grossly misunderstood, especially when it comes to cycling and lower back pain. Lower back pain is strongly associated with a muscle called the Transversus Abdominis (TVA), your deepest abdominal muscle. It wraps around your organs and entire midsection like a corset, and is your body’s equivalent to the weight belts you see people wearing in gyms.


The Role of the Pelvic Floor in Respiration: A Multidisciplinary Literature Review – Scientific Figure on ResearchGate

As you can see from this photo, the TVA shares an intimate relationship with your diaphragm, multifidus and pelvic floor muscles. All of them work together in a loop to create trunk and low back stability. One of the most notable differentiators between cyclists with back pain is that they have less TVA thickness than riders without low back pain.

When you activate your TVA, your belly button draws in towards your spine. This pushes your organs up against your diaphragm and down against your pelvic floor, creating a compressed cylinder around your low back. Because the tendons of your diaphragm reach down towards the L2/L3 vertebrae, the upwards pressure of this action actually lifts those vertebrae slightly, decompressing L4/L5 and L5/S1 below. 

L4/L5 and L5/S1 just so happen to be the two most common sites for disc herniations, and TVA weakness will almost undoubtedly be found in individuals with those injuries. 

Starting to see the importance of proper core function?

Core (Fixes)

Having a stronger, more supported core should start with learning how to use your TVA (as opposed to hammering your abdominals with excessive exercise, which is so often the advice given). This will increase the tone of your midsection and support your organs, while also adding support to the lower back even in the compromised position your bike puts you in. 

So, how do you do it?

Think about putting on a tight pair of pants, you know how you suck your belly button in to do so? That’s the action of your TVA. To practice, try taking in a deep breath of air. Now slowly exhale, and at the same time draw your belly button in towards your spine. The TVA assists in expiration, so timing these two actions together can help increase awareness of the muscle.


Adobe Stock

Every time you bend over, pick something up, push/pull something or MOVE at all – you should be activating your TVA first. Take a breath, draw the belly in and hold. Complete the movement, then repeat. Remember, if your TVA is engaged, your back is supported. With enough practice, your nervous system will learn to automatically activate it every time you move.

“Does this mean you should hold your tummy in all day and the whole time you’re cycling?”

Of course not! But by strengthening this muscle through regular use you will increase its resting tone. So even when not actively engaging it (like when you’re riding) it will be tight, strong and supportive. 


Poor resting abdominal tone versus good resting abdominal tone. Neither of these people are overweight, but the man’s belly is protruding because his organs are falling forward against a weak abdominal wall. 

Hips (Problems)

We now get to one of the most problematic areas in the body when it comes to low back pain and cycling, the hips. More specifically, the hip flexors. Even more specifically, the psoas muscle. The psoas is your primary hip flexor, and is indeed the only muscle connecting your upper and lower body. 

It attaches to your femur and all five lumbar vertebrae, so it has significant influence on your lower back. While cycling, your hips are always in some state of flexion, never reaching full extension. The hip flexors actually help pull your leg up through the recovery phase in preparation for propulsion in the power phase, as well. All this flexion can lead to tightness.

Tight psoas muscles will pull on the lumbar vertebrae. This tips the pelvis forward by creating an excessive curve in the low back (lordosis), causing the vertebrae to pinch together, compressing nerves and often resulting in pain. Tight hips also inhibit the function of their antagonists, the glutes, which are tremendously important for overall strength and balance in the body.


PhysioLogic

Hips (Fixes)

Static stretching in general can be a great way to improve flexibility. Doing it before riding however, is not necessarily recommended. When you hold stretches for extended periods of time, it has a relaxation effect on the muscles by decreasing their neural excitation, meaning they won’t be able to contract as hard as usual, leading to decreased cycling performance.

We can intelligently use this effect to our benefit, though. If we want to decrease the activity of a hyperactive muscle, such as our hip flexors, then doing a passive stretch on them before, and even intermittently during, our rides can be a handy tool for relieving back pain while cycling. 

Give this stretch a try before your next session:

Lunge Stretch


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Get into a wide standing lunge position, try not to arch your lower back (tuck your tail), and then lean into your front knee, opening up the hip on your extended side. You should feel a stretch in the front of that back hip. Hold for 30-60 seconds. Repeat on the other side. If this is too tiring, you can lower the back knee to the ground for support. 

This will have a “deadening” effect on your hip flexors and possibly provide some relief to the low back while riding. If you get some initial relief, and then feel your lower back pulling after some time riding, simply stop and perform this stretch again to see if it makes a difference. If it does, then you can start doing this stretch on rest days for a more permanent effect.

Back Strength (Problems)

Cycling basically does nothing in the way of strengthening your back, but paradoxically, you need a strong back to be a good cyclist. Being bent over on the bike forces our back muscles to work extremely hard to maintain some sort of rigidity and stability during that time, but if we lack the endurance to do so, the body resorts to other mechanisms.

There is something that takes place in your body called the flexion-relaxation phenomenon. When you sub-maximally flex your spine, your body will relax the muscles of the back to rely passively on deeper structures like tendons and ligaments for energy conservation. Increasing the strength and endurance of our back musculature can help mitigate the effects of the prolonged wear and tear this could have on our spines while cycling.

One revealing way to tell if a back is weak is just by looking at it. If you can see the spinous processes on somebody’s back (bumps along the spine) while standing, that is a screaming sign of an area that is at risk for injury. Having a strong back is not just beneficial in cycling but for every other part of life.


Spinous processes are noticeably visible on this woman.

Back Strength (Fixes)

Training the low back and back in general to handle heavy loads over sustained periods of time will dramatically reduce your risk of pain and injury while on the bike. Adding extra tissue to the area will create a strong, supportive environment that can do the activities you’re asking it to.

Any exercise where you’re picking something up off the floor, like a deadlift, is going to be the best bang for your buck. This is because your low back is going to be the pivot point for the load you’re trying to pull. Performing high repetitions with moderate weights is going to train your muscles to be strong over time (endurance), which is exactly what you want as a cyclist.


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Interestingly, many cyclists complain of lower back spasms while riding. This is because the muscles are being overstretched, so they forcefully contract to try to bring you out of that position (i.e. your body is smarter than you!) If you want to avoid spasms, make your back stronger!

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Symptoms of Bad Bike Fit

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We talk a lot about the importance of a proper bike fit, but paying for a professional fit can seem daunting. It’s not exactly rocket science, but there are a lot of little adjustments that can make a huge difference. It’s hard to put a monetary value on being comfortable on a bike, but riding and being uncomfortable is only going to lead to riding less to not at all. Here are some symptoms of a bad bike fit, and how you can go about fixing them.

Bowed Knees

When pedalling, if your knees are pointing outwards, you may not feel any pain, but you look funny and you’re wasting energy. If your thighs feel the burn a little too much when your climbing, it could be a sign your saddle is too low. The solution? Raise your saddle height in small increments until your legs remain parallel to the frame through each revolution.

Aching Hands

If you’ve ever been twenty minutes into a ride only to have your hands start aching no matter how you position them on the bars, then you know how distracting it can be. Another symptom of a bad bike fit can be hand and wrist pain. If your saddle is too high (or tilted too far forward), your handlebars too low, or your either too cramped or too stretched it can result in putting too much of your weight through the front of the bike and onto your hands.

Neck Pain

Neck pain often goes hand in hand with cycling, especially for beginners, and the problem may not be entirely bike fit. Holding your head up to keep your eyes on the road for extended periods of time is tough, especially if you have a weak core. However, neck pain can also be inked to having a high seat post in relation to your bars.

When the seat post is too high it can place you in an aggressive position, which your body may not be ready for. It’s a better tactic to gradually increase the aero position as you get used to cycling. Additionally, if your road or aero bars are too far away causing you to overreach you can place unnecessary strain on these muscles. The solution would be to place the bars closer in relation to your body so you’re in a “tucked” position when riding.

Wobbly Hips and Lower Back Fatigue

Lower back pain is more often a result of a weak core, but if your hips are rocking side to side as you pedal your seat is too high, which can result in lower back fatigue. Lower the seat gradually, riding a flat circuit in between until you’ve found the perfect saddle height. When you do find it, be sure to mark it somehow so you can easily find it again.

Knee strain

Knee pain in the back or sides of the knee is likely a saddle that is too high, but could also be your cleat position. On your downstroke, your foot shouldn’t be pointed down. Instead, you should be pushing the pedal down through the heel.

Foot Numbness or Tingling

Foot numbness usually occurs when the nerves between the bones under the ball of the foot become compressed. The likely culprit here is shoe fit, cleat position or socks. Particularly if the cleat is too far forward it can cause numbness, as it places pressure on the ball of your foot.

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Tips for Biking in the Heat

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Summer can bring great riding weather, but sometimes it goes overboard and brings excessive heat as well as humidity which can bring your riding to a grinding halt.

The biggest thing to heat is how used to it you are, or acclimated.  Remember in the early spring when 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6°C) used to feel like balmy shorts and jersey weather? And now, during summer, you practically want a jacket and gloves for the same temperature. Your body becomes adapted to heat over time but if you try and ride in excessive heat before your body is ready for it you can pay dearly.

Whether you are adapted to it or not, you need to take the necessary steps to stay hydrated and cool before, during, and after your ride.  Doing so will not only keep you out of the hospital but also make your rides in the heat more enjoyable.

Biking in the Heat

Biking in the Heat

Acclimating

Getting used to riding in the heat is the first step to being able to ride comfortably and efficiently when the mercury goes up. Hopefully the temperature eases its way up but if it doesn’t, try avoiding the heat of the day and ride in the early morning before it warms up too much. If you are traveling someplace where it is considerably warmer or if you see in the weather forecast that the temperature is going to be hot, overdress on your rides now.  Wear an extra jacket or vest to add a few degrees to your body. Don’t go overboard but if you do, you can simply take it off and cool down. This is an easy way to prepare for riding in the heat without yet having the heat around to ride in.

Hydrating

Whether it is cold or warm you should always hydrate properly. When it’s cold your body won’t feel as inclined to drink as it is to eat but you should make sure to drink enough. When it gets warm those tendencies switch. You need to drink more than just water as your body needs electrolytes to continue functioning at the same level. Salt, or sodium, along with potassium, magnesium, and calcium will help your body to continue muscle function as well as other life essentials. Electrolytes allow your cells to absorb the nutrients they need (in short). Depending upon how hot it is and how hard you are riding, you should roughly be aiming to drink one 24oz. bottle each hour.  This should be primarily sports drink mix but can be supplemented with water.

Prior to riding in the heat you need to make sure you are hydrated going into the hot ride. Focus on drinking enough water and carry around a water bottle throughout your day and make a mental note to drink to thirst. This combined with having enough salt in your meals will help your body to be fully hydrated going into your ride. Half an hour or so before your ride you can start drinking small amounts of your sports drink mix. Drinking it before this is not necessary unless it is an electrolyte only drink that only contains electrolytes and no sugar or carbohydrates. Save them for the ride as your body will need and burn them then.

Following a ride you still need to make sure you hydrate. Having a super sugary drink such as soda or a strong sports drink can make your stomach upset so focus on water with electrolytes and some sugar and carbohydrates. A post workout recovery drink can be a good option which combines protein and other building blocks to help you recover from your ride.

Some good food options to eat during the heat are those that are simple and easy to digest. You will want to go lighter on the protein as well as fat as they are harder to digest. Some foods like homemade rice cakes give a good balance of water in the food itself so your stomach doesn’t need to pull water from elsewhere in your body to digest. At rest stops, foods like watermelon and cantaloupe give a big punch of water so stock up on these if they’re available.

Staying Cool

Along with drinking enough during your ride you will want to make sure you stay cool as well. This starts with wearing a jersey that is made of a light material that is also light in color. Having a lighter jersey will allow air to more easily pass through as well as to more quickly absorb and evaporate sweat from your skin which is how your body keeps cool. Having a lighter color jersey will keep you much cooler as it will absorb less of the sun’s rays by reflecting much more of its energy. Some riders find that unzipping their jersey all the way helps to get more air across their chest thus keeping them cooler. This can be true if you have a hot jersey but a lot of warm weather jerseys are designed to stay zipped up to wick sweat and keep you cool.

Some riders, particularly racers, in the heat will put ice socks on the back of their neck in their jersey. This may feel good but it actually does more harm than good as the extreme cold on the skin sends a shock to your body causing it to send blood to the core instead of to the skin where it can dissipate heat. The best way to stay cool is to continually squirt water on your head, the back of your neck, and shoulders as this will help to dissipate heat more effectively.

Riding in extreme heat can be dangerous so if it’s too hot, simply don’t ride. But if it’s not crazy hot and you are ready for it, biking in the heat can give you more days of good weather riding. Prepare ahead of time and make sure you bring enough water as well as know where your stopping points are mid-ride as well as what your options are if you need to bail out half-way through. Riding in the heat can also help to raise your VO2 max as well as help you shed some extra weight. Stay safe and stay smart and you can come to enjoy riding in the heat!

3 Hidden Cycling Injuries and How to Fix Them

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We all know the wonderful feeling of cycling, but unfortunately it’s not always sun on the face and wind in the hair. Pedaling is a low-impact motion, making cycling one of the best ways to stay fit without putting stress on your joints. However, it’s also a highly repetitive action through a limited range of motion, which has consequences over time. Injury is a part of almost every sport, and cycling is no exception, but that doesn’t mean you need to hang up your jersey and sell your bike. Here’s what you need to know about hidden cycling injury and what you can do to fix them.

The Issue: Adaptive Muscle Shortening

Muscles do not naturally maintain their healthy or ideal range of motion on their own. In fact, it’s just the opposite, especially with the increase of 9-5 desk jobs. Muscles will change their functional resting length to adapt to the length at which they are habitually used or positioned. The process by which muscle fibres physically shorten is called “adaptive shortening.”

Cycling is one of the few activities in which muscles contract concentrically (while shortening), rather than eccentrically (while lengthening). The repetitive motion causes muscle fibres to shorten if action is not taken. Not only will shortened muscles impact your efficiency, comfort, and aerodynamics on the bike, but they will eventually lead to injury.

The cycling position is, unfortunately, more time spent in a hunched over posture that can compound already tight hip flexors, weak glutes and rounded shoulders. If you’re a weekend warrior, then it really is a case of when you will suffer an injury rather than ‘if.’ When you’ve spent most the week in a relatively sedentary position, and then hit the weekend with high levels of activity, you are taking chronically shortened muscles and forcing them to fire so quickly that it can lead to joint injury.

The Symptoms: Weak and shortened hamstrings are caused by the combination of the upper section becoming loose and weak while the lower section behind the knee becomes tight and never fully extends. This can show up as either knee or hip pain.

The Fix: The problem is a little more complex than just lengthening the muscles back to their natural state. It is a combination of stretching and strengthening that can reverse the effects of adaptive shortening, as it takes both range of motion and strength to bring muscle balance.

The Issue: Lower Crossed Syndrome

Lower Crossed Syndrome (LCS) is a neuromuscular condition in which there are both tight and weak muscles. Specifically, it refers to weak abdominal and gluteal muscles combined with tight iliopsoas and erector spinae muscles (see diagram). This is the most common underlying cause of anterior pelvic tilt, which is common among even professional cyclists.

The seat of power on a bicycle is the pelvis. When the pelvis is properly aligned the rest of the body can pedal efficiently. When the pelvis is misaligned and unstable, it is a recipe for not only lower back problems but hamstring problems too. An unstable pelvis leads to rocking. With each rock, the pelvis engages lower back muscles and hamstrings in ways that should not be involved in pedaling, overworking and straining the muscles unnecessarily.

The Symptoms:  LCS can become obvious in posture, as it leads to forward head posture, flat glutes, and a protruding abdomen as the pelvis tilts anteriorly (forward). The inhibited muscles, abdominals and gluteals, are never fully engaged in cycling, while the facilitated muscles, rectus femoris (quadraceps), iliopsoas and thoraco-lumbar extensors  are always engaged and often overworked. Constantly engaging those lower back muscles without proper support from a stable core often results in lower back pain for cyclists.

The Fix: The first step is to loosen the tight cross, which will quickly alleviate pain and discomfort caused by LCS. This is done this through targeting stretching, mobility movements, and foam rolling. The second step is targeted and deep stabilization exercises that will help build up the glutes and abdomen.

The Issue: Knee Pain

This one may not be so hidden, as knee pain is one of the most common injuries among athletes. In fact, a 2010 study of professional cyclists found that knee pain was the cause for over half of the time spent off the bike. As one of the most complex joints in the body, and in combination with muscle imbalance as discussed, it makes sense that it’s often one of the first places we experience pain.

To understand knee pain it is helpful to have a basic idea of what lies beneath the skin. In simplistic terms, think of the knee joint as a hinge where the quadriceps muscles pull the knee straight and the hamstring muscles bend the knee. The quadriceps run from the front of the femur (thigh bone) to the patella (knee cap). The patella acts as a pulley to increase the force generated by quadriceps which creates a greater torque on the tibia (shin bone).

To make matters more complicated,  the ITB runs down the outside of the thigh and blends into the outside of the knee. ITB stands for iliotibial band and is a well known potential source of trouble for cyclists, runners and active people in general. The ITB is also attached to your glutes (buttock muscles) and hip flexors. Often when looking for the source of knee pain we have to pay close attention to hip flexibility and control.

The Fix: Some types of knee pain require rest, but most are caused by muscular imbalance. Again, it takes a combination of stretching and mobility exercises to loosen tight muscles and build up the proper supporting muscles.

The Mistake Most Cyclists Make Stretching: Not Having a Plan

Most of us were taught that stretching for a couple minutes before exercise would help loosen the muscles and prevent injury, but this is not the case. Holding a static stretch for 10 seconds will do nothing to lengthen the muscle, and barely scratches the surface of what needs to happen in the structure of the muscle.

The only way to achieve muscle balance is to practice a variety of stretches over a prolonged period of time (at least 2 weeks), hold each for the appropriate amount of time, and complete in combination with some strength training.

It can be tough to accomplish all that on you own. Even with the best of intentions and a plan laid out by a physiotherapist, it’s easy to never do it at all, or stop as soon as the pain is gone. Stretching should be thought of as basic body maintenance, especially for cyclists.

As cyclists, we know how hard it is to stick to a stretching routine. We all want to spend more time on our bike, but maintaining a healthy range of motion and flexibility will, in the long run, keep you on the bike without injury. That’s why we’ve partnered with Dynamic Cyclist to bring you a stretching and strength program that is easy to follow, and is geared towards cyclists. They’re offering our readers a free 7 day trial, just click the link below to get started.

 

Cycling Foot Pain, Tingling, and Numbness

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It’s common for cyclists to experience tingling or numbness in their hands, but what does it mean when it shows up in your toes and feet? Foot numbness usually occurs when the nerves between the bones under the ball of the foot become compressed. Besides numbness, symptoms can show up as cycling foot pain, tingling, bruising, or even a burning sensation. Here’s what you need to know about the common causes, and what you can do to treat it.

Cycling Foot Pain

The Common Causes of Cycling Foot Pain

Shoe Fit

The first thing to look at is the fit of your cycling shoes. A pair of shoes that fit you correctly will feel as though they are not there, you should forget about your shoes while riding. Getting fit for the right shoes goes a long way towards comfort. Take your time when trying shoes, feeling out any potential pressure points. If you have wider than average feet, then make sure you get shoes that are wide enough.

If your shoes are too tight, it can cause inflammation between the joints as it decreases blood circulation, as well as constrict the ball of the foot. This can cause numbness, as well as a tingling sensation during and even after a ride.

Cleat Position 

Correct cleat placement, just like the correct shoe, will let you forget that they are even there. Placing the cleats poorly can lead to uncomfortable foot position and can cause pain in nerves from pressure points or strain from improper twisting of the foot. Particularly if the cleat is too far forward it can cause numbness, as it places pressure on the ball of your foot. Take the time to dial in your cleat placement whether on your own, or with a professional bike fit.

Socks

Socks may be the most overlooked element of the foot pain complex. You want a sock that does not bunch up or is too bulky so that it creates pressure points in an otherwise fine shoe. They should keep your feet at the right temperature too. If they are too hot, it could lead to more swelling, exacerbated pressure points and chafing. Feet that are too cold start to hurt from the lack of blood flow or frostbite.

Technique

Climbing without proper pedaling technique or too slow of a cadence can put too much pressure on the balls of your feet and make them go numb. Ensure you are keeping your cadence within the proper range, and as consistent as possible.

Treatment and Prevention

Exercises on the Bike

While out on a ride, pay attention to your feet before the problems show up. If you’re going for a long ride, then try unclip and lift your foot up into the air at the top of the pedal stroke a few times to get your blood flowing. When you’re sitting at red lights, or stopping for a break, then flex your toes or do some circles with your ankles. You can even get off and walk a few paces if need be (although this can be awkward with cycling shoes).

Shoe Modifications

If you find your feet are painful, or going numb during rides, then try invest in some custom arch supports. These can help distribute your weight more evenly and decrease the pressure placed on the ball of your foot and on your toes.

Stretching & Rolling

There are some exercises and stretches you can do off the bike, especially before a ride, to help treat and prevent foot pain. The first is to sit with one leg up on your other knee, fingers locking into your toes. Then rotate your foot around with your hand, stretching out the ankle joint and getting the blood flowing.

Second, you can use a tennis ball or a roller to apply pressureto the bottom of your foot. This can be painful, so don’t apply too much pressure if it’s too uncomfortable. Simply place the ball or roller under your foot, then roll front to back.

If your feet are comfortable while you ride, then it’s going to be a whole lot more fun. Never look at foot pain as an inevitable side effect of cycling, and make sure you do what you can to prevent it.

Bike Accidents Happen – Here’s What You Need To Know

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Evel Knievel once said, “pain is temporary, bones heal.” If you’re a cyclist you can identify. The majority of road bikers don’t wear protective gear of any kind. But if you’ve done any serious miles, you know that hitting the pavement is unavoidable. It’s part of cycling. Bike accidents happen, here’s what you need to know to make sure you get back on your bike.

Bike Accidents Happen

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back

Fear of an injury should never keep you off your bike. But if you do go down, it’s good to know the mechanics of getting injured. Fortunately for cyclists, road rash is the most common injury, and typically doesn’t require a call to 911. Lacerations, broken bones and internal injuries require more attention to details.

The big lesson to learn from crashing is that while cyclists use the sport as a way to relieve stress, staying engaged on the bike is paramount to safety. Making stupid mistakes that could have been avoided is typically what causes cyclists to go down. It’s important to remember that you’re flying down the road at high speeds, wearing what some consider little more than underwear.

Remain Calm

Cycling crashes often look worse than they really are, and when pedestrians or motorists see someone scraped up and bleeding, they sometimes over-react. If you’re the one who crashed, you may end up needing to help your over-enthusiastic rescuer to calm down. If you’re coming to the aid of someone who crashed, stay calm and do your best to keep them calm.

Hitting the pavement can cause you to become disoriented. Making decisions right after a crash might not be the best idea. It’s not always a good idea to jump to your feet instantly after a crash. Do a short inventory of your condition. Did you hit your head? If you’re unsure, check your helmet for damage. Can you recall what day it is. Do you know your name? Do you know where you are?

If it’s another cyclist on the ground instead of you, these are important questions to ask them. If you’re by yourself and you’ve determined that you did indeed hit your head, you might not be thinking clearly. You may think you’re fine but you’re not. If you have damage to your helmet, the safest thing to do is call for someone to come and get you.

Take Your Time

Cycling produces endorphins, which are natural painkillers, and they make you feel good. Take time to settle down before moving around to any extent. Stay on the ground. Its not wise to jump up, only to crumple back down in a heap of pain. If you have a concussion you’re probably confused. If you don’t recall exactly where you are and what you’re doing, it’s likely you do have a concussion.

Check For Injury

Check your body next. Can you feel your limbs. Do you have bones sticking out of your skin. Is there a lot of blood. Don’t risk moving too much if you feel seriously injured. Call for help. If everything seems to check out OK, stand up slowly. Take a few moments to steady yourself, and then try to lift your bike. If you can lift it without excessive pain, it’s relatively safe to assume that your upper body is fine. Try to walk. If you can walk, and your joints can bear your weight, you can probably pedal your bike again.

It might not feel like it at first, but road rash is a sign that you may not have broken bones. Crashing at speed causes you to slide on the pavement, which can disperse the energy from a crash. Slower speeds often result in broken bones. That’s one reason why mountain bikers often break more bones than roadies. Hitting the ground hard, without tumbling or sliding breaks hips, wrists and arms. Low speed tip-overs break bones. High-speed slides shred clothing and removes skin, but often spares bones.

Road Rash

Road rash is about the only thing you can deal with by yourself, typically without professional medical attention.  In most cases it’s not too painful right after the crash, but once you get home, the suffering starts. It’s painful because of the number of nerve ends that have become exposed.

Infection is a real risk with road rash. Cleaning debris out of wounds is an awful lot easier without hairs in the way. It’s one of the main reasons for cyclists shaving their legs.

If you get a patch of road rash, assess the severity of the wound. If it’s larger than your palm, it’s wise to seek medical attention. If you’ve got debris, sand, gravel, pebbles, sticks or anything else embedded in the wound, it typically requires a visit to the ER, with pain medication, the proper equipment and experience to remove the debris and clean the wound.

  • Clean It — If Possible

It’s unlikely that you have the medical equipment on your bike to take care of road rash. But if you are going to maintain first aid gear, keep a bottle of saline, and some gauze for cleaning the wound. If you’re treating yourself, the first step is the most important – clean the wound as thoroughly as possible by squirting the saline solution over the wound and using sterile wipes.

  • Be Gentle

Clean road rash as gently as possible. Scrubbing road rash is not recommended, it embeds particles even deeper into the wound, and besides that, it’s extremely painful to scrub road rash. Most cyclists don’t have the necessary first aid on board to deal with road rash. Call someone if possible. Place gauze over it if you have it, and try to keep the road rash from drying out before you get home, where you can deal with it properly.

Road Id Bracelet

Don’t think yourself immune to a more serious accident. It might be that you become incapacitated, and you need to let someone know who you are, even if you’re down for the count. Think about having a road Identification bracelet made for you. It’s a good way for paramedics to find your critical information. This way the hospital knows your medical history and can call your spouse, parents or children.

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