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.

Injury Prevention

How To Reduce Back Pain By Strengthening Your Core

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Before trying to find a remedy for back pain, it is necessary to know the reasons that back pain happens to cyclists. They body of a cyclist is one complete system; if one element of the body is not doing what it is supposed to, the entire body suffers. This is the root of most back pain in cyclists. Strengthening your core may be the solution to eliminating that weak link.

strengthening your core

Understanding Core Strength

Traditionally core muscles were defined as from the diaphragm to the pelvic floor. More recently, core muscles are defined muscles that insert or originate at the spine or pelvis. It is a broad definition that includes major arm and leg muscles. For the purpose of this article and cycling, strengthening your core will refer to muscles between the base of the skull and the abdominal floor. Those are the muscles that stabilize the body on the bike, resulting in a very smooth looking pedaling style. A silent upper body results in a very stable platform for the muscles that provide power on the bike to push against.

Making the core muscles function as a unit with proper motor control is the goal of strengthening the core; not developing brute strength or a tone beach body. You may see some physical changes, you may not, but you will feel better while riding.

Lower Crossed Syndrome

Understanding Lower Crossed Syndrome will help you understand one of the most common causes of back pain in cyclists. The image below illustrates improper muscle loading that results in pain and discomfort. 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.

strengthening your core 1

While pedaling, quadraceps pull the pelvis forward. To keep your body on the bike, your lower back resists that pull. It is an action that is not inherent to the design of your lower back muscles. The result is overworked lower back muscles that may cross into pain.

Stable Pelvis – Healthy Body

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.

A stable pelvis gives a platform for the quads to push against in the most powerful part of the pedal stroke, easing strain on the lower back. Strengthening your core will lead to a stable pelvis, a lower likelihood of injury, and more efficient riding.

Basics of Core Exercise

Strengthening your core should be based on the principle of proximal stability and distal mobility, according to Craig Abrams who is a Doctor of Chiropractics with a special interest in cyclists. Proximal stability is keeping the core still, providing a platform to work against, while distal mobility is moving the extremities against the stable core. This will replicate how your body should work when it is in action and will build towards proper motor control.

Stretch the Facilitated & Strengthen the Inhibited

Be mindful of which muscle groups need what kind of work. The facilitated (overworked) muscles, like quadraceps and lower back, do not need strengthening but stretching. They are always engaged in cycling. The inhibited muscles benefit most from strengthening your core – the abdominals and gluteals. Keeping this in mind will restore balance through your core.

Exercises

Dr. Abrams provided a few exercises to get you started on the road to strengthening your core. As you advance, you should seek out more advanced and strenuous movements.

Foam Roller Exercises

This should be the first thing you do after you get off the bike every ride. It’s one of the most effective ways to
develop your daily postural work.

#1

  • Start by lying with your spine running down the length of the foam roller with your knees bent so your feet are flat on the ground.
  • Once stable, begin by placing your hands together above your chest with your arms straight up into the air.
  • Now press your finger tips towards the ceiling.
  • Movement should come from your shoulders. You will be arching your shoulders forward toward the ceiling.
  • Repeat ten times.
strengthening your core
Start like this and then place your hands together above your chest, straighten your arms, and reach straight up toward the sky with the movement coming from your shoulders.

#2

  • While keeping your hands above your chest, carefully lift one foot at time off the ground, as if you’re are marching in place.
  • The goal is to lift each foot ten times.

#3

  • Finally, place both arms on the ground next to you and raise both legs as if you are sitting in a chair.
  • If you find it exceptionally hard to stay balanced on the roller, slide it down so it’s more under your lower back.
  • While keeping one leg still, reach the other leg forward towards the opposite wall.
  • Do ten reps on each leg.

Remember to maintain a comfortable natural breathing rhythm throughout the entire routine.

Movement and Static Exercises for the Core

Side Bridge on Knees

  • Start by lying on your side with your hips in-line with your legs and torso while having your knees bent at 90 degrees or a bit less. You should have your elbow under shoulder with your wight positioned on your forearm and the side of your knee. Your hips will be off the ground in the air. One note is that you will want something soft under your fore-arm and knee such as a soft carpet or yoga mat.
  • Next make sure that you feel like the shoulder is in a strong position. The ideal position is a place that you could hold for about one minute. Make sure you stick your chest out.
  • While maintaining the above position, drive your hips forward. The common mistake is to raise the hips up. To avoid this, think forward/backwards with your hips, NOT up/down.
  • Do this ten times and repeat on the opposite side and increase the number as you progress.
  • This works the muscles on the side of your abdomen and hips so it is about movement and not a static hold.
strengthening your core
Make sure you keep you body in line then move your hips forward and back. In this case, toward the camera, away from the wall.

Side Plank

  • Once you are able to perform twenty reps of the side bridge on your knees with ease, move on to the side plank.
  • The set up is the same except that the legs are straight and your weight is placed on the side of your foot/ankle.
  • Make sure you keep you back, hips, and legs all in a straight line while you hold the pose.
  • Once you are up, engage your glutes, abs, quads, and hold for ten seconds.
  • This should be difficult. Repeat on both sides.
strengthening your core
Remember to keep everything in line.

Bear

  • Start on all fours in a quadruped position.
  • If you can, place your palms FLAT on the ground and have your knees directly below your hips and hands directly below your shoulders. If you need to place a yoga mat or towel under the knees, do that.
  • Perform 2-3 light cat/cows to relax your back.

cat cow pose

  • Once you are ready, set your back. The ideal position is an exaggerated lumbar lordosis (cow pose). The easiest way to do this is by dropping your belly to the ground and pressing your chin back as if you are trying to make a double chin. Do not look forward, aim your head/eyes at a spot about 2 feet in front of you.
  • Now tuck your toes and lift your knees about one inch off the ground. Take two deep breaths.
  • Drop your knees back to the ground.
  • Repeat two to three times.
  • To add an additional challenge work on lifting each hand off the ground just like you did with the legs in the previous exercise.

Remember to try to keep the body stable (limit the twisting/bending).

Plank / Plank roll

  • Start with a side plank position with your top foot in front of the bottom. Make sure you activate the side of your body by pulling your shoulder towards your feet.
  • Hold this for ten seconds.
  • Now keeping shoulders and hips “locked” together, roll to a front plank. (Try to avoid any twisting during this phase.)
  • Once in the front plank, hold for five seconds.
  • Again keeping shoulders and hips “locked”, roll to the opposite side. The key here is to really pull that shoulder underneath your body to help lock the plank as you roll.
plank roll
Start with B, go to A, and then C. Remember to keep everything inline.

Goblet Squat

  • Hold either a kettle bell by the horns or a dumbbell by one end (or whatever else you have that is heavy.)
  • Start in an upright posture with feet just wider than shoulder width apart with the elbows in tight.
  • Your target is to have your elbows touch the inside of your knees as you squat down.
  • Keep your back straight in the same position as you squat down. Don’t allow it to bend forward.
  • Once “in the hole” rock side to side. Then come back to the center and stand.
strengthening your core
Keep your back straight as you squat down.

Hip Hinge with Dowel

  • Start by standing and holding a long dowel against the back of your head, mid-back, and your sacrum.
  • Keep your knees soft and drive your hips backward as you back tilts forward.
  • Maintain the three points of contact at all times.
  • If you need, reset to maintain a neutral spine (ie. three points of contact)
  • Do this ten times.

If you are unable to do this while standing. You can try while kneeling. It is the exact same hip/back movement but we remove the added strain of the legs.

hip hinge with dowel

Bike Fit

While it is not part of strengthening your core, a proper bike fit is key to allowing your muscles to function in their appropriate ranges. A bike fit from a professional involves more than just adjusting your saddle to the correct height. The bike fitter will test your range of motion off of the bike. That range will then transfer over to the bike to ensure that your muscles will not extend past their limits, ensuring that you will not overwork or strain muscles.

Bike fits are something that changes with time. Your fitness improves, strengthening your core changes how you ride, maybe you had an injury. Lots of factors affect your fit on the bike; be aware of any changes and get a new fit.

The Importance of Strengthening Your Core

Strengthening your core is the single most important movement you can do off the bike for injury prevention. The great news is that it is usually easy and quick. If you have back problems or want to prevent them, you should be strengthening your core.

How to Treat Road Rash

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You know that split second right before a wipe out, when everything slows down and you do all you can to postpone the inevitable? Unfortunately, there’s just not much that can be done in that moment other than hope for the best.

Crashes happen to the best of us, and the accompanying road rash is almost a rite of passage for many cyclists. Just think of that patch of missing skin as a symbol of your commitment to the sport and as painful as it can be, there’s no reason for it to deter you from getting back out there as soon as possible.

How should you treat road rash?

Although there has been some debate over the years as to what method of treatment is best, we’ve put together a list of tested and true steps to ensure a fast and relatively painless recovery.

Assess whole body injury

Although road rash may be the most obvious injury after a crash, it may not be the most serious. Take time to assess the whole body, including your head, spine and internal organs. If all seems to be okay, then you can assess the degree of the road rash.

If part of the wound is deep enough to need stitches, or if you can see any fat globules (white looking substance), then a trip to the hostpital is a must. If the skin is broken and bleeding, but the deep layer of skin is intact, then you should be able to treat it on your own.

Clean the wound

Halfway through a long ride, you may not have all the supplies needed to properly clean the wound if you don’t carry a first aid kit with you. First things first, gently rinse the affected area with drinking water until you can more thoroughly attend to it. Squirting the water directly from a water bottle works great to rinse away any dirt or pebbles that may be embedded in the road rash.

Once you get home, it’s time for a proper cleaning. Although scrubbing has been suggested by some cyclists, the less you aggravate the area the easier it will heal. Simply use some antibacterial soap, water and a washcloth to gently wipe the area clean before patting it dry.

Dress the wound

As a kid you may have left road rash to dry out and quickly scab over. Although this may seem like the fastest way to recovery, it often leads to scarring, an itchy or splitting scab phase and can make wearing clothes really uncomfortable. Instead, you’re going to want to keep the area nice and moist to promote healing and prevent infection.

First, apply a thin layer of antibiotic ointment to the area before covering with some sort of bandage. For mild cases of road rash, some non-stick gauze attached with tape will work just fine. For more severe cases, or for treating road rash on joints, a Tegaderm patch will be more effective as it bends and breathes like a second skin, all the while maintaining that moist environment you want for the healing process. Either way, ensure you are rinsing the wound and changing bandages daily.

Look out for infection and avoid scarring

Be sure to keep an eye on the healing process, but it is normal for road rash to take about three weeks to heal up depending on the severity. Even then, the skin will appear pink and may have a bumpy texture. We all know not to pick at the scab once it forms, so no matter how tempting it is, try keep your hands away! Keeping the area covered up and out of the sun will help avoid scarring, as well as moisturizing the area for the months following.

How to know if road rash is infected

A certain amount of bleeding and oozing is normal in the first few days after injury, but any sudden change in color or swelling may be a sign of infection. This can happen even if you were diligent with cleaning and dressing the wound, and can only be treated through doctor prescribed oral antibiotics.

Signs of infection:

  • Increased pain after the first couple days
  • Increase in swelling
  • Red colour around the wound
  • Puss or fluid drainage from the wound
  • The area feels warm

Most cases of road rash are nothing to worry about, and are more of a nuisance than anything. We hope you won’t be needing this advice, but if you do take a tumble off you bike, check out “What to do after a bike crash” for more helpful information.

How Your Family Vacation Can Prevent Overtraining

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If you’ve been putting in the time, diligently doing your intervals and pushing yourself further than ever before, then it can be tough to take a break. When you’re finally getting faster than your buddies, your upcoming vacation may have you stressing that you’re going to lose everything you’ve worked to hard for.

Take a deep breath, and enjoy your family vacation. The break will help you prevent overtraining.

how your family vacation will save you from overtraining
ILB contributor, Morgan, knows how to take it easy on vacation. Photo by Dave Gillam @djgillam (instagram)

Cyclists Need a Pitstop

What if we approached rest during a season of training like F1 drivers approach pit stops? F1 drivers know that they will need to stop for fuel and a change of tires a couple of times throughout a race. Teams and drivers strategically plan for this. Reassure yourself that when you are taking a week off the bike, it is not necessarily a week of training lost.Your competitors will also have to take a week off at some point or another.

Think of a rest week as reducing your risk of injury instead of lost fitness.

If you get hit with a bad cold, you could easily be out two weeks. The bonus of taking a week off, is that your body will have had time to rest, recover and adapt to the previous week’s training load.

Routine Maintenance Off the Bike Mitigates Overtraining

Maintaining your body off the bike is extremely important both physically and mentally. Adding strength, mobility and stability through cross training mitigates the potential injuries that you might sustain if you are otherwise not committed on doing so.

ILB contributor Jem suggests that cross-training and time logged off the bike does not contribute to fitness on the bike– You will not find many people disputing this claim, but what is the cost to your fitness if you end up sick, injured or burnt-out as a result of neglecting other parts of your health and wellness?

Plan Your Mid-Season Breaks

If you plan for these breaks and are strategic about it, pitstops can win the race. Most of us have family, friends and obligations. Use vacations, weddings and other times that you may be forced off your bike as a mid-season pitstop. Try and slowly build intensity and duration of your training up until you go on vacation. That way when you are visiting museums, broadway shows or sitting on the beach enjoying an afternoon snooze you won’t feel so guilty.

Training is like money in the bank. Everyone is saving, and everyone is constantly banking fitness so taking time off the bike is hard. Follow these four easy steps to avoid burnout and enjoy your vacations:
Step 1: Maintain your body throughout the season
Step 2: Listen to yourself and your body
Step 3: Plan your training around specific events during the year
Step 4: Stick to the plan or make small adjustments to avoid burnout

How To Stop Cramping Now!

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Cramping Myths and Hydration Truths

Cramping and fatigue in general are still relatively poorly understood physiological phenomena, but every cyclist has experienced Exercise Induced Cramping, and knows exactly how uncomfortable they can be! There are plenty of myths, anecdotes, and magic cures peddled by companies and fellow riders alike, but what can the Science tell us about cramping?

Stop Cramping Now Cramping Myths and Hydration Truths

What Causes Cramping?

Cramping is not necessarily a sign of poor hydration or electrolyte imbalance. Cramping is not necessarily a sign of poor nutrition, poor warm-up, or poor preparation for race day. Cramping is not necessarily even a sign of poor fitness… but all of those factors may contribute to fatigue and cramping.

Exercise Induced Cramping occurs when you push yourself harder and for longer than your body is used to: ie. a combination of greater volume/duration and greater intensity than your body has adapted for.

The current best theory for Exercise Induced Cramping is related to neuromotor fatigue. Basically, the nerves that carry signals to and from your muscles and your brain get tired just the same as your working muscles. Those nerve signals begin to misfire This neuromotor fatigue can send overlapping, uncontrolled signals to your muscles. This can result in twitching, cramping, complete locking up of your working muscles or the feeling of ‘dead-legs’ and an inability to produce power.

 

Hydration and Electrolytes

When you sweat you lose both fluid and ‘electrolytes’, which refer to a variety of minerals dissolved in the body’s fluids and tissues, and are essential to overall function. Sodium is the most abundant electrolyte lost in sweat, and so ‘salts’ are occasionally used synonymously when talking about replenishing electrolyte balance.

Sweat is hypotonic, that is: the electrolyte concentration of sweat is lower than the electrolyte concentration of your blood. This means that when you sweat you lose more fluid than you lose electrolytes, and therefore fluid loss will be the limiting factor to performance and is more important to replenish during exertion. During activities longer than 90min, and especially endurance events longer than 4 hrs you will lose both fluids and electrolytes to sweat, and both will need to be replenished.

Studies have shown that performance is negatively affected when total body weight loss approaches -2% via fluid loss (although even this finding has conflicting evidence). You should aim to replenish fluids during activity to avoid this extent of fluid loss. A general guideline is to drink at least one bottle – 500-750 ml – of fluid per hour.

 

Can you Drink Too Much?

You may have heard horror stories about athletes over-hydrating during endurance events and suffering from hyponatremia, or severely low electrolyte imbalance. These instances are an extremely low percentage occurrence and most often only seen in extreme ultra-endurance events. Studies found only 0.1-4% of an ultra-endurance population exhibited signs of hyponatremia, compared with 80% occurrence of basic dehydration.

Under-hydration can affect your performance during even short-duration activities and should be a far more significant consideration than over-hydrating. You have to try really hard to give yourself hyponatremia, but dehydration takes effort to avoid.

 

Fluid and Nutrition

Drinking an electrolyte-fluid mix can be effective to maintain performance and avoid cramping and fatigue, but the fluid is certainly more important than the electrolytes in that bottle of mix. Mix offers a more obvious advantage to performance, of course: as a nutritional source of carbohydrates (sugar/glucose). Some electrolyte supplements can be low or zero calorie, but more common is for drink mix to contain both carbohydrates and electrolytes.

Briefly: nutrition is a completely different topic which I won’t tackle here, but suffice it to say that calories from carbohydrates, protein & fats are significantly more important to performance over a multi-hour endurance event than electrolytes. You don’t have to choose one or the other!: carbohydrate + electrolyte mixtures can be a great way to replenish both on the bike! For optimal performance, you probably need to be eating more than you think!

I would suggest that if you find that drinking a carbohydrate/electrolyte mix helps you avoid cramping and boosts your performance, this is more than good enough reason to continue what works! This may be in order of importance; 1) the fluid; 2) the nutritional calories, and finally; 3) the electrolytes.

 

So What Should You Do?

The first thing that needs to be said is don’t worry about changing anything if you know what works best your you! Your body is very good at regulating itself: It will take in whatever you give it with very little fuss. The science indicates it should be unnecessary to supplement salts or electrolytes as long as you eat properly leading into your cycling event. You should get all the salts, minerals and electrolytes you need from a nutritious diet, not to mentioned ensuring optimal performance on the bike. Longer events will require fluid, electrolyte, and calorie replacement and you can get that from any combination of solid foods, gels, or drink mixes.

 

How to Prevent Cramping?

  • Nothing magical, just expose your body to greater duration and intensity of training stimuli. ie. go harder for longer, and next time you won’t cramp as early into your event! Training in the heat will assist acclimatization to the heat, and training in the cold, to the cold. You can experience cramping in any conditions to which your body is poorly acclimatized to.
  • Take care of the low-hanging fruit as part of your pre-event preparation: Ensure you are fresh, well-rested, with sufficient nutrition and hydration in the days leading up to a particularly hard event. Come prepared with sufficient nutrition and hydration for the length & intensity of the event and for the expected conditions on the day. TrainingPeaks has a fantastic guideline for basic pre-, during, and post- race nutrition & hydration planning.
  • There is also a potential genetic predisposition to cramping. so… get different parents? 🙂

How to Relieve Cramps Once They Start?

  • The fastest & most reliable method of temporarily easing cramps is passive stretching. Trying to stretch a cramping hamstring while on the bike is a good way to come to grief, but if you can slow up or even dismount and stretch the affected muscle it can provide much needed relief.
  • Continuing to hydrate remains important when you begin to cramp. Cooling via fluid intake will also help. However by the time cramping is occurring, hydrating and cooling probably won’t have a quick enough effect. You’ll be forced to slow down first, which probably has a more direct benefit.
  • Speaking of slowing down, an obvious (and often unavoidable) way to reduce cramping is simply to reduce your effort. This eases the demand on your working muscles, your heart & lungs, and also your neuromotor system by reducing the amount of voluntary nerve signalling to your muscles. This allows your entire neuromotor system to relax and recover.
  • Finally, recent headlines have highlighted using pickle juice, capsaicin (spicy pepper, chili powder, etc.), vinegar, or mustard as cramp cures. I haven’t explored the evidence in-depth, but the proposed mechanism is not actually the salt in those foods, but rather that the spice/acidity of these foods overpowers the rest of the neurological system and reduces nerve firing activity globally through your body. Similar to how biting your tongue “distracts” you from the pain of your stubbed toe.

How Functional Mobility Will Make You Faster

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How Functional Mobility Will Make You FasterAnother season begins, the snow melts, and the flowers bloom. The giddiness and excitement of your new bike overwhelms you and you’re putting a ton of kilometers in the bank. Your quadriceps are sore, your hamstrings are tight, your hips begin to seize. This is all part of getting faster, right? Wrong. Speed and strength does not have to come at the expense of mobility.

Due to the repetitive nature of the pedal stroke, cycling puts us in a particularly vulnerable situation. We spend hours hunched over the bars, spinning our legs at 100 revolutions per minute. The impact is low, but over time the muscular imbalances take a toll. Adding mobility and stability off the bike will bring your riding to the next level.

Stretching

We’ve heard it a thousand times: “Stretch!” But before you stretch, there are a few things to understand before you go whole hog and start lunging in the car park before the Saturday club ride.

Pre-Ride Stretching

Dynamic Stretching is the best way to get your body prepped for the rigors of your ride. While static stretching has been shown to negatively impact speed and power, dynamic stretching will get blood to your muscles, and mobility in your joints. Get a few of these dynamic stretches in before you down your coffee and crumpets.

Throughout the Ride

It’s still early in the season (remember?) and you’re barely hanging on late in your club ride, and your shoulder, neck and back are acting up. Take the time to move around a bit. Stretch your neck, roll your shoulders and move your back. Cramping or feel a twinge in your calf? Skip a few turns in the rotation in order to take a minute to stretch those tight muscles.

Post Ride Stretching

You made it home, had your shower and post ride nutrition. Time to take a few minutes to reset your muscles. Have a look at ILB contributor Jem’s post ride routine. Post-activity stretching has been shown to reduce Delayed Onset Muscular Soreness (DOMS), increase rates of recovery and improve range of motion in your joints. While there is some debate as to how long you should stretch, anywhere between 15-30 seconds will yield the desired results. There is no debate, however, as to how deep you should stretch: Make sure you are only stretching as deep as it feels comfortable. Any signs of pain, pinching or discomfort signals that it is time to back off a tad. Stretching longer than 60 seconds, or deeper than comfortable is more than likely causing unnecessary trauma.

Mobility & Yoga

Yoga is trendy, but the activity has been around for thousands of years (in comparison, the bicycle is about 200 years old). Yoga provides focus to both static and dynamic stretching, and always adds a component of movement to the practice. The nature of the sport and the position on a bike renders basic balance and maintenance a challenge. As time and intensity on the bike increases, certain muscles are worked to exhaustion, while others become dormant and atrophy. With a very limited range of motion of the legs, and a virtually static upper body, finding movement in other directions, off the bike, is vital to longevity. If yoga isn’t your thing, adding some basic functional stability workouts will help. While yoga stresses mobility and flexibility, functional strength training stresses strength and stability– Both have their place in a monthly cycling training plan. An hour or two a month dedicated to mobility will help you in a few key areas.

Flexibility

80 percent of your aerodynamic drag is caused by your position on the bike (sadly, the $10,000 aero bike will only help you 20% of the way. Imagine how fast you would be if you invested $10,000 in your position and coaching?). Adding a few yoga practices to your training plan will slowly improve your position and gift you a handful of free watts. Wind tunnel testing suggests that a position change can improve your aerodynamic drag by well over 20%. That might be the difference of being able to ride with the A group instead of the B group!

Stability

Yoga and functional strength training will frequently introduce movement in directions other than forward and backward. Forcing you to engage your core and stabilizer muscles will improve bike handling and stability on the bike. The changes are subtle, but feeling more confident into corners, descending and staying in an aerodynamic position when on the front of your club ride are not to be ignored.

Discovering Injuries

Adding a few days of strength and mobility may also reveal weaknesses and muscle imbalances that you didn’t realize you had. Did a certain yoga practice relieve some chronic back pain? Maybe side lunges will suddenly ease knee pain that you recently discovered.

It should be noted that certain types of yoga can be pretty tough on your muscles. A rigorous Vinyasa or a slow, deep stretch Yin class can have your legs feeling pretty slow on the bike the next day. Plan an easy ride for a day after yoga. Taking the time to assess your body off the bike will give you an added boost in confidence and self awareness.

Fascial Therapy

Get on the roller. If you haven’t heard a friend say this, get some new ones. The foam roller is your new best friend. Fascial tissue has been neglected for a long time, and is only making it to the mainstream in recent years.

What is Fascial Tissue

There is a lot of current research on fascial tissue, but it used to be regarded as the sack of tissue that keeps all of your muscles and organs in place. The new understanding of fascia suggests that the membrane act like a coil providing direction, stability and recovery to muscle tissues. Neglecting this vital tissue may be hurting your performance on the bike. A number of recent studies show that fascial release (like getting on a foam roller) reduces injury and increases function of the muscles. When we do exercise, we create scar tissue– Massaging your legs with a foam roller will release built up scar tissue and allow the fascia to realign itself and function more efficiently.

Let’s be honest, we aren’t professional cyclists even if we have a soigneur at home. We are weekend warriors, and have very little time outside of family, and work obligations — But maybe a bit of cross training will pay more dividends than you expect.

Postlude

I come from a background in (American) football. When I started cycling, I came into the sport carrying all of the baggage from football (both physical mass and methodology for training). There was very little focus on mobility and flexibility. In the off season we had a rigorous training plan that included 4 heavy lifting days, interlaced with 2-3 practices per week. The workouts were not functional, and were focused on building a lot of mass. In any case, over the course of my career, I naively assumed that mobility and flexibility would ultimately come at the expense of strength– The reality is just the opposite. Working on mobility, flexibility and stability will only improve your functional performance. 5 years removed from contact sports, I am now clearly seeing the benefits of introducing strength training and yoga throughout the season. I’m getting faster and stronger while simultaneously becoming more stable and much more mobile.

Foot Pain While Cycling – The Cure

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foot-pain-while-cycling

Feet transmit all of the power from your body to the pedals. If they hurt, your performance will diminish. The harder you push on the pedals, the more your feet will hurt, further diminishing the power you have worked so hard to gain. There are a lot of variables that can cause foot pain while cycling. Test them out to see why you have pain and how you can cure it.

Nerves

Much like hands, feet have a series of nerves that branch off to terminate at the toes. Impinging these nerves can lead to numbness and foot pain. The mechanism of the impingement is slightly different from hands, though. In the hands, it usually occurs before the nerves split off to the fingers near the heel of the palm, or even further up towards the elbow. In the foot, it often occurs inside the shoe, which places pressure on sensitive nerves.

Heat and Swelling

Heat can cause swelling of the feet. Your body’s response to heat is to send blood to extremities with higher surface to volume area to dump heat as quickly as possible. Swollen feet can also be a result of dehydration, as when blood thickens and it has difficulty traveling back up the legs in the pedaling position. This swelling can cause pressure points in your shoes that are not normally there. Staying hydrated will keep your blood flowing freely and keep you cooler because you will have enough fluid to keep sweating adequately. Your feet will thank you.

Shoe Fit Contributing to Foot Pain While Cycling

Shoe fit is the most important variable to avoid foot pain while cycling. 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. Do not buy shoes because they are on sale. You will pay later with pain and when you buy another pair of shoes that does not hurt.

If you have feet that are not the normal range, it is worth seeking out proper fitting shoes instead of trying to alter a more common shoe. There are even custom cycling shoe companies that will accommodate your feet. It may be a high up front cost but in the long run (with diligent care of the shoes) it will be worth it.

Pedals

Spending long hours in the saddle requires a pedal that provides adequate support for your foot. Road pedals have a large platform to spread the pedal pressure across a wider area of your foot. Smaller mountain bike pedals generally do not provide that support and can cause hot spots on the bottom of your feet. These smaller pedals, in conjunction with a sole that is not very stiff may lead to hot spots. If you do need to ride mountain bike pedals for long hours, consider stiffer soled shoes to minimize hot spots. A carbon sole is the way to go here.

Cleat Placement

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. Take the time to dial in your cleat placement; it is well worth it for the comfort it will provide.

Once you have that cleat position perfect, you will want to keep it that way every time you change your cleats. Outline your old cleats with a marker before you remove it. When you put the new one on, you will be able to place it within the outline of old cleat, saving the time of dialing in and experimenting with the position again.

Bike Fit

Bike fit, like cleat placement, can avoid or alleviate strain on your feet. A good bike fitting session will look at all aspects of your fit, including the aforementioned shoe fit and cleat placement. As you have read in other articles, a bike fit will go a long way to improving your comfort and performance. This holds true all the way down to your feet.

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 onset of frostnip and frostbite.

Keep Your Feet and Yourself Happy

If your feet are comfortable you are more likely to have a great ride. Take care of your foot pain while cycling and the only pain you will feel is your legs suffering to get up the climbs faster than you ever have before.

Handlebar Palsy – AKA Cyclist’s Palsy

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Numb hands can ruin a ride, both because of the discomfort and the lack of control. A common and preventable cause of numb hands is cyclist’s palsy, also commonly known as handlebar palsy. It is the result of too much pressure on the ulnar or median nerve where they enter the hand from the wrist. Knowing its cause will send you on your way to finding solutions that work for your own handlebar palsy.

Where Hand Meets Handlebarulnar nerve

The ulnar nerve enters the hand at the wrist at the heel of the palm opposite the thumb. That pad on the heel is often where the hand rests on the handlebar. Inside that pad is the ulnar nerve, running through the Guyon canal and compressed by the bones of the wrist and hand. Enough pressure, and your pinky and ring finger go numb. More than enough pressure can lead to a fully numb hand.

The median nerve enters the hand at the wrist between the ulnar nerve and the base of the thumb through the carpal tunnel. Too much pressure here and you will feel your index and middle fingers go numb. The numbness can occur in conjunction with ulnar nerve numbness.

Solutions to Handlebar Palsy

Ensuring your hands contact your bars at an angle that allows your wrist to lay naturally is ideal. Any hyperextension of the wrist puts additional pressure on the nerves entering your hands. Resting your hands on the handlebar with as little bend as possible at the wrist lets the nerves lay unimpeded into your palms.

Changing positions on your handlebars during the course of a ride can alleviate symptoms of handlebar palsy. On a road bike with drop bars, if you feel numbness coming on, move to a different position that takes pressure off of the heel of your palm. On a flat bar bike it is a bit more difficult because there are more limited positions. If you often have handlebar palsy and frequently ride a flat bar bike, consider adding bar ends for an additional position. Remember to position them correctly. Perpendicular to the ground is not correct; The should face forward at an angle that allows your wrists to rest naturally.

Padding your hands will also help relieve handlebar palsy. This can either be done with padded bar, doubled up bar tape, gel pads under the bar or padded gloves. Try gloves on first to make sure they fit comfortably; too loose and they will cause blisters, too tight and they can cause even more numbness. Some overly padded gloves can also cause numbness by concentrating pressure on extra large pads.

Moving your saddle down and back can also relieve pressure on your hands. Beware that other positional problems may arise if you go this route. Whatever changes you make, do them incrementally.

If these solutions do not work, seek out a bike fit expert to examine your position. Additionally, you may want to seek out a health professional to determine exactly what is happening in your nerves. They can give you exercises to relieve abused nerves.

The Nerve

Understanding the nerves that cause handlebar palsy will give you a better idea of what causes it and how you can fix it. These simple fixes are effective and easy to try out. If the problem persists, go to a professional for an objective and knowledgeable view so you can keep riding in complete control.

Joint Issues And Cycling As You Age

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Cycling is generally gentle on your joints. It is a low impact activity, but sometimes the repetitive motion can cause or aggravate joint issues – most commonly tendonitis, arthritis and postural imbalances. As you age, the chances of developing increases because of increased wear and tear on your body. Avoiding or mitigating the effects of joint issues will lead to more enjoyable pain free miles.

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What is a Joint?

A joint is point where two bones meet for the purpose of allowing the body to move. There are some places in the body where bones meet but do not move – the different joints in the skull, for example. But most of the places bones meet are meant to move, and it is not just bone at that meeting point. There are also ligaments and tendons that move the joint and cartilage that cushions the joint.

Joint Pain

Joint pain occurs when one of the four elements of a joint fails at its job – bone, ligament, tendon, or cartilage. When a bone fails, it is usually the result of an impact, whether it is from too many or one dramatic impact. It is more commonly called a break. When a ligament hurts, it is usually from a tear or rupture. This can happen on the bike from a fall or a really bad bike fit. Tendons are most often painful from tendinitis or inflammation of the tendon. This is frequently the result of overuse, and again, a really bad bike fit. Finally, worn out cartilage lessens the cushion between bones in a joint, which allows bone on bone contact. This is arthritis.

Arthritis is common as people age because of wear and tear on joints. Additionally, ligaments and tendons become more rigid and brittle, limiting a joints range of motion. Keeping that range of motion as high as possible depends on being active throughout life.

Cycling and Joints

If you have developed joint pain while you ride, you must determine if that pain is from riding itself or if it is another injury exacerbated by riding.

  • Does the joint hurt off of the bike? During what activities?
  • When did the pain start?
  • What motions cause the pain? What makes it feel better?
  • Are there any injuries or conditions that lead to the pain?

Out of the four structures in a joint, tendons and cartilage are the most likely culprits for pain. The most likely joint for pain in cycling is the knee, often the result of poor bike fit or overuse. Cycling is generally recommended for those with bad knees from arthritis, as it allows you to exercise without the impact. But if your bike fit is poor, arthritic knees can flare up.

Keep Moving

Joints that keep moving stay healthier. As long as the volume or intensity (which can increase with training) is low enough to avoid tendinitis, staying fit will help keep joints in good condition. Find movements for all of your joints that will allow them to move and have a reduced impact.

Yoga will do the trick as long as you are not extended past your range of flexibility. Your joints are in motion and you are strengthening your muscles, which will be an additional aid in supporting your joints. Yoga will also help keep your flexibility up.

Weight lifting, as long as it does not cause pain and it is done with the right form, will also keep your joints healthy while strengthening the tissue around them. You do not need to push big weight; high repetitions at low weight is great for keeping your joints healthy.

Swimming and other water activities are also great for getting over joint pain. The buoyancy of water takes the load off of joints while allowing them to move. This is a great rehabilitation activity.

Bike Fit…Again

A proper bike fit is a key to being able to enjoy long days on the bike. It will ensure that your body is positioned optimally for your muscles to do the work while your joints can move freely, avoiding any unnecessary friction. Your body changes from time to time too; you can gain or lose fitness and flexibility over time. From time to time, you need to update your bike fit too.

Take Care of Yourself

The better you take care of yourself, the less likely you will be to succumb to joint issues and you will also age better. Your joints will maintain their flexibility and soft tissue better, keeping you on the bike longer and doing other things you love to do.

Tingling In Hands While Riding

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Tingling in hands while riding is quite common and also quite mysterious to a lot of riders. It can be an uncomfortable situation; you have reduced sensation of feeling on the handlebars, making it harder to control the bike, shift gears, and brake even which can be dangerous. It can happen anytime, but most frequently when you are in an aggressive position. That also happens to be the time when you need the best touch on the controls. Understanding what causes it will put you on the road to reducing or curing the tingling.

The Basics

Most of the time, tingling in hands on the bike happens because there is a muscle that is impinging a nerve. The position on the bike puts the body in a position that is not natural, and while we try to make it as natural as possible, it will never be as easy on the body as standing upright or lying down. At a few critical points, muscles crowd in on the space of nerves that run to the hands, reducing their function. The result is tingling.

The Specifics

There are four different places that are common of nerve impingement for cyclists. Remember this is not a replacement for seeing a medical professional; if the symptoms are too much to bear, get a physical examination.

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

Thoracic outlet syndrome is when the anterior and middle scalenes, muscles on the side of the neck, impinge the brachial plexus, a complex of nerves that run in between the two muscles, from where they branch out to other areas, including down to the hands. This is common for cyclists because of the head position on the bike; body forward with the head tilted back. It strains the scalenes against the brachial plexus, impairing nerve function. Craig Abrams, a doctor of chiropractics that specializes in athletes, especially cyclists, says, “Numbness in your hand is neck dysfunction until proven otherwise.” Look for the upstream cause, like an impingement up around the neck.

An Additional Pinch Point on the Brachial Plexus

The meeting point of the pectoral and acromium process is also a point that can impinge the brachial plexus while riding. Both of these situations are symptoms of upper cross syndrome, where the pecs and scalenes are facilitated (overused) and the lower trapezius and lower cervical flexors are inhibited (not allowed to fully extend). The result is pressure on nerves that are not used to pressure.

Lower Arm Nerve Impingement

While thoracic outlet syndrome is the most common cause of tingling in hands while riding, there is one other common position on the bike that impinges nerves. The pronation of the arm to reach the handlebar can cause pressure on the radial groove at the back of your elbow – your funny bone. Everyone knows that when you hit your funny bone, it is not very funny. While it is not an impact that hits the nerve, the low level pressure will give you a funny bone-like sensation.

The Pronator Teres

The pronator teres, the muscle that runs from the elbow across the arm, and across the ulnar nerve, can cause tingling in hands. This is the muscle that rotates the lower arm. It is always engaged on the bike, as long as your hands are on the handlebars. If you are gripping the bars exceptionally hard, say when riding hard or across bumpy terrain, it will contract that much more which then can result in the tingling. This is exceptionally true if you don’t have a good hand position on the bike, say with your wrists at a kinked angle instead of straight.

How To Fix Tingling in Hands on the Bike

Like most causes of chronic pain, tingling in hands can hugely benefit from a proper bike fit. Getting as much pressure off of overworked muscles that are impinging nerves can reduce or eliminate tingling. But the natural position on the bike is not the natural human position. Bike fit sometimes can only go so far.

Dr. Abrams says, ” What you do off the bike greatly impacts how you feel on the bike. Any good training program must require off the bike work, not just a rest day, not just spinning the legs out. It requires true active recovery.” What this means is that you should be exercising the muscles that are taking the daily abuse on the bike. Engaging in a core program will help both facilitated and inhibited muscles deal with the loads you place on them and help support your body properly, both on the bike and off.

Proper posture off the bike helps too. Sometimes you maintain elements of your on-the-bike position while off the bike, maintaining a low level of impingement on delicate nerves. By holding your body properly, it can ease the impingement.

Like most cures, there is no silver bullet. A combination of efforts will bring more feeling and comfort to your rides. Be diligent in your work to eliminate tingling in your hands. It can be a stubborn problem. Once you get control of it, your rides will be more pleasant.

Knee Pain Causes When Cycling

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Cycling is relatively easy on your knees. There is no impact and you move the joint, keeping it in good condition. It is refuge for athletes that developed bad knees in other sports. That said, you still have to be careful with your knees and listen to them when cycling as knee pain causes can range from bike fit to previous issues.

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Preventative Knee Care

As always, avoiding injury is the best way to deal with any potential injuries. Despite the large load knees carry, they are fragile if used improperly. For starters, they only bend on one plane, and with a limited range. Try not to strain ligaments by twisting your knees or spending extended time at the limits of flexion or extension. Think of standing with knees locked or squatting like a baseball catcher giving signs before the pitcher delivers.

Second, they do not have very much insulation. When you are riding and it is fifty to sixty degrees Fahrenheit or below, cover them. You can cover them with knee warmers, leg warmers, or tights. You should also do a warmup before going into any big efforts to get maximal blood flow to warm your knees. Embrocation will not help; it only gives the illusion of feeling warm. It does this by irritating the skin and bringing blood to the surface. There is no temperature change at the crucial ligaments.

Bike fit is important to ensure knees track on the correct plane without any undue strain. There are many factors of bike fit that can impact knees – seat height, seat fore-aft position, sit bone support of the saddle, leg length discrepancy, cleat position, and cleat float. Small changes in these positions can influence how your knees feel while riding. The right position will put your body in the right position to produce power and keep your body in proper alignment.

Knee Pain Causes

Knee pain causes can strike a lot of people at different times. If you have chronic pain that makes riding unenjoyable, you need to figure out what is causing your pain. Craig Abrams, DC says, “Knee pain comes from hip and glute dysfunction until proven otherwise.” Think of the placement of the knees in body, and think of your body as a funnel. Any movement up above your knees will eventually have an effect on your knees and the biggest influencers are the large complex of bone and muscle at your hips and glutes. Bike fit and core strength are therefore the two biggest influences on knee pain while cycling.

Below are the easier problems to diagnose. If your pain continues after making the recommended adjustments, seek out a professional to examine your knee. Remember that you not only have to examine the pain at the immediate area of the knee, but also your overall fitness, core and otherwise, and also bike fit.

Pain on the Outside of the Knee

Pain on the outside of the knee is often the result of a saddle that is too high. It is the result of overextending the ligaments on the outside of the knee. The fix is easy; lower your saddle. Do it incrementally. Dramatic changes can result in other problems arising. Think about what caused the pain here. It is not the knee itself, but your hip position relative to your knee.

Pain on the Inside of the Knee

As you may have guessed, pain on the inside of the knee is often the result of a saddle that is too low. It requires more force from the complex of ligaments on the inside than they should be putting out, causing pain. The same applies from pain on the outside of the knee, but in reverse. Again, raise your saddle incrementally to control for any other issues that you may otherwise cause.

Pain on the Front of the Knee

Pain on the front of the knee is often tendonitis from doing too many or hard miles when your body is not prepared for them. The solution is dial back the volume and intensity until the pain subsides. Additionally, ride at lower force and higher cadence to reduce strain on the knee. The preventative measure is to gradually build to your fitness to get to a place where you can comfortably do big volume and intensity. Additionally, if your saddle is too low and/or too far forward, it can cause strain and thus pain at the front of the knee. Raise your saddle incrementally and also move it back if it’s too far forward. (See the Seat Setback section in How to Do a Proper Bike Fit)

Pain on the Back of the Knee

Pain behind the knee is often the result of your saddle being too high. This causes the back of your leg to have to over extend and when under pressure from trying to pedal, a lot of strain is placed up and down the back of your leg with the key pain point often being right behind the knee. Lower your saddle so you are not reaching for your pedals. Your legs should never be straight at the bottom of the pedal stroke.

Stay Away from Knee Pain Causes!

Knees are delicate and you should treat them accordingly. They do a huge amount of work that you may take for granted when they are healthy. If they suffer an injury, you will really know it. Preventative measures like regular stretching are best to stave off injury, but one day your knees may succumb. If they do, be prepared beforehand so you remedy the injury in the early stages.

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