I am starting a series of blogs with some information as to how we can help people who undertake different activities. This month is a short article about cyclists, common injury problems and how we at Health and Harmony Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation can help you become injury free and maintain more time on the bike.
Common Overuse Injuries
Common overuse injuries in cycling effect the neck, lower back, shoulders, hands, hips and knees. For example,
- Neck – Overextending the neck due to constantly looking ahead whilst in a hunched position can result in the extension muscles becoming overworked and fatigued. This can cause an imbalance, which can seep into the upper back and shoulder muscles.
- Hands – with your hands on the handlebars in a hyper extending position for long periods, this can cause compression in the wrist. This can result in conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome (compression of the median nerve) or ‘cyclists palsy’ (compression of the ulnar nerve).
- Back – Constantly being in a hunched position and using the hip flexor muscles can result in those muscles becoming shortened/tight/dominant. This can put more strain on the back, creating pain and discomfort.
- Glutes – If the glutes become weak or inactive, this can result in your piriformis becoming shortened, causing conditions such as ‘piriformis syndrome’. The hamstrings and lower back can also become overactive in this scenario, causing pain and discomfort in those areas.
- Knee – Often knee pain is from overuse, and will go away on its own, or may be osteoarthritic. However, sometimes the quad muscles or calves may be dominant, which is causing the joint to function less than optimally.
How We Can Help
Ensuring you have a proper bike set up, manage your training load, and ensuring you regularly undertake mobility and strengthening exercise (e.g. core) will negate many overuse risks. But sometimes some muscles and joints can become chronically tight and painful over time and you need some help along the way. We can assess your body and movement, and look at which muscles may be shortened (tight), or weakened, and thus contributing to your pain. Dysfunction in the body can result in other muscles taking over roles they should not, contributing to a cycle (excuse the pun) of pain and discomfort. By identifying which muscles are tight or weak, we can help to release the tension in those tightened muscles and improve muscle functioning with some of our treatments. We use many treatment techniques (https://myhealthandharmony.uk/faqs/). Please also see our article on muscle energy techniques, which is one of our most effective treatments: https://myhealthandharmony.uk/what-are-muscle-energy-techniques-and-are-they-beneficial-for-pain-relief/).
If we can identify these types of imbalances and help to ease any restricted movement or pain, we then try and give you the tools (mobility exercises, strength and conditioning) to help you manage these conditions in the longer term. This will hopefully result in you enjoying getting back out on the bike!
Booking a Treatment
If you would like to book a treatment please:
- Complete our contact form at https://myhealthandharmony.uk/contact/
- Email us at hello@myhealthandharmony.uk.