Summer Cycling

The days are getting longer and the evenings are lighter which means it’s definitely time to get out in the sunshine and fresh air. One activity Tom and I particularly love at this time of year is getting out on our bikes. Often it becomes a busy time for us as a Physiotherapists as people either dust the cobwebs off their bikes and jump on them with the saddle too low or the handlebars too far away and then there’s others who come out of their winter training on the turbo trainer and head out for 4 or 5 hour rides and find they don’t have the endurance strength on the bike. These two approaches can both lead to annoying niggles or performance frustrations which can take the pleasure out of a fun ride in the sunshine. 

So whether you want to avoid these niggles or improve your performance on the bike there’s a few areas that can be looked at to achieve this. 

Bike Set Up

The first consideration is your bike set up. We would highly recommend a professional bike fit especially if you are covering more miles particularly on a road bike. At Cadbury Physiotherapy we offer bike fitting which is great to help make the right adjustments to your bike to reduce niggles and help with performance. There are a couple of simple areas that you can check yourself. 

Firstly take a look at your saddle height. A saddle that is not in the optimum position can be responsible for lots of knee, back and pelvic pain. It can often mean you put too much pressure through the front of your knee which can cause problems with the knee cap or below this with the fat pad and patella tendon. A simple thing to check is when you sit on the bike and push your pedal down to the bottom with your heel flat, the knee should be just off straight. 

Handlebar position is equally important. If you’re over or under reaching you can often get neck and back discomfort. Ideally you should have a 90 degree angle between your trunk and upper arm with just a slight bend in the elbow. 

Strength 

Niggles and performance levels can not all be blamed on the equipment unfortunately but it can also be our body’s efficiency too! Being a Pilates instructor I am a great believer in the role of a strong core to help niggles and massively improve performance. To maintain good posture on the bike which will in turn make you a much more efficient rider you not only need core strength but also core endurance. With fatigue some postural changes can happen such as shifting your pelvis more from side to side, dropping your knee in towards the cross bar or letting your neck drop down into a more flexed position. This can all have a knock on effect on your low back, knees and neck. 

One of the problems with the summer weather is as cyclists all we want to do is go out on the bike and when we only have limited time in our busy lives often we’d choose to ride rather than do the background strengthening work. Before becoming a Pilates instructor over 15 years ago I was certainly guilty of just doing exercise that made me sweat but over the years I’ve seen for myself how much having a strong core and also time to stretch has helped me with aches and pains but also with my exercise performance.

We are lucky to treat some elite cyclists and have seen their power statistics go up and the only thing they’ve changed in their training schedule is adding in Pilates and strength work.

Here’s a couple of areas you could focus on to help improve your strength for cycling

Firstly the glutes (buttock muscles). These are the main drivers for initiating the pedal movement and also to maintain alignment of the pelvis and lower limb. A simple exercise to try to address this is a single leg bridge 

Often an area that is overlooked in cyclists is upper body strength which is actually key for maintaining good posture on the bike. It’s common for cyclists to say their neck gets stiff and that’s usually due to a weakness in their postural muscles around the neck and upper back. This can be addressed with something as simple as a press-up or more specific exercises like the swan dive 

Another main area is the lower abdominal muscles which can act like a natural corset. There’s so many exercises to target this area but one we often do in class is the plank. 

So whether you’re dusting off the cobwebs or putting the turbo trainer away, firstly check your bike set up and try to give yourself time to build up your core and stretch those tight muscles. We promise it will make riding your bike even more enjoyable this summer! 

If you would like any more information on our bike fitting service or Pilates for cyclists please do get in touch.