Cycling! What a great way to have fun, burn some calories, get in shape, and feel alive. When we were young, it represented a presence of freedom and independence. We were captivated by the adventurous places to which our bicycles would carry us around our neighborhood. On occasion, we may have hit a bump and fallen off of our bikes, skinning our knees and presumably our egos if we were seen by our friends. For the most part, however, our bicycle was our ticket to ride!
The beauty in cycling is that relatively few injuries happen with a well-fitted bicycle. Cycling is not a high-impact activity or even a full weight-bearing one. Because of that, you can train longer and harder, up to hours at a time, day after day, with a low risk of injury to yourself. As a cyclist, you can train your large muscle groups for longer periods of time with less chance of hurting yourself through an injury. The most common injuries associated with cycling, however, are in the knees, the hands, the shoulders, and the cervical and lumbar parts of the spine.
The knee is a key working joint for the cyclist. The most common knee injury associated with cycling is due to overuse or the proverbial “too much, too soon” dilemma. Some examples of injuries associated with the knees include patellar tendinitis, iliotibial band friction syndrome, pes anserine bursitis, plica syndrome, or hamstring tendonitis. All of these injuries are caused by an inflammatory process and should respond well to icing and anti-inflammatory medications. However, it is important to seek medical advice regarding any medications you might take under these conditions.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is another common cycling injury. Pressure on the carpal tunnel by the handle bars can cause swelling and irritation which can lead to numbness and tingling of the ring and small fingers. Among the other nerve compression syndromes that can be sustained with prolonged hand pressure on the handle bars from cycling include “skier’s thumb,” also known as ulnar collateral ligament injury of the thumb. This type of injury can happen when a cyclist falls and the force from the fall bends the thumb. For successful treatment and recovery, surgery is typically required immediately after the injury occurs.
As for shoulder injuries, if you fall off the bicycle, you run the risk of fracturing your collar bone, or clavicle. You could sustain a separation of the joint between the shoulder blade and the clavicle. This type of injury should be examined by a physician. Sometimes surgical intervention is necessary to repair this injury.
To avoid cervical and lumbar spine pain, which usually occurs when you increase the duration of the ride, a focus on core conditioning of the body as well as bike fit is necessary. Physical therapists or athletic trainers well-versed in the aspects and physiology of cycling and core conditioning can be very helpful in this regard.
Nevertheless, cycling is a blast, so I encourage you to keep pedaling away! Just make sure you don’t make the same silly and embarrassing mistake I did one early morning last summer. As I was cycling back home from my friend’s house after our usual pre-dawn run, I stopped into the local 24-hour Wal-Mart to pick up “a few things.” While those “few things” all fit into one bag, it soon discovered it was not a wise idea to hold onto the bag with my hand while spinning home, as half-way into my ride, my right knee came up and under the bag as the bag swung back and forth (due to my increasing velocity!), which in turn made the bag hit the handle bars, locking them up “mid-flight” as I like to say, due to my speed! I then flew up and over the handle bars and into the hard surface of the road below, knocking the wind out of me and ruining the gears on my bike. Needless to say, I had to walk home two miles, limping, pushing a broken bike, and holding a torn bag of “just a few things.” My body was a bit bloody, and my face was red with embarrassment. I still have the nice scar near my right thumb to prove it. Poor thumb. It tried to break the fall, but it was a doozy! I drive to Wal-Mart now.
(Information for this article was obtained from “Kansas City Enhance” magazine, the April/May 2010 issue.)