Low Impact Doesn’t Mean No Injury – Cyclists Get Hurt Too

Cycling is a great way to stay active, build up your endurance, and keep your sanity. Cycling allows you to exercise without excessive impact on your joints. However, cycling is a repetitive motion that can still place stress on your body, despite the low impact. When joints don’t move well, our bike doesn’t fit us just right, or we are using too much of the wrong muscles on a ride, it can allow discomfort to creep in and eventually turn into injury that limits your ability to ride.

Common Injuries for Cyclists

Restricted joint mobility, muscular imbalance, core weakness, or poor bike fit can lead to a number of injuries. Some of the most common are knee pain, lower back pain, neck and shoulder pain, or issues with numbness and tingling. While some of these injuries can be prevented or improved with changes in equipment, many of them benefit from working with a rehab professional.

These issues usually develop gradually, and often worsen if ignored or simply rested. If you’re starting to get discomfort with biking, the “wait and see” strategy could make things worse in the long run.

How Chiropractic and Physical Therapy Help Cyclists

Chiropractors and physical therapists work together to address both how your body moves and how strong and stable it is. Instead of just chasing pain, they focus on fixing the underlying issues that lead to discomfort in the first place.

Together, they help by:

• Improving joint and spinal mobility so your body moves more freely
• Decreasing pain and stiffness throughout the body
• Identifying and correcting muscle imbalances or coordination issues
• Building strength in key cycling muscles like the core, hips, and legs
• Improving posture and movement patterns on and off the bike
• Identifying and relieving nerve-related symptoms like numbness or tingling
• Helping develop plans for continued strength, progression, and prevention of future injuries

This combined approach helps you ride more comfortably, recover faster, and reduce wear and tear on your body.

Basics of Bike Fitting

While you will get the best result by consulting a professional to ensure that your bike is fitted properly to you, here are a few quick tips to see if you are set up pretty well. 

Frame: When you stand over your bike with your feet on the ground, the top bar of your frame should be an inch or two below your body. For a mountain bike, you want another inch or so between you and your frame compared to a road or more casual riding bike.

Seat height: If you sit in your seat and place your heel on the pedal with the pedal at its lowest point, your leg should be straight but without you having to reach for the pedal. That way, when you ride normally with the ball of your foot on the pedal, you should have just a slight bend in your knee at the lowest pedal point.

Seat position (front/back/tilt): If you have your pedals level with each other (at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock aka in a horizontal line with each other) the front of your knee cap should be directly over top of the front pedal. Then aim to tilt your seat forward or backward slightly to prevent sliding on your seat or causing numbness in your saddle area.

Handle bar position: Your handle bars should be roughly level with your seat. They may move slightly up or down based on your style of riding. Your handle bars should be far enough in front of your seat that you’re able to reach them without hunching your shoulders, or fully straightening your elbows. In general, you should be able to briefly lift your hands from the handlebars without falling forward.

Hot tip: always take a 10-20 minute test ride, and be prepared to make tiny adjustments to find the best settings for your body.

Ride More, Hurt Less

Pain isn’t something cyclists just have to accept. With the right care and a proactive approach, you can stay healthy, ride stronger, and enjoy your time on the bike without being held back by nagging aches and pains.

If you’ve been struggling with an injury that’s getting in the way of your cycling, our team would love to help you out. Schedule an appointment by visiting our booking link at the top of this page.