Why Do You Feel Pain When Cycling? | Cycling Weekly & Six Physio

Do you ever feel knee, back or neck pain after cycling? In this video we look at how your riding position can cause problems, and how to improve your strength and flexibility to prevent problems before they happen. | Subscribe to Cycling Weekly here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CyclingWeekly1?sub_confirmation=1

Thanks to our partners at Six Physio (https://www.sixphysio.com/) for their invaluable advice.

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[Applause] no matter what your involvement in cycling whether you’re a racer A fare weather cyclist or you’re tackling your first demanding sport teth it’s all too common at the end of a ride to hear of people moaning of their aches and pains how it’s limited their performance and how they have no idea what to do about it now some of the time pain and injuries are completely unavoidable but what about those niggling problems which have been there that little bit too long how do we differentiate between what is an actual problem and what is just fatigue on the bike how much of that is preventable with a bit of early action TLC and if we do have a problem how we go about getting back out on the road as quickly and as comfortably as possible so in this video we are with to be a marks from six physio who’s going to talk us through the most common problems for cyclists and how we go about fixing them so welcome to Bea and thank you very much for coming down thank you great to be here uh it’s exciting to be here we see a huge range of athletes coming in but we see a lot of cyclists and we see cyclists from people who are just starting on a bike to people who have spend hours and hours a week on a bike so it’s really good to be able to talk through some common themes that we see coming in so a lot of problems in a lot of similar problems coming in and some weird and wacky ones too that we can do okay well let’s get on the bike and you can show us just where those problems are then now as you can quite clearly see for a change I’m not in cycling kit but this is for good reason I’m fully expected to be made to get on the floor to do exercises later on so I thought I’d dress appropriately now I’m on the bike for a start talk us through the Topline problem areas for cyclists okay so you could get injuries you could get symptoms you could get areas of issue anywhere through your body the most common areas that we see are through the lower back the lumber spine and we can talk about that and what might be adding to that we see problems in neck slot so coming up through the neck it might be actually r up through the neck or it could be down getting that burn into the shoulder blades and of course we see lots of knee problems so we’re going to be talking through knees we will going to mention the feet the cleats the hands we’re going to bring it all in um we going to have a look at it all cool the only thing we can’t do is deal with that so let’s talk about the most common problem areas the back being one of the most important like you say and actually it’s something that I’ve suffered with for a long time throughout my cycling career what’s the biggest reason for this and how can we avoid it okay so we see back pain a lot in cyclists and we tend to see people coming in who have had it for a long time and just accepted a lowlevel niggl and pain which is something we want to stop um and it’s really important to work out where it’s coming from as with everything it can come from various components your bike fit is really important small changes in fit whether that’s your saddle or reach will affect your back and we’ll have a quick chat about those and play around with this now in terms of your training regime what have you done to get to this point have you suddenly gone zero the hero and that might have an effect on your back what you do day to day at home are you an office worker are you a professional cyclist they’re going to have very different things going on that then before you get on the bike are going to affect your back obviously any past issues with your back past injuries any accidents falling off a bike we need to consider that as well so for example let’s do a little example so if you imagine that your seat was really high right um and then start cycling what are you going to do what are you going to see and we’ve all seen it as we’re cycling behind someon usually is that James as pelvis really start rocking side to side and it’s that rocking side to side that can put a lot of stress in your lower back we don’t want that massive amount of movement next thing uh saddle level so is your saddle sticking up at the front or is it tilted down easy to have a check on that with a spirit level and just make sure that it is where it is if it’s tipped right up what is it going to happen if you imagine the nose is lifted you’re going to flex that back backwards it can be really uncomfortable on your undercarriage and it’s going to cause a stress in your back it’s going to change the reach it’s going to change the efficiency going to your pedals so really important so what about if it’s tilted down does that open the hip angle a little bit or people have different ideas about that yes tipping down does open your hip angles but it also changes where your weight sits on the bike so it could if you do it too aggressively push your weight down onto your hands you don’t generate direct power through these those bad boys down there are what generate your power onto the pedals yes this contributes to that but we need to get you in the right position to put all of the efficiency down into the machine another example would be a reach so if you had a really long reach so if you exaggerate your reach obviously you can see immediately the position that James has got into he’s gone into what we call flexion which is where this back goes quite round backs don’t like to be in this position especially for a long time imagine you’re now on a really long ride you’re cranking some gears or trying to keep up with a really fast pack or you’re having to climb and this is going to be a lot of stress going through here all of these things can really affect the back and that’s why getting a good white fit is important how’s that feel tough pretty horrible okay so now reduce your reach back bring it back get into a nice resting position a crude tip that we sort of look at with cyclists is thinking about uh 90° angle between arms and body it gives you just a rough idea of whether you’re in the right position we like nice soft elbows and then in that position you can see immediately James’s back is in a much better position it should feel more comfortable a lot more comfortable you’re going to be able to sustain that for hours is you’re going to be able to use your limbs more efficiently and it becomes a much better base for everything to work off so what about the neck and the knees then there a big problem area for a lot of people have thought two big areas again neck is often a symptom area but is not usually the main problem it’s coming from elsewhere and and that is where you you’re feeling it so for example if I put you into a really rounded position so you’re now trying to look ahead at all the lovely cars make sure you can get around all the potholes um and you’re going to feel it so you can see in in the camera shop there that we’ve got this really compressed neck it’s what we call extension um and it’s going to close down these joints it’s a good pressure on your muscles as well and muscles often go into some sort of tension or spasm to protect this area so that is going to over lots and lots of mileage is going to put pressure on there also with these lovely straight arms that aren’t so lovely as you go over potholes and as you go over little bumps and things like that all that force is going to be transmitted up into those joints so can you change it can you think about opening up through that area and what you can already see is the difference in that shape there and then you can think about doing a lengthening so if I take the back of this little man butt here and lengthen through there what James just done is basically used muscles to lift that chest up a little bit and lengthen through the back of the neck and you can see how much better it is that is going to be monumentally different over 20 200 2,000 miles it already feels hell of a lot different you I’ve got much more flexion in my neck I can move it around fix absolutely last but not least soften your elbows when you’ve got soft elbows you can take lots more Force healthy dissipation of force through there rather than all going up into there of course you can only get in that position with the right fit the right flexibility and the right preparation cool what about the knees then so your knees are obviously one of the joint that takes a lot of the strain in riding your knees can be affected once again by bike fit your cleat your cleat position how fix the floaters and things like that to your saddle position a really low saddle or a saddle that’s really far forwards as you cycle if you just turn your feet is you’re going to get a little bit compression through the front of the knee so clever bike fit is important but also thinking about your quads if you’ve built up massive amount of quads SP recently that can have an effect on your knees your flexibility if you’re flexible super flexible if you’re totally inflexible through your legs through your back it will have an effect in your knees and one of the main joints that get affected in the knees are what we call your Patell FAL joints which is just a snazzy word for kneecap joint um and that’s where we see a lot of buildup attention is one position the same for everybody I mean should we be copying Chris FR or migal inder’s TT position so if you go down into an example of a much more aerodynamic position just imagine what you’re having to ask your body here in terms of hips you can see how different that is the pressure on them now you can see the difference in the back you can see the difference if you now look up at what’s going through the neck difference in the shoulders it has a real impact on your body so you might want to say to me right to being in one year I want to be in this position cuz I want to start really shaving seconds off my time trials fine we can think about what the goal is but we would never put you into that position until we truly understand about your body and whether it can achieve that um where you’re at now you can have the perfect bike fit but unless your body is prepared and ready to go for those bike rides then you’re going to run into problems so thinking about these days we talk about flexibility we talk about strengthening conditioning so flexibility is really key you might have for example some nice juicy tight hamstrings um and that’s going to affect how you can cycle it it can affect your bike fit it can affect your setup and it can also cause problems through your back and your neck and everywhere so looking at flexibility through your legs looking at flexibility through your trunk is really important your upper back people tend to be nice and stiff through this area we sit at the computers we sit at tables eating and then set on bikes for a long time like this so that can have a big effect neck back like we talked about um so we’ll go through some good ideas to how to address that um so flexibility is important and strength in conditioning you wouldn’t go and run a marathon now straight out of nothing you would do some prep work you would do some training and so let’s be smart let’s get training speaking of preparation sounds like we better get on the floor and do some exercise then so I’m going to show you some key things that are really easy to do at home they’re going to affect a lot of what we’ve talked about today in a positive way it’s about prevention and it’s about flexibility and it’s about strength and conditioning so first up we’re going to use what’s called a foam roller and we’re just going to look at your flexibility and positioning of your spine so I’m going to get you to have a lie along this you’re going to put botom one end head right at the other end so this is running down the center of my back isn’t it exactly and you need to make sure that your head is fully on it and that your bottom is fully on it so you can already see that if you’re on a bike you’re going to be in more of this Flex position just lying there opens you out opens out the chest it opens out the spine and it just gives your back a little bit of breathing space away from that Flex position so you’re going to bring your arms up and over your head and then we’re just going to let your arms float out to the side obviously it needs to be comfortable you’re opening up your chest where we tend to sit in that quite forward position so another really nice trick we can do with a frame roller so if you bring your arms back down and you’re going to roll elegantly off to the side beautiful and then we’re going to put it across your back so we’re going to go across that midback what we call your thoracic spine so in this position you’re going to relax your head backwards a little bit you’re supporting the weight of your head and your arms your hips your midback and your head are at the same angle so this is your thoracic spine the bit in the middle here and that’s what we’re aiming to roll so you’re going to go from the top of your thoracic sign which sits in between your shoulder blades down to those lower rib area we don’t need to be doing lots of rolling your lower back or your neck spend around 30 seconds doing this um so you don’t need to be doing it for hours a day but really nice dot before you get on the bike when you get back from the bike after a long day at work it feels great as well really really good and if you find that really aggressive and it’s a bit too uncomfortable just drop your hips down onto the floor and then just relax and just breathe into it there and just relax your head back backwards that’s a more gentle approach and it might be that you work up the road it’s like a pressure point really this one yeah the second piece of really easy to have at home equipment is a spiky ball a hockey ball a tennis ball um and you can put it right in your gluteal which is your butttock muscle um they are hugely active when you’re cycling and you can build quite a lot of tension through them so it can be really nice if you’re feeling anything through those hips pop a ball right where you you find real tension and then just relax into it and you can even slightly shift side to side and just feel that tension being released through there again spending two or three minutes releasing both sides and just trying to take the pressure off that area take the pressure off your back okay last exercise looking at flexibility especially around your spine really nice one again very easy to do at home so if you have a line your side James facing that way okay right onto your side relax Downs there and I want you to bend your knees up to about 90° between your hip good really important the knees are high because that will stop you straining the back both arms out in front of you and then from there you’re going to lift your top arm up and over and you’re going to look at it with your head the idea is that you’re opening up through your trunk so keep going all the way over knees Stay Together key here is slow breathing and you don’t need to do a huge amount of reps so we’re looking at three or four each side right so I love them stretches I think I’m going to be doing them the whole of tonight but as far as strength and conditioning exercis are concerned like what are the most important exercises we can do to help strengthen our bodies for riding the first one we’re going to do is going to be looking at what some people would call Core um and it’s just looking at trunk body stability strength and conditioning okay so let’s have a good at this exercise so you’re going to go into a plank position on the hands your hands are going to be relatively narrow and your feet are going to be a bit wider than hip width apart the key things we’re looking for here is that your hips are in line with your body that they don’t drop down too far and arch your back and they don’t come up too high so nice hips in line as much as possible keeping this thoracic spine open and last neck in line and head in that position so from there what we’re going to ask James to do is we’re going to ask him to bring one hand up towards his chest and back down and then the other arm so thinking about obviously you cycling on one arm sometimes you’re cycling asking different forces to be put through different angles of your body and it’s a really nice one to make this trunk core work as James gets tired you can see a few things are going a little it’s happening very quickly hips are dropping a little bit starting to get this real flexion of thoracic spying a very classic of cyclists and so we want to look at quality so have a rest and so we’re going to start James on three or four really quality reps and then build up to maybe 15 20 reps so nice progression from there back in the same position hands narrow feet just wider than hip width apart nice position of the whole body and you’re going to go into lifting your arm up rotating all the way through again thinking about that lovely alignment back down and across looking for that real ility so that you’re not having to shift hips arm out to the side up to the top back down okay next exercise looking at trunk conditioning body conditioning we’re going to go back into same position to start with into the plank on the hands and it’s mountain climbers so thinking about again alignment trying to get rid of this real flexion there so trying to lengthen through that and trying to flat out neck and neutral and from there we’re going to get you to bring one leg up towards your chest and back out and the other leg back in So as he’s doing this what we’re looking at is can he stabilize this pelvis and also making sure that that back stays in a nice Nal position and the next leg nice quality not quantity we might start James on a few reps of these again building up ideally to a good 20 uh squats are an incredibly good powerful movement pattern that are really useful to practice so have a go so we’re going to get feet just beyond HP width part everybody knows a squat they thinking everybody knows a quality squat so back and neutral so that means not overly arched not overly flexed tucked under and you got to drop down into your squat the weight is sitting through your feet into your heels as well as the front of your feet drive back up from those legs and glutes nice and again what we’re looking at here is obviously leg power where you’re getting generating your leg power from and if we can get this pattern right we’re going to make sure that the right type of patterns happen in the bike we’re preventing back issues so in this position we’re going to get you to come down to that squat again sitting slightly into the heels nice and Tall through the chest lovely and then from there we’re going to get you to tap your right foot out to the side and back in great and again keep going good soften a little bit in your trunk so you have a little bit of lean forwards good keep going so tapping out to the side and back in keep going tapping out to the side and back in barely any weight on your right leg all the weight and all the power is through that left leg good keep going and what we’re looking at is can James keep nice and stable through his pelvis keep going with your right leg out and in keep going out and in out and in good and if we actually got him to do a good 30 or 40 of these you’re going to start to see sweat dribbling down here because he’s having to really stabilize through this left leg so it teaches that body how to stabilize your leg your trunk and all those interfaces between Limbs and Trunks whole left side is burning yeah good anywhere particular my thigh okay so that shows me that keep going no rest for your kid keep going keep going keep going keep going going that shows me that James is quite quad dominant and that’s where he’s feeling it I’d like him to feel it a little bit more than the glutes so I’m going to get him just to come back that heel a bit more and stick your bomb out backwards a bit more there you go so keep going like that really feel that pressure start to go up more into your glutes mean tell me what are we doing why have I got my leg propped up on a chair so this is called a Bulgarian squat you can put your foot on a step a chair whatever as long as it’s raised behind you unstable so what we’re going to do is we’re going to go down into the squat this is looking at flexibility and it’s looking at strength and conditioning so the most important components here are where your front knee goes so come back up we want this shin bone to go vertical and your knee not to be pushing fors of your toes so you got to really drive that back leg down towards the floor that’s better and back up and again good so we’re looking at again power through that what we call posterior chain so the muscles that go all the way back up your leg which is also what’s driving your pedal and we’re looking at trunk position we’re looking at flexibility through that right hip so again it’s an all around exercise and it’s a beautiful one to do right so that is it the exercise are done I am pretty tired now but I learned a lot there some exercise that I’ve never actually done before so huge thanks for that I’m sure our viewers are going to really find that useful going forward but take race day for example I mean like preparation is one thing I know that is very very important it’s not something to underestimate but is there anything we can do on the day to help us once again I mean I’ve seen people walking around with physio tape on their knees and their neck is that something which is you know a gain that we can we can use yeah I mean that the most important thing is to prepare if you are in good shape if you have got on top of any niggles and injuries um and you prepared well then you shouldn’t need tape and things like that but of course we’re humans and we often uh compete and race and even just go out for uh enjoyable rides when we’re not in perfect condition it’s all about making sure that you prepare but if you get a niggle get in early and see it it’s much easier to do one or two physia sessions to get on top of an injury that you found early than to have to treat and get you off the bike and resting so really important um get in to a physio to a massage therapist identify problems at six physio we’ve got cycling gurus so we do a lot of assessment on and off the bike so we’re really trying to understand the person how they work with their equipment and also looking at their body off so we can check their flexibility we can guide them on areas that they need work on so that’s the thing it’s all about investing in yourself isn’t it I mean like we’re quite prepared to invest in a new set of wheels or a new bike frame but you know what’s the point of having a new bike frame if you can’t ride your bike I mean we service our bikes we might as well service our body so that’s the thing it’s an investment and it’s something to prioritize I think certainly definitely now I think it’s a nice way to wrap up that video so if you did enjoy this video make sure you give it a like And subscribe as always and we’ll look forward to seeing you guys out the road and in the clinic soon see you soon [Applause]