How to Recover Faster From Cycling Injuries
Recover Faster from cycling injuries by following these simple tips! Cycling injuries can seriously impede your athletic performance and recovery can often take longer than expected. However, there are ways to speed up the process and get back on your bike faster.
In this article, we are going to talk briefly about this type of injury and summarize the different methods available to recover faster and resume your sporting activities as soon as possible.
The most common injuries in cyclists
We can broadly break them down into two different types (1, 2):
• Overuse injuries
These injuries are common if your bike is not appropriate for you and if you are adopting a bad posture while cycling. Even if your cycling technique is good, this sport has repetitive movements and may lead to recurrent pains and aches or more serious conditions such as patella tendonitis.
• Traumatic injuries
These are caused by an accident or crash and may result in cuts, ligament tears, bone fractures, and much more.
Recover faster with professional rehab
In most cases, rehabilitation is the first choice to recover from cycling injuries. Even major traumatic injuries that require surgery go through rehab at some point.
Stretching is an essential technique to recover. Through stretching and flexibility exercises, rehab professionals can gradually restore the normal range of motion when it is affected. They can also reduce muscle aches and pains by releasing your trigger points, applying the principles of massage and manual manipulation, or using techniques such as electrotherapy or hydrotherapy (3).
A physiotherapist is also trained to detect the source of the pain and suggest changes to your bike, riding position or cycling technique. The main goal is to reduce the chance of re-injury, alleviate your stiffness and pain symptoms, and detect muscular imbalances to fix them and prevent future injuries.
Other methods to speed up recovery
Physiotherapy is an excellent method for a prompt recovery, but there are many others you can include in your rehab strategy. We’re going to focus on the most common methods: acupuncture, chiropractic and osteopathy.
• Acupuncture
Placing needles in various key points in the body speeds up relaxation and has been found to be beneficial if you have low back pain, neck pain, and other symptoms.
• Chiropractic
Similar to traditional physiotherapy, chiropractic is a manual therapy technique that improves aching muscles (especially in your back) by manipulating the bones of the spine and realigning them to relieve pressure and promote a better posture.
• Osteopathy
Has a similar principle to chiropractic but focuses on various parts of the body at the same time, and not only the spine. Osteopaths use manual therapies and massage and may also apply mobilization techniques. It is more appropriate if the pain is located in your limbs and after knee surgery.
Another important part of your rehab strategy is what you do to get better. For instance, if you notice swelling in your knee, you can follow the RICE strategy, which stands for Resting your muscles, applying Ice, Compression to the swollen area and Elevating your limb. Moreover, if you want to recover faster from cycling injuries, be sure to follow instructions and definitely don’t miss any follow-up rehab sessions.