Good Wednesday to you Internets!
So today I’m going to write a part post
about how to keep your joints healthy if you do a lot of cycling. I’ve been a
spin instructor for a little over 7 years now and along the way I have learned
that we can do things both on (part 1) and off (part 2) the bike to ensure our
joints and muscles stay healthy (slowly becoming a physiotherapist is also
helping of course!).
Now, one premise I do have regarding this post is that doing
cardio will not destroy your
joints if you are smart about your training and are doing the exercises
correctly! I just don’t want to deter anyone from being active!
These suggestions are for those that do a lot of indoor
cycling or are thinking of starting to do indoor cycling as a means of
exercise.
I highly recommend spin classes, as they are extremely
awesome! You just go to the class, sit on the bike, and listen to someone yell (happily and encouragingly) at you for an hour – simple right! However, I have also gone to a lot of spin
instructors’ classes that don’t check their clients’ form or even show/talk
about how they should set up their bikes!!! Eeech!
If anyone that reads this has other suggestions and/or
outdoor/racing experience I would love to hear your take on this blog post
(That’s how we (I) all get better).
(1) Setting up your
bike: I already have written a blog post on how to set up your spin bike
before class, so you can get that information here.
(2) During Cycling: while
cycling there are 7 or 8 things that you should be constantly aware of to
ensure proper form. Now, if the instructor is not cuing you every so often or
you are cycling alone you should be keep these things in the back of your mind.
1. No
knees over toes! While
standing (and sometimes sitting) some people will lean on the handlebars and
allow their knees to go past their toes. Just like in squatting you need to
ensure your knees stay behind the toes (ideally inline with your ankles) so
unequal forces do not travel through the knee.
2. Alignment: A simple misalignment of
the knee and foot relative to each other can also compromise the biomechanics
of your joints. Therefore, follow these principles when biking:
(a) Your toes should be pointed directly forward with NO rotation
(b) Your kneecap should be aligned with your second and
third toes (some people will either turn their kneecaps in/out or let their
knees collapse in/out).
(c) If you do not have clips you should push down on the
center of the pedal with the ball (front 1/4) of your foot not the center.
(d) Make sure both of your shoulders are level and your
hipbones are level.
3. Active your
Muscles! This is something a lot of people will overlook, especially if
they have no/little biking experience. First, it is very easy to forget about
your hamstrings when you pull the pedal backwards (i.e., after 6 o-clock).
The cue I use for this is “imagine there is mud on the bottom
of your shoes and you want to scrape it off”. As you increase your resistance
during climbing the amount you will pull back when cycling should increase!
*This is also a very good indication that you’re not using
enough resistance!
4. Keep your Core
Engaged Properly: When
cycling you should always be protecting your spine to ensure proper alignment
(this will be discusses in further detail in point 4).
A common problem that I see is that we tend to or are told
to pull our stomachs/belly buttons inwards rather than “engaging” our deep
supporting trunk musculature. However, there are problems with this logic. For
example:
(a) Simply pulling your belly button towards your spine will
primarily activate your upper abdominals (which are –usually- pretty strong)
but not your deep/supporting trunk musculature, which are either directly
attached to your spine or attached to your spine via a crazy cool tissue
network called the thoracolumbar facia (if you want to get your nerd on and
learn more about that click here or here).
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| Engage that corset to support your spine! |
(b) Pulling in your belly button is counterintuitive to
correct diaphragmatic breathing (there isn’t enough room in this blog post to
go through this so you’ll have to trust me on this one).
(c) Due to the primary action of the superficial abdominals
(those are the ones everyone wants to get strong so they can have a 6 pack),
simply pulling your belly button in can facilitate lumbar flexion. Although
having a shredded 6 pack is awesome and all, when cycling your trunk will
naturally want to go into flexion/the fetal position (see point 4). Why we want
to avoid doing this is because of your intervertebral discs.
Without going into an extensive anatomy lecture, when you
bend forward you put pressure on the shock absorbers (discs) in your spine,
which can cause wear and tear. Therefore, we want to maintain proper spinal
alignment as much as possible by engaging the deep spinal stabilizers.
Ok that’s a lot of rambling… so now you know why you need to
engage your deep musculature but how the fudge are you suppose to do it?! Well
without me physically being there to show you this (you could always invite me
over for tea and we’ll have a core party), I will try my best to explain this
via text.
Cue 1: think of your
abdominals as a corset. Try and contract the corset around your entire trunk.
This should feel more like “stabilizing” than pulling your core in.
Cue 2: If that
didn’t work, try imagining that there is an elevator at the bottom of your
pelvis and you want the elevator to go to the second floor (with the top floor
being your belly button). So engaging your muscles to try and bring the
elevator up.
Cue 3: Imagine
there is a string attached to your tail-bone (or you have a tail) and it is
going through your legs. Imagine pulling on the string gently to tilt your bum under slightly to activate your deep
muscles.
Now the important thing to remember is you don’t want an all
out 100% crazy contraction. You’re just trying to maintain proper alignment so
the movement is very slight.
In other words: With 100% being a full contraction (think
about bicep curling something at your max weight), you want roughly 25% of that
force. I know it seems counterintuitive to exercise, but these are endurance
muscles that just need a little bit of love, not all of the love.
5. Spinal
alignment: I’ve given spinal alignment it’s own section because it can
be a relatively complicated subject depending on your natural posture.
As we get tired the most often thing I see and experience
myself is what I call the “spinning fetal position”. That’s when we start to
close in, hunch our backs, round our shoulders. As much as we would like the
bike to go away, going into the fetal position will not help, it’s still going
to be there and the instructor will continue to make you climb that hill…
I’m being silly, but this is very important and a lot of the
times we don’t even realize we are doing it.
So what is proper spinal alignment? Well I’ll try my best to
explain it without physically being there to show you myself (as mentioned
above I’ll get some pictures up once I wrangle my husband into helping me take
pictures).
Cue 1: Keep your
breastbone/sternum lifted (I find this one is more effective than simply “keep
your shoulders back, because people tend to overdo it with the
scapular/shoulder blade retraction/closing).
Cue 2: You should
be able to see the instructor or in front of you at all times. If you can’t
your either looking at the floor (i.e., going into the fetal position) or you
have left the class.
Cue 3: Do not
hyperextend your lower back. This is a tricky one because I find that sometimes
when people (especially bendy people) correct their cycling form they will
overdo it and hyper extend their lower back. There should be a slight curve in
your lower spine, but nothing super crazy.. see the picture below
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| No one has time for crazy spine! |
Cue 4: Do not
round your shoulders/upper back. This goes along with 1 and 2. However, some
people will be able to see the instructor and think their breastbone is lifted
but their upper back is still hyperflexed. I find an easy way to correct this
is to think there is a string attached to the top of your head pulling you
upwards and/or think about both lifting your breastbone and pushing your
breastbone towards the handlebars.
So I think I’ll leave it there… if you’re all like “holy
crow Robyn, there’s no way I’m gonna remember this ENTIRE blog post the next
time I jump on a spin bike!” Here’s a summary for you to print out (just copy
and paste it)…
Spinning Form:
1.
Knees stay behind toes (over ankles)
2.
Toes and kneecap should stay pointed forward at
all times
3.
Knee cap inline with 2nd/3rd
toe (don’t collapse knees in or out)
4.
Push threw the pedal with the ball/first ¼ of
your foot
5.
Make sure your hip bones and shoulders are even
6.
Activate your legs correctly (remember to scrape
the mud off your shoe)
7.
Activate your core correctly (think
corset/elevator not belly button in)
8.
Don’t go into the fetal position (think breast
bone up, head up).
So I hope this was informative for some of you! Also, if you
know someone who may benefit from this blog post please share it, my goal is to
de-mistify the whole working out thing…
Also if you want to see specific content let me know or I
will not know what you want internets!
Stay tuned for some accompanying pictures and part 2 of this
post which will deal with strengthen and stretching to help those who bike.
Stay Strong
~Byn
Stay Strong
~Byn
2.) Off the bike
