Cyclebilitation: Part 1: On the Bike!

Good Wednesday to you Internets!

*Note: I am going to add pictures to this blog post once I get my husband Scott to help me take them.

So today I’m going to write part 1 of a 2 part blog 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). 

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

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 2^nd/3^rdtoe (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

2.) Off the bike