Is knee pain taking the joy out of cycling?
For many of us, it’s the freedom that cycling provides that keeps us coming back. When you’re on the saddle, everything else just falls away until your knee starts hurting.
Does this sound familiar?
Your knee tweaked a bit on a ride, and you didn’t think anything of it. Over a few weeks, you noticed it getting worse, but there’s no way a little pain would keep you off your bike.
Now, you dread your rides because you know how it will feel when you return home.
You’ll be asking yourself whether the feeling of freedom and calm you get cycling is worth the pain you have to deal with on the other side of every ride.
We’re here to tell you that you don’t have to ask yourself that question any longer.
Why?
Because you can get out of pain without giving up the thing you love.
How?
Let’s start with the basics.
Fitment
Is your bike set up for you, your body's specific shape, AND your goals?
For many cyclists, the point of a bike fitting is to optimize performance. Unfortunately, optimized performance doesn’t always align with longevity.
Think of it this way: you hear about people hurting their backs or knees from lifting improperly all the time, right?
Right.
They often get hurt after lifting, say 20-30 times that day after having slept poorly.
How many strokes do you take on a ride?
Way more than 20-30, and if your bike is set up poorly for your body, each stroke could irritate your knee.
What if your bike fits perfectly, and you’re still in pain, then what?
That’s where we look at load vs. capacity.
Load vs. Capacity
What is load vs. capacity?
Load refers to the amount of stress on your body. In this case, we’re looking at the stress from cycling AND your daily life.
What does that mean?
It means the pain you’re dealing with doesn’t just come from the time you spend cycling; it also has to do with the total “stress load of your life.
If you have a high-stress job, that eats up some of your capacity to recover from training and your injury.
If you have lots of family responsibilities, that will also eat up your bandwidth.
So what do you do?
We take a two-pronged approach.
Prong 1 lifestyle changes
It’s unlikely that you can drop family or work responsibilities at will, so we can’t get rid of those, but we can work on your sleep, diet, and how you deal with stress.
When you work with an Rx professional, you’re not just getting a program with sets and reps.
You’re getting an advocate/mentor to help you set up strategies to help you succeed in these areas outside of rehab and training.
Prong 2 increases capacity
Improving your lifestyle factors will go a long way in helping you get out of pain, but we don’t just want you to get out of pain; we want you to stay out of pain.
That’s why we also increase your capacity, or in other words, help you build the specific strength, mobility, and endurance needed to avoid ending up in pain all over again.
In other words, this 2 pronged approach intends to help you become the version of yourself that never would’ve needed help getting out of pain in the first place.
If you’re interested in learning more about book a call below.
