Cycling and Planning for Overuse Injuries

 Maybe you are young now and feel invincible.  Are you someone now in their 50's or 60's and still feel great and want to stay that way?  What are some of the keys to a long life with cycling part of your regular recreation?  

The picture to the left is of Paul Danhaus about half way into the RAAM (Race Across America) and the contraption he came up with to deal with neck problems.  Look closely at this picture and his neck position.  The muscles and connective tissues are stretched in the front and compressed in the back.  It doesn't take a medical doctor or physical therapist to imagine what happens to the human body when held in this position for hours per week over many years.  

The muscles in the front of the neck tend to weaken.  The vertebrae in the neck get compressed.  The muscles in the back of the neck shorten.  The trapezoids start to over-compensate for the weakening in other muscles.  

In an effort to relax muscles we feel are being overused we allow poor positioning to start occurring.  Shoulders can start to roll forward.  We put more weight on our hands and stop using the abs as much.  Maybe you start locking out your elbows because your arms are getting tired which transfers more force to the shoulders.  On and on - hopefully you are getting the picture about the snowball effect going on in the body.  

And, due to the remarkable ability of our bodies to adapt to activities you might deal with these stresses for years seemingly with just a few sore muscles here and there.  So what, you might say.  Isn't that what exercise is for?  What doesn't you kill you makes you stronger!  Push through the pain!!  

I am here to tell you that pushing through the pain is not always a good thing.  Just one example is the story of Navy Seal David Goggins who mastered the art of pushing through pain until he reached the point of almost a complete physical breakdown.  This post deals with the more subtle breakdowns that happen and what we can do about it proactively and how to recover if you went too far.  

For me, now in my mid-60's and a life-long cyclist with a few breaks during my teens and 20's, the slow breakdown manifested in neck problems most recently.  I will get into the specifics of my neck problems and the array of steps taken to stop further damage and restore functionality.  

First, it is important to cover common similarities of the various cycling related physical problems I have had and the common threads you will tread in the road to recovery.  After that I will get into proactive ways the average athlete can beat back Father Time and keep an active and mostly pain-free life of recreation that can be applied to any sport.  

The are common aspects of all my sports related issues with some trauma related and some where the trauma was the straw the broke the proverbial camel's back.  1. Loss of flexibility from holding set positions or the natural age-related decline.  2. Lack of or decline of core strength 3. Believing too strongly in the self-assessments of my physical condition.  4.........  To read the rest of this, go over to Medium...............  https://shastatour.medium.com/wholistic-health-a-new-approach-c34d2a91ebb6