Seattle Forrest

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...me/2018/01/16/

If you're short on time, this recommends

• Monitoring changes to your resting heart rate over time,
• Keeping track of how much fatigue you feel
• Testing your grip strength regularly

mcours2006

Link not working.

So what if you monitor these signs? How do you mitigate or lower your risk?

CliffordK

Here's the link.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...36a_story.html

CliffordK

Hmmm....

I'm not quite to 60 yet. But, I have to think that I can use what my body feels like to determine whether I'm ready to go out for a ride or engage in additional exercise.

The "morning after" rides after a hard effort can be tough, and the body says so. Sometimes it can be several days before I feel fully recovered from a 150+ mile ride. But, I'm not sure it is a bad thing to continue to ride while one is still recovering from an intense effort.

I tend to do a lot of round trip errands, and certainly feel cumulative fatigue throughout the day, even with stopping for an hour or two in the middle. But, I am generally mostly recovered by the next day, except, as mentioned for when I'm doing 150+ mile rides.

Actually, I tend to do two long rides in a week. The first couple of days after the first ride can be tough, but recovery after the second ride seems to be quicker.

Anyway, I would think that the resting heart rate is an indicator of overall fitness, rather than an indicator of when to do more exercise. In particular, watching how quick one recovers from a repeatable hard effort.

Use other indicators such as fatigue and sore muscles to determine when one is fully recovered.

Carbonfiberboy 

I've been monitoring my morning resting and morning standing HRs for over 20 years. Totally a good idea. If you aren't doing that, start now. It's a huge benefit. You think you know what's going on, but you really don't. Here's a couple good primers on MRHR and HRV (I don't use ithlete):
https://philmaffetone.com/resting-heart-rate/
https://philmaffetone.com/hrv/

and a decent primer on morning standing HR:
https://www.peakendurancesport.com/e...ng-prevention/

However, once I passed 70, even the MRHRs weren't good enough. My heart has slowed down to the point where I'd see a 44 HR even after a couple hard days. No info in that. In response, I've started also tracking HRV which works a little better.

"How much fatigue you feel" isn't much use at all. Instead, go out and hit a hill hard while wearing a HRM. If your HR doesn't come up, either your blood sugar is really low or you're too tired, so try eating high GI carbs. If that doesn't work, go home and rest. If you never get to this point, you could be training harder.

I've often had really great rides when my body felt like crap but my other signs were good. Some of my best rides started with sore legs when I got out of bed. It pays to pay attention to your numbers.

For planning, I use premium TrainingPeaks and plan my workouts by looking at my future numbers in the Performance Manager Chart (PMC). That's been a good way to plan successful builds and tapers:
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/w...agement-chart/

I hadn't heard about the grip test, but it makes sense. Serious fatigue is neuromuscular, so it makes sense one would feel it everywhere.

How is it injury prevention? One gets injured when one is overworked. Something gives out, tendinitis, a muscle tears, something.

Seattle Forrest

Thanks @CliftonK for providing a link that works. Not sure what I did wrong.

To mitigate and lower your risk, wait for full recovery before exercising.

This message is very simplistic, and personally I don't find 2 of the 3 indicators they suggest to be of great value here. Haven't been able to try the 3rd in this context. I'm hoping this spawns a discussion that winds up being more useful than the article referenced above, to be honest.

CliffordK

It may depend on many factors including the person and age, as well as the type of exercise.

So, for example, many runners that run 7 days a week end up with injuries.

That may not be true for cyclists, where exercise following fatigue may actually be a good thing.

I'm trying to think of actual cycling injuries (other than accidents). There is an active discussion about saddle sores... Never had them myself. Also, perhaps hand and wrist injuries.

Saddle sores should be able to be controlled with a number of factors including a good saddle, hygiene, and rest.

Hand, and wrist? Perhaps fit, good bars, and habits of changing hand and body positions.

Knees? I'm not sure on this one. I think the knees benefit from some strain, but perhaps like everything, strain in moderation.

Again, it seems best to pay attention to one's body, rather than a computer.

wolfchild

That's excatly what exercise is supposed to do, prevent injuries by strengthening our bodies and help us stay strong, mobile and healthy as we age ??...This has become my No.1 priority right now, is to make training and working out sustainable long term while avoiding injuries.

wolfchild

Putting accidents and crashes aside, I think cycling is probably one of the safest activities out there. I just don't see how anybody can get injured from riding a bicycle.

Carbonfiberboy 

IIRC I've counseled 2 people on problems just today. Only a small proportion of cycling injuries are from falls. It's mostly overuse, bad fit, or poor fitness resulting in overstrained whatever. RSI is also an injury.

Seattle Forrest

Compared to running which is a high impact sport, and hard on many peoples' joints. It's especially bad for overweight people, which is ironic because it burns a lot of calories. I've heard of injuries from poor fitting bikes, but that's so much more rare.

On the other hand, there's plenty of opportunity to hurt yourself in everyday life. I know somebody who ruptured a disc in a coughing fit, wound up with sciatica.

Seattle Forrest

Truer words have never been spoken.