Chronic high hamstring injury - different bike?
01-31-19, 09:36 AM
#1
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Chronic high hamstring injury - different bike?
I have posted about my high hamstring injury before. Well, its still going on after a couple of months of therapy, visits to a physiatrist at HSS in NYC, and an MRI to corroborate nature of injury. I'll keep up the prescribes exercise but am concerned about it limiting my riding on my Specialized Roubaix. I am a recreational rider who rides about 100 miles per week in the summer and about three times a week on trainer with Zwift in winter. Does anyone have experience about switching to a different style of bike to limit hamstring discomfort? I am wondering if switching to a "hybrid" type bike, and a more upright riding position, would be helpful.
01-31-19, 08:13 PM
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My left hammy was bothering me after I'd ride. My first lowered the saddle. It went away for me.
Before I sold my bike and shipped for another one, especially given that it's winter, I'd probably take a few weeks off the bike and see if that clears it up. 'tis the season for cross training.
Good luck!
Before I sold my bike and shipped for another one, especially given that it's winter, I'd probably take a few weeks off the bike and see if that clears it up. 'tis the season for cross training.
Good luck!
01-31-19, 11:48 PM
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What specifically is the injury? What therapy are you receiving? What exercises? What stretches? Do they help? Hammy injuries are tough. I've worked through a couple myself.
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02-03-19, 02:17 PM
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[QUOTE=Carbonfiberboy;20773976]What specifically is the injury? What therapy are you receiving? What exercises? What stretches? Do they help? Hammy injuries are tough. I've worked through a couple myself.[/QUOTE
This is an issue that started in August and continued to worsen. Diagnosis, based in part on MRI, is high hamstring tendonopathy with some bursitis. Treatment exercises include bilateral and single leg slides, single leg deadlifts, isometric hamstring curls, physic ball eccentric reverse curls, foam rolling and ice.
i have taken two cycling breaks to see if it helps but each time discomfort returns when start riding with power. It does not bother when working out, even doing heavy squats or heavy deadlifts. I have reduced both of those exercises to 7 reps at high weight and quit cross-fit type workouts that require high reps of squat type activity such as thrusters, etc.
i have seen some modest relief. Soreness after a couple of hours as opposed to “have to get off bike” pain.
I am wondering if breaking rides with road bike and a hybrid, because of different positions, might be helpful.
This is an issue that started in August and continued to worsen. Diagnosis, based in part on MRI, is high hamstring tendonopathy with some bursitis. Treatment exercises include bilateral and single leg slides, single leg deadlifts, isometric hamstring curls, physic ball eccentric reverse curls, foam rolling and ice.
i have taken two cycling breaks to see if it helps but each time discomfort returns when start riding with power. It does not bother when working out, even doing heavy squats or heavy deadlifts. I have reduced both of those exercises to 7 reps at high weight and quit cross-fit type workouts that require high reps of squat type activity such as thrusters, etc.
i have seen some modest relief. Soreness after a couple of hours as opposed to “have to get off bike” pain.
I am wondering if breaking rides with road bike and a hybrid, because of different positions, might be helpful.
02-03-19, 02:39 PM
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[QUOTE=Hunterdog;20777398]
I don't know. Definite maybe. Improvement from what you're doing is good! So I think more of the same. Work on the concentric part of the exercises, very slow, very heavy. That's what fixes tendinopathy. Rest, rolling, and ice have all been shown to be ineffective. You might try the sled, really load it up, full range of motion but don't let your lower back come off the board. I think it has to be something that flexes the hip joint, i.e. hamstring curls probably don't do anything for it.
Bursitis yields to stretching IME. Gotta figure out what stretches, though. This is what I do every morning: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...l#post15372967
and lately these which have absolutely fixed my years-long back pain: https://www.spineone.com/blog/mckenz...hod-back-pain/
What you need may be different. Talk to a PT.
What specifically is the injury? What therapy are you receiving? What exercises? What stretches? Do they help? Hammy injuries are tough. I've worked through a couple myself.[/QUOTE
This is an issue that started in August and continued to worsen. Diagnosis, based in part on MRI, is high hamstring tendonopathy with some bursitis. Treatment exercises include bilateral and single leg slides, single leg deadlifts, isometric hamstring curls, physic ball eccentric reverse curls, foam rolling and ice.
i have taken two cycling breaks to see if it helps but each time discomfort returns when start riding with power. It does not bother when working out, even doing heavy squats or heavy deadlifts. I have reduced both of those exercises to 7 reps at high weight and quit cross-fit type workouts that require high reps of squat type activity such as thrusters, etc.
i have seen some modest relief. Soreness after a couple of hours as opposed to “have to get off bike” pain.
I am wondering if breaking rides with road bike and a hybrid, because of different positions, might be helpful.
This is an issue that started in August and continued to worsen. Diagnosis, based in part on MRI, is high hamstring tendonopathy with some bursitis. Treatment exercises include bilateral and single leg slides, single leg deadlifts, isometric hamstring curls, physic ball eccentric reverse curls, foam rolling and ice.
i have taken two cycling breaks to see if it helps but each time discomfort returns when start riding with power. It does not bother when working out, even doing heavy squats or heavy deadlifts. I have reduced both of those exercises to 7 reps at high weight and quit cross-fit type workouts that require high reps of squat type activity such as thrusters, etc.
i have seen some modest relief. Soreness after a couple of hours as opposed to “have to get off bike” pain.
I am wondering if breaking rides with road bike and a hybrid, because of different positions, might be helpful.
Bursitis yields to stretching IME. Gotta figure out what stretches, though. This is what I do every morning: https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...l#post15372967
and lately these which have absolutely fixed my years-long back pain: https://www.spineone.com/blog/mckenz...hod-back-pain/
What you need may be different. Talk to a PT.
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02-03-19, 02:50 PM
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Seat height - probably too high- was my first thought also. Then what I would expect to hear from the PTs I've visited over the years - stretch, stretch some more (after seeing someone who knows wat stetches to be doing), then ease back into the bike gradually. Monitor your effort, never going near max power for a good long time. (Say a 60% "governor") Watch your body carefully, Back down immeditately if problems show at all.
This said from a guy who was diagnosed with CP (chrondomalcia patellae) 40 years ago and told then if I didn't play by the rules, it was knee replacement time but I could race if I behaved. I did and I did. (It set my season back 2 months.) I've ridden 150,000 miles since, some of it hard and all on those OEM knees, but I still play by those rule.
Go to an expert. My advice for my knees was from a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon. For my partially torn Achilles, a very good PT.
Ultimately the biggest asset to my knees and Achilles is listening to what they (my body parts) have to say, but it took the pro advice to learn their language. When they tell me to back off, I do (or at least enough to come up with a compromise they will not like but that they will recover from). This means that after time off or big changes in routine, I have to build up slowly, at the pace my knees can handle which can be far slower than what my muscles, rest of my body and my mind want. And I now grind my coffee by hand on a really slow burr grinder and do hamstring and Achilles stretches the whole time, every morning. There's the block recommended by my PT on the floor by the coffee station for my foot.
Ben
This said from a guy who was diagnosed with CP (chrondomalcia patellae) 40 years ago and told then if I didn't play by the rules, it was knee replacement time but I could race if I behaved. I did and I did. (It set my season back 2 months.) I've ridden 150,000 miles since, some of it hard and all on those OEM knees, but I still play by those rule.
Go to an expert. My advice for my knees was from a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon. For my partially torn Achilles, a very good PT.
Ultimately the biggest asset to my knees and Achilles is listening to what they (my body parts) have to say, but it took the pro advice to learn their language. When they tell me to back off, I do (or at least enough to come up with a compromise they will not like but that they will recover from). This means that after time off or big changes in routine, I have to build up slowly, at the pace my knees can handle which can be far slower than what my muscles, rest of my body and my mind want. And I now grind my coffee by hand on a really slow burr grinder and do hamstring and Achilles stretches the whole time, every morning. There's the block recommended by my PT on the floor by the coffee station for my foot.
Ben
