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Cycling imbalances and corrective exercises?

Old 11-25-13, 07:11 PM
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Cycling imbalances and corrective exercises?

Hey everyone, I haven't been on a bike for a long while but after 2 years of cycling without a week off the burnout effect has seem to have taken its toll.. I am now completely riddled with a slu of imbalances which seem to line up with the cycling I've done in the past. I'm been going to the gym and am now 3 weeks into it, already I have seen how messed up my body is.

This blog post seems to sum up the imbalances really well : https://www.socaltrailriders.org/foru...scle-Imbalance

A couple things have stood out to me :

(1) when I bend my hip in such ways as bringing my leg up to put my socks on, bending over at the hip to reach down and dry my legs after a shower (happens everyday!) and when laying down with one leg up as if doing a sit up and moving it side to side, it makes my hip click. It's a weird sound, *not a pop like cracking knuckles, and no grinding*, best way I can explain it is like a hollow sounding crack.

(2) my clavicle clicks out and back in when raising my arm straight above 90 degrees sometimes straight up in line with my body (while standing up). I've done some research and have found out that it's most likely anterior sternoclavicular subluxation. (I broke my collarbone when I was ~5-7 years old but havnt had a single problem until now, I'm 17)
I believe this has something to do with my shoulders though. I cannot do bench press (flat BB or DB), dips, push-ups, flyes, basically anything to do with chest/shoulders heavy or lightweight without pain stopping me from doing so. I believe it's a rotator cuff problem but nothing I've tried seems to help.

Does anyone know how to fix these problems? I will probably see a doctor sometime soon but am wondering if there's something I'm missing here. Sorry for long post, I've always struggled to explain things efficiently, but all help is appreciated, thanks!
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Old 11-25-13, 10:21 PM
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Naw, you need a good PT person. Hard to find, but gold. IME you're not really seeing burnout. You are seeing the result of just doing one thing. I've kept going by mixing it up: bike, run, hike, weights, ski, core, etc. I mostly bike, but I also do an average of maybe 4 hours/week of something else. That's an average. Winter I do more, summer less. I'm constantly repairing something; I'm very proactive about it.
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Old 11-26-13, 07:29 AM
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
Naw, you need a good PT person. Hard to find, but gold. IME you're not really seeing burnout. You are seeing the result of just doing one thing. I've kept going by mixing it up: bike, run, hike, weights, ski, core, etc. I mostly bike, but I also do an average of maybe 4 hours/week of something else. That's an average. Winter I do more, summer less. I'm constantly repairing something; I'm very proactive about it.
You think that's the case? Good point and well put, but I havn't biked since mid August. And for example when I'm in the gym: One week I was doing flat barbell bench press and did 115lbs for 4 sets of 6 reps, I felt good afterwards. Then the week after I struggled to get 6 reps of 95lbs in, and then couldn't even get 3 for 115lbs. It happens when I lower weight, I can't push it back up. Like dipping and pushing up, I go down fine, but then when I go to push up it's like my shoulder is disabled. I always try to follow all of the corrective form advice I've been told. I'm thinking perhaps I f'ed something up in my shoulder. Maybe all of the cycling, and cycling only like you said, has caused a rotator cuff problem from all the leaning forward or something like that? I'm not very good at knowing stuff when it comes to injuries :/
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Old 11-26-13, 08:07 AM
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
Naw, you need a good PT person. Hard to find, but gold. ... .
+1

PT's are trained and licensed to follow the doctor's orders, fix the problem and discharge. So, rather than work to make things better, many just follow a script. But a few use their knowledge and skills to make things better... But, yes, they are hard to find.

That is, like in any of the medical professions. It's easy to find a professional. It's hard to find one who will take care of YOU!
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Old 11-26-13, 07:40 PM
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Thanks for the input guys, I don't go to a commercial gym with trainers in it, I go to the one at my high school but I'll ask some trustworthy friends/teachers to aid my form, I think I have good form as it is but I guess something must be wrong that I don't know of myself. Plus my mind-muscle connection right now is not very good at all, mostly in the back, I've got to work on that. Thanks!
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Old 11-26-13, 08:50 PM
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Originally Posted by sstang13
Thanks for the input guys, I don't go to a commercial gym with trainers in it, I go to the one at my high school but I'll ask some trustworthy friends/teachers to aid my form, I think I have good form as it is but I guess something must be wrong that I don't know of myself. Plus my mind-muscle connection right now is not very good at all, mostly in the back, I've got to work on that. Thanks!
What you do is go to the doctor and have them prescribe PT. You must have insurance? Once you get some PT and recommendations for how to continue, you can do it on your own at your gym.
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Old 11-26-13, 10:04 PM
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
What you do is go to the doctor and have them prescribe PT. You must have insurance? Once you get some PT and recommendations for how to continue, you can do it on your own at your gym.
Okay, thanks for the advice.
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Old 11-27-13, 07:34 PM
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Read an old book, "The 7 Minute Rotator Cuff Solution" by Joseph Horrigan. I think you may even find it online free, it might be out of print. It will give you some very good exercises specific to rotator cuff, and some traditional lifts to modify or avoid.

Also look into a foam roller and how it is used for IT Band.
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Old 11-27-13, 10:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Voodoo76
Read an old book, "The 7 Minute Rotator Cuff Solution" by Joseph Horrigan. I think you may even find it online free, it might be out of print. It will give you some very good exercises specific to rotator cuff, and some traditional lifts to modify or avoid.

Also look into a foam roller and how it is used for IT Band.
Thanks, I'll look into that book, and I do have a foam roller, and does rolling out the IT band help with the upper body? I foam rolled my legs this morning (including IT band (: ). Also I got assistance with my bench press today and I may have found a solution to my shoulder pain when doing so.
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Old 11-28-13, 02:47 PM
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Here's what I am doing right now. I go to the gym, but I am doing almost nothing
in the way of pushing. I am doing deadlifts, single leg RDLs, and Hyperextensions for the lower half,
and a variety of pulling exercises for the upper half.

When you stand with your hands at your side, if your palms face each other, that's a good sign.
Mine don't, and I am guessing yours don't, either. They don't because the strength imbalance
pulls the shoulders out of line.One thing about rows, you want to do them so that your arms go
all the way back, to activate the shoulder muscles as much as possible.

Some cycling problems come from the same thing, a strength imbalance. One way to deal with
that is to strengthen the weak muscles to balance things out.
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Old 11-28-13, 07:55 PM
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Doing only one thing for a long period of time is not good for the body. The best prevention is doing some very basic compound exercises regularly such as pullups, deadlifts, squats, leg lifts and yoga. In addition to physical therapists, a good chiropractor or personal trainer may be of help. Physical therapists are better at executing prescribed treatment plans, but for any of these it's really a matter of finding a good one.
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Old 11-28-13, 08:09 PM
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The reason too much strength "Pushing" creates problems is that the muscles most programs tend to develop are also Internal rotators. This leads to the real shoulder health issue, poor balance between internal and external rotation. The Horrigan book gives some very good practical explanations, and some routines for strengthening external rotation.
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Old 11-28-13, 09:19 PM
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Originally Posted by sstang13
I believe this has something to do with my shoulders though. I cannot do bench press (flat BB or DB), dips, push-ups, flyes, basically anything to do with chest/shoulders heavy or lightweight without pain stopping me from doing so.

Does anyone know how to fix these problems? I will probably see a doctor sometime soon but am wondering if there's something I'm missing here. Sorry for long post, I've always struggled to explain things efficiently, but all help is appreciated, thanks!
Instead of doing bench press, why don't you try doing an overhead barbell press( AKA military press). An overhead press is a lot more effective at building an all around strength then a bench press. A military press done with a barbell works your entire body from top to bottom, a bench press only isolates few muscles and puts an unnecessary stress on rotator cuff.
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Old 11-29-13, 07:37 PM
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Originally Posted by late
Here's what I am doing right now. I go to the gym, but I am doing almost nothing
in the way of pushing. I am doing deadlifts, single leg RDLs, and Hyperextensions for the lower half,
and a variety of pulling exercises for the upper half.

When you stand with your hands at your side, if your palms face each other, that's a good sign.
Mine don't, and I am guessing yours don't, either. They don't because the strength imbalance
pulls the shoulders out of line.One thing about rows, you want to do them so that your arms go
all the way back, to activate the shoulder muscles as much as possible.

Some cycling problems come from the same thing, a strength imbalance. One way to deal with
that is to strengthen the weak muscles to balance things out.
I seen a lot about taking a break from all shoulder and bench exercises to give the rotator cuffs a rest as well as strengthening the scapular adductors, so for the past 2 weeks I've done a bit of dipping on a bench and also I would try DB bench press but it hurt my shoulder too much so basically no chest/shoulder for the past couple weeks (It's helped a lot as I can now do push ups like I used to be able to, I'm actually better at them now..). My friend told me to strengthen them so I might start incorporating bench and military press next week but I've really been focussing on my back for the past 2 weeks. I got little to no mind muscle connection in my back and I'm currently working on that.

One thing that may be linked to this is a muscle in the back of my arm/armpit region, some of you might know what I'm talking about. I can't do any heavy pull downs or pull ups, even just jumping up and hanging on the bar, not even for a split second. I believe though that this is due to a lack of back strength and over compensation of the arms.

Also, when standing straight with my hands at my sides, its seems like my hands are turned it a bit (maybe like 10 degrees or so).

Originally Posted by Voodoo76
The reason too much strength "Pushing" creates problems is that the muscles most programs tend to develop are also Internal rotators. This leads to the real shoulder health issue, poor balance between internal and external rotation. The Horrigan book gives some very good practical explanations, and some routines for strengthening external rotation.
I've been doing external rotations with a stretchy band since my shoulder got screwed up. It's all about the instantaneous axis of rotation right? ;P


Ps. I'm not trying to complain, I hate doing that, it's probably the reason why I get myself into so many bad situations for myself but I'm just trying to make sure I do the right thing before I really f up my body. Thanks for the responses everyone, it's helping!
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Old 11-29-13, 09:12 PM
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Another exercise you could try instead of bench press is floor press. The ROM on floor press is much less then a bench press so it's much less likely to screw up your rotator cuff.
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Old 11-30-13, 03:12 PM
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Originally Posted by wolfchild
Another exercise you could try instead of bench press is floor press. The ROM on floor press is much less then a bench press so it's much less likely to screw up your rotator cuff.
Good idea, thanks a lot I'll give it a try!
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