Biomechanics of Cycling & Walking

and corrective exercises to help combat common Injuries.

Whether you cycle or walk to commute, get around town, or for exercise and enjoyment, you are increasing blood flow, cardiovascular fitness, and releasing endorphins. These are all things we encourage our clients to do on a daily basis.

HOWEVER, as with anything you do, it is important to notice how the movement is affecting your body, and make sure you are incorporating exercises to better support your body during that exercise, or combat negative affects. Check out trainer Kyle’s presentation on this topic.

With walking, our gait can affect how we hold the rest of our body.

Over time this can lead to muscular imbalances.

Both Walking & cycling are very repetitive.

Repetitive motions can lead to injuries if not properly balanced by other movements to cross train the body. Any athlete needs to make sure to continually train movements that don’t occur in their sport to avoid injuries.

Also, they both only move in one plane of motion (sagittal), which can lead to weakness in muscles that stabilize our body’s side to side movement.

In the picture on the left, notice how biking (especially in the aero position/on the elbows) causes:

1) Increase hip flexion >shortening the hip flexors (the muscles in the front of your leg)

2) Increase spinal flexion > leading to increase strain on the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine, which can explain the tightness in the neck and lower back.

3) Increase pressure on the elbow or wrist (if in the upright position), which, over time, can lead to neuropathy or numbness in the hands.

Corrective exercises are ones that address muscular imbalances, occurring with consistent, repetitive movement, such as cycling and walking. By taking some time to incorporate corrective exercises into our routine, we can do a lot to help prevent these injuries from occurring.

Here is a list of exercises to do before and after cycling & walking.

Included are:

• Foam Rolling or SMR (self-myofascial release)

• Corrective Exercises

• Muscle Activation Exercises

• Stretches

CLICK on the image to open & print the full pdf.

We hope that this overview was helpful. Remember, identifying your weaknesses and infrequent movement patterns is the first step. Then incorporate corrective exercises to strengthen those areas and set aside time to cross train. These two steps will help you avoid injuries in the future.

Stay tuned for a video coming out on this topic soon.

Questions for Kyle?

Interested in training?

Learn how to better support your body through cycling, walking, or your other daily activities.