Injured cyclist shares some of his stretches

LeCarner is relegated to the indoor trainer while he tries to get over knee issues

• Photos

By Tom LeCarner

Editor’s Note: Tom LeCarner, VeloNews’ copy editor, is an avid cyclist who has been unable to ride and train for most of 2008 because of knee pain. He is being treated at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine and using Specialized Body Geometry equipment and services at Specialized’s expense, and reporting on his progress in regular columns. You can read LeCarner’s previous columns here. The stretching photos in this column are from The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga by Sage Rountree; VeloPress 2008.

These are the words a cyclist doesn’t ever really want to hear: “you’re off the bike for a while.” I heard those words a few weeks ago from my physical therapist, Tami Dick, after a particularly painful ride. I was riding on flats, soft pedaling with no pain, when a nasty Boulder headwind kicked up and made those seemingly easy flats suddenly feel like a 7-percent grade. I was forced to ride back home, about 11 miles, directly into the wind. I tried to take it easy, but you know how that goes, the damage was done. My knee was killing me by the time I got home; I iced it, popped a handful of ibuprofen, and the next day walked into BCSM with my tail between my legs.

I asked Tami what to do about it and those dreaded words spilled out: “stay off the bike.” So, for the past four weeks, I’ve been on my beautiful custom Independent Fabrication on a trainer in my basement with my iPod, a few hundred books, and a few spider webs. I suppose I should be thankful; winter in Southern California where I grew up doesn’t pose the same problems as winter in Boulder, Colorado, for cyclists. If I still lived in Santa Monica, it would be a hell of a lot harder to stay inside, walk downstairs and hop on the trainer. But, given that it’s been in the teens to the mid-twenties here with brutish winds, I should be thankful that my rehab didn’t begin in April or May — I guess that’s the proverbial silver lining.

Tami told me that every time I rode and reached that point of pain, I was, to use her words, “tearing off the scab” and I wouldn’t improve. So, by staying on the trainer, as soon as I started to feel the slightest twinge of pain, I could hop off the bike immediately, get the icepack, and not have to ride home — in a headwind or otherwise.

So as I started on my imaginary journeys in the basement, I found I could ride for about 30 minutes on the trainer before I started to feel the now-too-familiar twinge. I would then get off the bike and immediately ice the knee for 15 minutes. This went on for about three weeks and I was beginning to get pretty depressed. After the good news about my bike fit session and the confidence that Andy Pruitt had in the fact that my bike now fit me properly, I was confident that the road to recovery would be quicker — it’s not that easy I’m afraid. Pruitt cautioned me that the bike fit wasn’t a magic bullet, and that I would have to heal the knee for the benefits of the fit to realize; he was right.

I continued to do my daily stretching routine and strengthening exercises and I confess they seemed to be working. I have included a few photos of stretches I’ve been doing, per Tami’s instruction.

These photos come from an excellent book from VeloPress entitled The Athlete’s Guide to Yoga by Sage Roundtree. In Figures 1 and 2, you’ll find excellent stretches for the inner and outer hamstring (the inner hamstring is particularly helpful for my condition). Some of these pictures are in the photo gallery at the bottom of the page.

Further, in Figures 3 and 4, you see the classic head-to-knee pose, which works the hamstring straight on. In Figure 5, one of the best stretches I’ve done, is the wide-legged fold from wall pose. This really works the inner hamstrings while keeping the back perfectly flat.

Figure 6 is the aptly named figure-4 pose, sometimes called threading the needle. This provides a pleasantly painful, yet terribly effective stretch to the hip. Lastly, Figure 7, the low lunge pose offers a deep stretch to the high hamstring and hip flexors.

While I’ve been please with my flexibility, I was getting pissed that I could only ride for 30 minutes without pain. Then one afternoon, during a particularly nasty snowstorm, it happened. I hopped on the trainer and rode and rode and rode, 30 minutes passed, 40 minutes passed, 50 minutes, and I got to an hour without the slightest twinge; I felt great. For fear of tempting the cycling gods, however, I stopped on my own and iced the knee. I was elated; it was my first real sign of improvement in nine months.

I reported back to Tami during my next session and she was equally pleased with the news. But she cautioned me (wisely, knowing my penchant to push myself too much) that I should not suddenly hop back on the bike outside and ride, mistakenly thinking that everything was back to normal. Instead, I was told to stay at the 30-40 minute limit, and then to increase my time on the trainer, by 5-10 percent per week, so long as I wasn’t feeling any pain.

If you’re reading this, you know well that adding just five or 10 minutes to a ride is nothing to the lungs or the legs; I was feeling good and wanted nothing more than to take the bike outside and stand on the pedals and hammer. But to a knee with a repetitive-use injury, another five minutes on the bike is roughly 450-500 repetitions — do the math. So, begrudgingly, I’ve been slowly increasing my time on the trainer. I’m now at just over an hour, pain free, with moderate resistance at about 90 rpm. So far so good.

In addition to my daily stretching and strengthening exercises, I’ve been receiving weekly deep-tissue massages from Wendi Stewart, who specializes is sports medicine and orthopedic massage therapy at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. I must warn those of you who haven’t had deep-tissue work before; it hurts like hell; this is no relaxing spa massage, let me tell you. In the meantime, I’ll be in the basement. Stay tuned.

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FILED UNDER: Coaches Panel TAGS: project pruitt / Training

Tom LeCarner

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