How to avoid injury and get back into biking
There are four ways to get back into biking without risking injury.
With the summer season in full swing, biking may be on your list of hobbies to pick back up.
Hailey Corradi has a business called Northern Movement PT in which she helps people rehab, build strength, and check that their bike is the right fit. Most of her programming is online.
She offered four tips for how to avoid injury when you’re getting back into biking:
- Manage the volume/load: “Making sure we’re not doing too much too soon because people get excited, especially cyclists. All they want to do is ride their bikes. If you’re coming out of the winter season, not really training that much, making sure that you’re starting easy.”
- Fuel: “I think a common mistake for people, especially newbies to the sport or recreational activities, is not fueling enough with your increase in physical activity. Carbs and proteins are super important to consider.”
- Strength training: “It’s important to build our tissue’s capacity and resilience to load. I think the health industry and the fitness industry like to complicate things, but it really can be super simple. So it could be as simple as 4-6 exercises twice a week.” Corradi suggests high load, low repetition movements like squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, or lunging.
- Sleep: “We want to aim for about 7 hours or more to really reduce that risk (of injury). I’d say if you’re having issues with sleep, really take a look at your patterns, your behaviors, and figure out what works for you for a bedtime routine and other sleep hygiene. If you’re still having issues, then seek out a sleep specialist because sleep is super crucial for our injury reduction.”