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The Pain-Free Cyclist: Conquer Injury and Find your Cycling Nirvana
It's not (just) about the bike. Ride your bike long enough and you're likely to get injured. It's not what cyclists want to hear, but it's the hard truth.
Cycling is a rapidly growing sport, and as cyclists increase, so does the number of injuries. What do you do if you get injured? Rest? Continue to ride? To avoid further complications and more harmful injuries resulting in substantial time off the bike, these questions need answering.
This book takes you through the most common cycling injuries, breaking down exactly what they are, why you get them, and what you can do to get rid of them and get back on your bike pain-free.
Cycling is a rapidly growing sport, and as cyclists increase, so does the number of injuries. What do you do if you get injured? Rest? Continue to ride? To avoid further complications and more harmful injuries resulting in substantial time off the bike, these questions need answering.
This book takes you through the most common cycling injuries, breaking down exactly what they are, why you get them, and what you can do to get rid of them and get back on your bike pain-free.
240 pages, Paperback
First published June 16, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 8, 2021
Very good. The most important sections in my mind are the brief sections on riding form and bike fit, and the warm-up and "warm-down" stretching routines. The form and fit section needs to be said, although it's pretty brief. If you aren't paying attention to how you ride, if your feet are dropping and your torso is swaying back and forth, you're setting yourself up for injury. I've been looking for the routines for a long time. I have a personal flow I've cobbled together from what I've learned in yoga classes, but nothing that was particularly targeted towards bicyclists. My only complaint is that it comes too late in the book, basically the penultimate chapter, when warm-up and warm-downs should definitely be part of your preventative routine.
I also loved chapter 6 about training the mind. It focuses on positive thinking and challenging yourself in a healthy way. There are tips on approaching and managing anxiety by replaying good rides in your head. The mental game is a huge part of cycling, I find, even on casual slow weekend rides.
The main bulk of the book is taken up by discussing the most common injuries and how to identify and approach care for them. Very interesting a deep reading, drilling down to the anatomy and complications of each. But I couldn't help but feel that these too got a bit samey after a while. What plan of care isn't: "ice, rest, possibly painkillers, see a dr in a few weeks if needed" ? Besides the fractures, it seemed like every injury had the same plan of care. Which maybe is the actual lesson...
There are a ton of quotes and stories from pro cyclists (comprising probably 10% of the text) who talk about their failures and difficulties. These were interesting at first, and are probably more interesting to a hardcore roadie, but they got a little samey after a while. Man gets too in his head, man gets too much an ego, man tries to push, man gets hurt, man couldn't ride for a while, man is sad.
One more note on that, it never says it outright, neither in the back blurb or the written Introduction, but the audience assumption is that you're racing or some kind of intermediate-advance roadie. It'll say things like "an easy ride of not longer than 90 minutes" "[after] you've been out riding your bike for a few hours" which can feel alienating if you've never even ridden that long. If it's written with the assumption that beginning and intermediate riders don't get injuries that is obviously wrong, so I'm not going to accuse the authors of that oversight, but I also think they should be more upfront about what the intended audience is. And in that case, I do think there should be a volume directed at more casual riders, because they can and absolutely do get injuries from riding on their beach cruisers. It also talks about "cyclists" with no specification for road, MTB, or touring/randonneuring, couriers... and lord knows all of these types of riders definitely get pain and injury (cough MTB, good lord). And the last note on this theme: I feel confident estimating that 95% (if not 99%) of the photos and quotes in the book are of white men in road kit. I recall specifically seeing two photos of women riders. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to assign value to that objective observation; should you interpret it as an indictment that reflects your own judgment.
Anyways, a lot of fun. I love reading these books for all my hobbies, including What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body and Body Mapping for Flutists: What Every Flute Teacher Needs to Know About the Body/G6745. I'm really invested in paying attention to the body in relation to my hobbies and avoiding (and helping others avoid) injury. Now, all I need is The Pain-Free Cross-Stitcher and I'm all set.
I also loved chapter 6 about training the mind. It focuses on positive thinking and challenging yourself in a healthy way. There are tips on approaching and managing anxiety by replaying good rides in your head. The mental game is a huge part of cycling, I find, even on casual slow weekend rides.
The main bulk of the book is taken up by discussing the most common injuries and how to identify and approach care for them. Very interesting a deep reading, drilling down to the anatomy and complications of each. But I couldn't help but feel that these too got a bit samey after a while. What plan of care isn't: "ice, rest, possibly painkillers, see a dr in a few weeks if needed" ? Besides the fractures, it seemed like every injury had the same plan of care. Which maybe is the actual lesson...
There are a ton of quotes and stories from pro cyclists (comprising probably 10% of the text) who talk about their failures and difficulties. These were interesting at first, and are probably more interesting to a hardcore roadie, but they got a little samey after a while. Man gets too in his head, man gets too much an ego, man tries to push, man gets hurt, man couldn't ride for a while, man is sad.
One more note on that, it never says it outright, neither in the back blurb or the written Introduction, but the audience assumption is that you're racing or some kind of intermediate-advance roadie. It'll say things like "an easy ride of not longer than 90 minutes" "[after] you've been out riding your bike for a few hours" which can feel alienating if you've never even ridden that long. If it's written with the assumption that beginning and intermediate riders don't get injuries that is obviously wrong, so I'm not going to accuse the authors of that oversight, but I also think they should be more upfront about what the intended audience is. And in that case, I do think there should be a volume directed at more casual riders, because they can and absolutely do get injuries from riding on their beach cruisers. It also talks about "cyclists" with no specification for road, MTB, or touring/randonneuring, couriers... and lord knows all of these types of riders definitely get pain and injury (cough MTB, good lord). And the last note on this theme: I feel confident estimating that 95% (if not 99%) of the photos and quotes in the book are of white men in road kit. I recall specifically seeing two photos of women riders. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to assign value to that objective observation; should you interpret it as an indictment that reflects your own judgment.
Anyways, a lot of fun. I love reading these books for all my hobbies, including What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body and Body Mapping for Flutists: What Every Flute Teacher Needs to Know About the Body/G6745. I'm really invested in paying attention to the body in relation to my hobbies and avoiding (and helping others avoid) injury. Now, all I need is The Pain-Free Cross-Stitcher and I'm all set.
March 5, 2017
Very detailed and nice to read on injuries and exercises to prevent/cure them. Bike fit section wasn't good enough, but "Andy Pruitt's Complete Medical Guide for Cyclists" already provides good depth on that topic. So I'd say these two books are complementary with some overlap.
March 14, 2021
Ideaal boek voor wie op zoek is naar spierversterkende oefeningen bij overbelasting door het fietsen. Sterk aan te bevelen!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews