PREVENTING INJURY & ILLNESS: A GUIDE FOR CYCLISTS

Sooner or later everyone gets sick. And in a sport like cycling injury is a risk too.

But while you’re unlikely to avoid injury and illness completely you can manage the risk and take sensible steps to recovering in a way to ensure you’re back to your best as soon as possible.

So let’s start with prevention (it’s better than cure after all).

Prevent injury and illness for cyclists….

ILLNESS PREVENTION

Hygiene

When it comes to avoiding illness of all shapes and sizes, your skin is the first line of defence. So washing hands often is one of the simplest things you can do to avoid stray bugs and viruses finding their way into your body. It goes without saying that you should thoroughly wash hands and after you go to the loo, but it’s also sensible to do so after going out (think of all the surfaces you might touch as you go about your day) and before eating. Doing this helps to minimise the chances of germs and viruses getting into your system and causing you to get sick.

Carrying a good quality hand gel is also highly recommended, put one in places you frequently need them (school bag, kit bag, car) so that you have the chance to short circuit the pathways germs use to get inside our bodies.

Sleep

You’re probably very familiar with the idea that your body needs sleep to repair that stresses placed on it by the training you do. But did you also know that our immune systems are super busy too when we’re getting shut eye? Research shows that when you’re not getting enough sleep, immunity suffers and leaves the door open to illness. If you’ve ever spent a few days before exams revising late into the night then got sick once the exams are done – you’ve experienced this first hand.

The foundation for good sleep is routine – so as much as you can, it makes sense to stick to a set time for getting up and going to bed, as well as taking time away from screens in the run up to bed time.

Nutrition

As well as providing the building blocks for our muscles and the energy they use, our food provides all the things our immune system needs to fight off illness and disease on a daily basis. It’s easy to get fixated on the big nutrition categories (macro’s) of carbohydrate, protein and fat. But when it comes to the immune system it’s the micro nutrients that are important and to get all the things that will support your immune system the trick is to eat as much variety as you can.

One easy way to do this are to think about maximising the different number of colours on your plate (eating the rainbow!) Another is to try to maximise the number of plant based ingredients you fit into your diet each day. So for example, you might have porridge for breakfast (1 plant based ingredient) but that could be transformed with a shrinking of seeds, a spoon full of flax and a handful of nuts and dried fruit. Each ingredient will have micronutrients that your body will love and which will support your microbiome and immune system.

INJURY PREVENTION

So that’s three big things to have an eye on. But what about some more cycling and training specific tips? As we turn our attention to prevent injuries for cyclists, there are some simple things here cyclists can also do to fend off injury.

Here are the top three we suggest you focus on to start with:

Stretching

Pre and post cycling stretching is a good way to maximise your flexibility and keep the body in a happy place through the stresses and strains of training.

Core strength

Cycling is great at making certain muscle groups string, but it also makes demands of others to stabilise the body that cycling itself doesn’t do much for. So alongside time on the bike, it’s worthwhile incorporating some time on activity that works the muscle groups that keep you on the straight and narrow when you’re in the saddle.

Rest and Adaptation

When training is going well it’s tempting to pile on a bit more – after all, you’re feeling good. Doing this is a common mistake that cyclists of all ages make and it’s totally understandable!

But if you’ve got a well designed training programme it’ll have rest built in, and it’s there for a reason.

Rest is where the gains from training happen – and if you skip the rest, you don’t get all the gains. But worse than that you’ll also likely put yourself at risk of injury and illness.

We hope you’ve learned something new and can start to put some of these principles into action to prevent injury and illness for cyclists. Keep your eyes peeled, for more journals to help you make the most of the great outdoors. If you’re just getting started, check out our Bike Buying Guide here.