Like a number of very popular, but functionally abnormal, athletic activities, such as golf, tennis, and bowling, cyclists can come in with a complex biomechanical downside that’s often difficult to thoroughly treat and fix. If you are a massage therapist, sports therapists or athletic trainer who treats cyclists it’s important to precisely target the anatomical structure at fault, and sort out any risk factors that may put the client at risk for injury.

Risk factors will be:

Intrinsic (within the cyclist – any postural, overworked, or flawed movement dysfunctions)
Extrinsic (the actual set up of the bicycle)

Therefore, as a Massage Therapist or any bodyworker, treatment is always twofold:

1. Identify and correct muscle imbalances, joint dysfunctions, and motor control issues.
2. Direct focus to the underlying causes for the injury by correcting bike setup and/or training errors.

Now for the good news. The human body is both flexible and dynamic. Now the bad news. Our cyclists often bring in with them a lot of baggage, including flexion-addicted sitting postures, old injuries, compensations, and poor training habits. Any weakness or motor control issues are intensified by traumatic shocks due to bad road conditions or repetitive bike injuries.

A correct bike fit to the body, in conjunction with a revitalized and functionally balanced neuro-myoskeletal system, enables joints and muscles to work at maximum levels of motor unit recruitment and synchronization. As endurance and performance is improved, so does the joy of cycling.

Cycling Biomechanics

The actual cause of ITB pain is a highly beneficial discovery for manual therapists or sports therapist who work with cyclists and runners. If the underlying fat pad is in fact the main cause of our client’s lateral knee pain, it’s probably not a the best idea to apply compressive forces over the ITB tendon, which is already compressing the inflamed fat pad. Conventional techniques, such as cross-fiber frictioning and ITB fascia-mashing, may not be a recommended treatment approach to cycling injuries.

From the New Dynamic Body Textbook featuring Erik Dalton and 16 other leaders in the Manual / Movement Therapy industry. Judith Aston, Serge Gracovetsky, Robert Irvin, Gil Hedley, Jerry Hesch, Kai Hodeck, Craig Liebenson, Til Luchau, Aaron Mattes, Thomas Myers, Aline Newton, Divo Muller, Art Riggs, Robert Schleip, James Waslaski, Adjo Zorn

For Details and to purchase go to http://daltondynamicbody.com