Soft Tissue Recovery for Cyclists May 31 2018



Rest days are an ideal time to be receiving Soft Tissue Therapy and Sports Massage.

The frequency of your visits is often dependant on training volume and distance, if you have a high training volume and once you start on long distance cycles I would advise having weekly treatments. If your volume is less, or you are doing shorter cycles or gym/strength work you may want to extend your  treatment sessions to every three weeks. As the competition/event date draws closer (six weeks away from an event) your soft tissue or sports massage sessions want to be scheduled weekly.

Sports Massage is not only limited to work on the legs, the lower back can become tight from loading effect that cycling places on the body. Another common area for discomfort is the lower neck, some cyclists describe this as a “burning sensation”. This is mainly caused by a prolonged cycling posture, (shoulders down and head up) which compresses the nerves and soft tissue at the base of your neck. Soft tissue therapy is very effective in relieving these symptoms.

Sort out your mobility/flexibility

Soft tissue therapy is great for increasing mobility and flexibility, if there are limitations in your mobility this can massively influence your position on the bike. Poor flexibility can cause discomfort and pain, predispose cyclists to injuries and may even affect aerodynamics due to poor positioning. My target areas for most cyclists are hamstrings, hips, back and neck.

Address niggling injuries

If you have had injuries during your training then now is the time to get on top of them. See our  physiotherapist  to assess the problem and get some weekly soft tissue therapy or sports massage to keep on top of those niggles.

Shaun Gilmore

Soft Tissue Therapist

Executive Physiotherapy

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