Topic: The Health, Fitness and Exercise Thread

@Thrillho sorry to hear that. My arthritis started in my Achilles tendons and I’ve lived with varying degrees of pain in them for 15 years now. At its worst I quite literally could not walk! It absolutely sucked. It’s why I don’t even bother trying to run now so I don’t risk irritating them. Obviously if yours is injury related it should calm down but the rest and rehab is gunna be the same. Get on top of it quickly, don’t take the pi$$ (it could be months) and be bloody patient! (See a physio to keep you on track!). Fortunately it does get better in time.

Guy I have been riding with has stress fractures on both hips so he’s not able to run for 4-6 months I believe.

Get a bike 🫣

@kyleforrester87 I’ve probably been ignoring it for a while to be honest so am worried it’s going to take a while to settle again. Currently munching ibuprofen but not sure it’ll make too much difference.

And a bike???? 😧

@Thrillho see how you get on icing them right before bed, too.

@AgentCooper nice one, well done mate 👏

@kyleforrester87 I know what you mean, with the getting changed, steam room and sauna, showering and getting changed again. An hour long swim could be a 1.5-2 hour trip. I'm just trying not to think about it and just enjoy it while it lasts

Is it arthritis that's bothering your knee or another injury? My knees been playing up lately, I've actually been thinking of doing some aquafit classes so I can do some different exercises but lessen the impact by being in the water. My partner has questioned whether I am the right demographic for aquafit though (her 60+ year old mum does it) 🤔😂

@Thrillho cheers, I think I started by doing like 850-900 meters 2-3 times a week then I built up to it. It started off with the good pain, the workout kind of pain but I am feeling strain on my tendons and joints now which is the bad kind of pain so I might dial it back a bit so I don't injure myself further.

Gutted about your Achilles tendon mate, hope it gets better as soon as it can. That running buggy sounds awesome though. I bet that's a sight, running with that! Does it have suspension or something?

@ralphdibny Joint pain from swimming sounds a bit unusual so I hope they sort that for you soon!

Achilles are feeling a little better at the moment but I know not to rush back. I’ve probably been putting off the needed rest for too long but it does seem weird to have hot when I’ve been doing the same distance and hills for almost two years.

And the buggy is good fun! It’s taken a while to get used to it, particularly what to with my hands when running, and like I said above uphills are a killer! The first time I went out with it I got a (sincere) round of applause from a group of mums at the top of one hill 😁

EDIT: and yes, it’s got added suspension and you can lock the front wheel in position so it’s more stable too.

@ralphdibny haha I didn’t factor in the steam room and sauna. That’s a luxury treat! Hard to tell if it’s arthritis causing my knee pain or tendinitis from going to hard on the bike much earlier in the year, the treatment is much the same though and it is definitely getting better (although some days it’s worse than others). Just gotta keep doing my strengthening exercises and not take the pi$$ 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

@AgentCooper Hey man, well done for coming off of holiday and finding you've lost weight. I actually managed to do that earlier this year as well as I tried to stay active whilst we were away. I find that it's usually winter that's harder for me as that's when it's easier to shirk the exercise and just binge on stuff that makes you feel better about the cold wet weather.

@ralphdibny Good job on the swimming front. I'm a bit the same as the others in that it feels like a big effort to go swimming. I go with the kids every now and then but most I manage is 10 lengths max as they usually just want to mess around, which I'm totally onboard with as it should be fun too. It's a good low impact exercise for when you have injuries so hope you keep it up.

@kyleforrester87 I can sympathise with you regarding knee pain. Mine never totally goes away but then I've never found a complete solution for it either. Resting for a long period of time and doing recommended exercises etc calms it down some but it always comes back even after 6 months etc. I can easily blame mine on too much high impact running down stupid hills and just not being built for this sort of thing. One thing I do notice though is that it's not nearly as bad if I'm fitting both cycling and running in rather than just running. It's a combination of mixing things up so it's not all high impact as well as building different muscles which are probably not being used as much.

@Thrillho Bad luck regarding the injuries. I can't say I've ever had those specific issues but I can definitely second Kyle's suggestion of getting a bike, as I mentioned above you can at least get out and do something when impact is an issue and it might actually make you a stronger runner by allowing you to work out other muscles. A lot of the competitive running I do is in hilly places e.g. the lakes and because I live in a fairly flat area I tend to not get out on the hills so much but cycling does work the muscles that I need for the hill climbing so for me it works out really well.

I've been trying to make the most of the good weather over the summer. I got a new "to me" mountain bike and I've been loving riding something more up to date than my previous bike. Whilst it hasn't made me massively better as a rider it has made riding a lot more fun and things that seemed out of my reach skills wise now seem possible if I'm a bit braver. I've been keeping up the running too and have entered a 2 day event at the end of October with a friend which I'm really looking forward to. It doesn't feel very far away now though so going to have to step up my training on the run up to that.

@render I have had it come and go in the past too unfortunately. I would be interested to know if you stopped doing the strengthening exercises once it had calmed down, though. My understanding of the knee is you don't really strengthen it but every muscle around it. Since cycling alone disregards some key muscles in the leg (not to mention core.. and the rest) it does make sense that you'd need to keep doing this kind of work once the pain has gone to keep these muscled developed and stop the pain from coming back. That's my take, anyway.... as you say, doing combined exercises (cycling + running) seems to help.

@kyleforrester87 I've continued to do the exercises even after getting back to activity but not really noticed the difference. It could be that they just weren't the right exercises but I've tried quite a bit over the years with different physios etc and each has given different advice. I tend to find that if I just back off of the activity a bit for a few weeks then I can manage which might not be ideal but I can make it work and it's either that or throwing ludicrous amounts of money at physios for not a great deal of return.

@render That's annoying, its so hard to play the long game while keeping motivation up etc.

My knee is doing pretty good at the moment I’m really glad to say. I did a 100 mile event at the weekend, 5 hours 34 minutes total time including 10-12 minutes of stoppage with an average speed of 18.5mph. I placed 27th out of 330 but I think it was better overall as people registered on my route could have jumped onto the shorter routes mid-event. First place apparently did it in 3 hours 20 so I am calling BS on that one 😂

It was somewhat flat at about 4000 feet of climbing but still very happy with that time considering I haven’t cycled over 70 miles for about 6 months.

I really did struggle through the final 15 miles though, my pace took a nose dive, I felt sick, my hand was numb and I was just generally very miserable. I told the guy I was riding with to ride on as I started to hold him back, but in the end I bounced back a little and he beat me by less than 2 minutes.

Still recovering today so I know I really pushed myself - lots of fun.. in hindsight!

@kyleforrester87 Hey buddy that’s great news, those kind of distances and stats are not to be sniffed at. Here’s to continued improvement, wishing you the best 👍

@AgentCooper thanks man, really appreciate that. I have been relying on cycling a lot these past few years and although I always seem to be carrying some sort of ache or pain it’s been particularly rough this year with the injuries, but feels like I am past the worst of it 🤞🏻🤞🏻

@kyleforrester87 Impressive numbers my man! It's cool to do events/races every now and again to get a change of scenery but also that competitiveness/camaraderie too.

@Thrillho thanks mate. Yes, although cycling ones can be a little hit and miss as you get spread pretty thin on the longer courses. So you can sometimes feel like you’ve paid £40 to just ride on free public roads. I assume runners stay a little more grouped….

@kyleforrester87 Nice work! Interesting that you mention the hand going numb during the ride — When I dabbled in cycling a few years ago I had annoying pain in the outer elbows that I just couldn’t figure out how to get past. Which is weird because you’d think cyclists would mainly struggle with leg issues, but the arms are also given a heavy work out too. Largely due to the arm pain, I wasn’t able to go for longer than about 20-30 miles. So kudos for pushing through!
(Also, the saddle pain and discomfort is an obstacle… 😅)

@TabulaRasa Yeah, I find that whilst I’m nursing one injury then I’m more apt to strain something else because it throws off my biomechanics. Hang in there!

@Th3solution you can get over most aches and pains with bike adjustments and strengthening, but at the end of the day it’s not an arm chair and after so many miles you will fatigue and get sore. So core strength and arm strength are both pretty important, those weaknesses and imbalances all seem to come out in the wash the longer you cycle. I have some strength and conditioning to do for sure..! As for your butt, with a nice firm saddle with minimal padding complimented with some good quality shorts with padding you do build up a tolerance pretty quick. But certainly, the day after your first ride in a long while and your butt will HURT. I also use a product called butt shield all around my ass and man parts to stop chaffing

@kyleforrester87 I went to a bike shop to be sized for my height and arm length and so I guess you’re right about that elbow pain and it is just something normal to get past. It’s that strange isometric and static contraction of the outer arm muscles where you’re constantly pushing out, elbows extended, mile after mile. When I finally flex my elbow joint I can just feel the burn as my arm muscles scream out in confusion as to what I’ve just put them through. 😂

What’s your feeling on using a Peloton or stationary bike or doing spin classes?

@kyleforrester87 Most of main tend to be trail races so not such a problem with roads, occasionally crossing a smaller one.

And people can be quite spread out. Most events I’ve done have had multiple distances going on at the same time on slightly different courses as well. The last half marathon I did was the super hilly one in 2h30 with the fastest person in 2h6 and slowest in just over 5hrs!

@Th3solution yeah I have a smart trainer, I ride Zwift on it (basically an openworld multiplayer online cycling game) - it’s good for training, group rides, racing etc and adjusts the difficulty to simulate hills and inertia of the bike generally, it feels quite realistic really and definitely leads to improvement in real life. I have not used it in a while due to my knee though… it’s very hard to not go flat out all the time on that thing. Plus you get XP and level up and stuff so obviously appeals to the gamer in me 😁 Spin bikes in the gym, perhaps less so from what I have heard but I have never tried them.