Boning up on bicycle breaks

-- Building strong ‘landing’ bones

Lycra and a plastic lid offer little protective comfort to riders unlucky enough to experience an involuntary road dive.

When you hit the road at 40km, something – usually a collarbone – gets broken.

Turns out that cyclists could do themselves, and their bones, a favour by cross training.

Apparently the act of cycling fails to offer riders sufficient repetitive impact to stimulate maximal bone density.

One recent study found cyclists to have lower bone density than the study control sample.

So, while cyclists are quite good at self-inflicting physical pain and suffering, the duress isn’t the variety that keeps bones in top-notch condition.

As a sporting group, we are in fact more predisposed to bone breaks than other codes, like, for example, rugby, where the hot embrace of manhandling offers a fantastic volume of repetitive impact; or league, which offers repetitive headline grabbing impact by attracting players prone to manhandling both sexes.

Direct weight bearing exercise is what’s needed. And the pure cyclist doesn’t get it perched on the saddle.

Cross training is the answer, weight training and running specifically. Mineral supplementation doesn’t work.

I put these thoughts to Lunn Ave rider and Doctor of Bicycle Engineering and Performance, Mike P. While he agrees with the sentiment, he says the study shows that not all cyclists suffer lowering bone density and the cure might be simpler than we think.

He writes -

The study suggests those affected:

- Don't do much else other than cycle

- Maybe are also cosseted by their mums and all the other modern inconveniences that minimise non-cycling effort of any type

- Are more likely to be spinners than shovers

- Maybe the big milers, but do not necessarily work really hard

- May alternatively be young, still developing skeletally, and suffering the consequences of loading brilliant natural cycling capability on top of an already demanding growing process

- Maybe professionals, sleeping twice a day, with no other interests or hard activity

Mineral loss through sweating is a factor, supplements don't solve it, and calcium uptake is reduced by a lack of vitamin D.

I suspect the answer is to eat foods high in calcium, as opposed to swallowing calcium pills. In line with my last outburst, pills appear high by chemical analysis in terms of what is required, but appear to be correspondingly low in absorbability e.g. munching down a shell off the beach might put the grams of calcium ingested right up there, but it doesn't mean the system can metabolise it as it does milk.

Ditto vitamin D. Take the pill by all means, but it might be better to expose some skin to direct sunlight for a few minutes each day. And given a cyclist's extreme requirements, make that more than one time during the day.

Bone loading is what is really required (as opposed to bone shocking, via running, as the article mainly points to). Jarring provides high peak loads of short duration, so is the most obvious fast track to getting the system to recognise the need for more bone strength, and act on it.

However, running jar-loads only some bones - but what about the rest? I doubt running will ever strengthen collarbones, and they are the first to go in a cycling pile up. The only way to strengthen "the landing bones" is to work the muscles that lever across their ends. Gym shit. And if that works, so will cycle sprints.

All that is required to increase bone strength (density) is to load the corresponding muscles. While physical shock treatment may accelerate the process, and perhaps even take it beyond what controlled loading could do, shock is not necessary. It has been shown that sedentary geriatrics exercising at snail pace with tiny weights can reduce their osteoporosis with even that bone loading, so why can't a hard-arse cyclist stay on top of bone density?

My conclusion is, the modern global encouragement that gets couch potatoes out there in flash lycra and on techno carbon has exposed the wine-set. As always, there are some short-cuts, but the reality is no real pain, no real gain. Put another way - those that mow their own grass will be just fine.