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Fitness

Pain-Free Cycling: Avoiding Wrist and Elbow Injury

Find out what they didn't tell you about hand position on your bike fitting assessment.

Simon Kidd

Written by Simon Kidd Last updated on January 16, 2015

<strong”>A few years ago, I suffered from carpel tunnel injury. It came on after a long cycle ride, and as a result, I was unable to properly use one hand for most of a week. That’s bad news if you use a keyboard a lot.

One of the potential causes of carpel tunnel injury is incorrect hand position on the bike and this can often be missed on a standard bike fitting assessment. Here are the dos and don’ts of hand position so you can keep your wrists and elbows injury free.

RELATED: How to Identify and Avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome 

The Correct Position for the Wrist

The carpel tunnel is a small gap between the many small wrist bones and a flat ligament at the base of the wrist. Ten tendons go through this small tunnel and are responsible for flexing the hand and fingers. A nerve also passes through this tunnel. Degeneration or mechanical stress can easily injure these small tissues resulting in a loss of function of the hand.

<strong”>Riding with the wrist flexed like this stresses these small tissues:

I see this position quite often when I conduct rider assessments. This hand position can lead to injury for two reasons:

  1. The tendons are stretched to near full length.
  2. Vibration or impact from the front wheel, such as a bump in the road, can then cause a trauma as the wrist is forced to extend too far.

RELATED: 3 Stretches to Help Achy Wrists and Prevent Carpal Tunnel

The correct position is with the wrist straight like this:

cycling, elbow, injury, position, carpal tunnel, wrist

This position allows shock to travel up the arm while supported by the bones and cartilage, which are much stronger tissues than the fine tendons and ligaments supporting the fingers.

Assess and Control Weak Wrist Flexors

One reason we ride incorrectly is simply due to lack of knowledge or bad habits. But another reason can be weak wrist flexors. If you are a regular gym-goer, there are some tests you can do with pressing exercises to assess and control these flexors.

“One reason we ride incorrectly is simply due to lack of knowledge or bad habits. But another reason can be weak wrist flexors.”

To conduct the test of your hand position you will need a set of grips, a suspension trainer, or a set of rings. You are going to check for correct wrist alignment while you perform a push up on this gear.

Correct wrist position:

cycling, elbow, injury, position, carpal tunnel, wrist

Incorrect wrist position:

cycling, elbow, injury, position, carpal tunnel, wrist

Elbow Position Is Important, Too

Avoiding injury doesn’t end at hand position, though. Should you hit a large bump in the road, and you manage to avoid wrist injury, the shock will continue to travel up the arm to the elbow. This is the second potential area of injury due to incorrect position.

RELATED: Standing Wall Clock: Address Elbow Pain Before It Continues 

Elbows should be slightly flexed like the cyclist shown here:

cycling, elbow, injury, position, carpal tunnel, wrist

This allows any movement of the handlebars to be taken up by the elbow flexing. If you ride with your elbows stiff or locked, then vibration and shocks may extend the elbow too far and lead to trauma.

“You can’t react quickly or accommodate for changes in road surface if your elbows are locked out and wrists fully extended.”

Summary

Mountain bikers are familiar with the concept of keeping the upper body in a position where it can easily accommodate for changes in the position of the bike and rapid movements of the handlebars. But the same holds true on the road. You can’t react quickly or accommodate for changes in road surface if your elbows are locked out and wrists fully extended.

So, please remember to keep your wrists straight and elbows flexed when out on the bike. Here’s to enjoyable and injury-free riding!

Simon Kidd

About Simon Kidd

Simon Kidd is a qualified cycling coach, personal trainer, and sports massage therapist. But, it hasn’t always been that way. Starting with a career in electronic engineering, software design, IT, and program management, Simon decided around the age of forty that something had to be done about the expanding waistline and general lack of fitness.

That decision led to a journey through free diving and finswimming initially. Having found a rather late aptitude for some sports, Simon trained under the direction of coaches in England and Russia (along with personal research into sports training and programming) to compete in the first Commonwealth Finswimming Championships. Coming away with some medals convinced him that given the right conditions, training programs, and guidance there should be no barrier to people fulfilling their fitness goals and performing well in sports whatever their backgrounds.

Following a swimming pool accident, Simon took up cycling, restoring his old cycle that had remained dormant in the shed for many years, and again began to train and compete in local events. Wishing to take this further he then qualified as a personal trainer, sports massage therapist, and cycling coach. Using these skills, along with a 'project management approach,’ Simon has helped many local club cyclists and aspiring national competitors work towards their goals.

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