The summer is a great time of year to get outside and enjoy the outdoors. One of the best ways of doing this and the most popular method is cycling. Over the next few weeks and months, a lot of you will be getting on your bike.

As its National Bike week soon, we thought we would offer some useful advice to keeping your back safe whilst cycling.

What is National Bike Week?

Before we offer our advice as leading Staines chiropractor, we should mention one or two points about National Bike week. Essentially it is all about getting on your bike, with a particular focus this year of cycling to and from work. According to the official website;

“Bike Week is an annual opportunity to promote cycling, and show how cycling can easily be part of everyday life by encouraging ‘everyday cycling for everyone’. Demonstrating the social, health and environmental benefits of cycling, the week aims to get people to give cycling a go all over the UK, whether this be for fun, as a means of getting around to work or school, the local shops or just to visit friends.”

As a leading Staines chiropractor we happily support this aim and wish to help you out with some advice.

How to keep your back safe on your bike

Cycling to work is great for your health and we fully endorse the promotion of it. However it is our duty as leading Staines chiropractors to help you cycling pain free. Our advice to you is as follows;

• Strengthen your torso/core – This is so you can support the top half of your body whilst your powerful legs are pumping away. It won’t happen off the bike, you will need to do exercises to strengthen.
• Get your riding position correct – Make sure you follow the guidelines here
• Ease in to it – Don’t start cycling extremely long distances out of nowhere as your body just won’t be ready for it. Ease in, don’t overdo it at the start and build your strength up slowly.
• Ride with unlocked elbows and a relaxed stance
• Give yourself plenty of rest after a crash; allow your body time to recover
• Keep hydrated – As always hydration will keep your body in good working order and help you stay active.