Cyclingnews Fitness Q&A - August 3, 2011

Ryan Trebon (Lts/Felt) gets in some road training for his off-road racing. (Image credit: Jonathan Devich)

Topics: Hamstring problems, RE: Shaving your legs, Gracilis cramping, Seat setback, Recovery products, Position dependent leg length differences

I have been experiencing a lot of pain in the belly of my hamstring muscles. After a day or two of recovery from a hard threshold session they hurt less. When I do these threshold efforts I usually notice the burn the most in the hamstrings. I have had a bike fit done so my position is at least reasonable. Are my hamstrings weak or should I look into another bike fit. I do stretch, but could do more. Any help would be much appreciated. I feel like this is really holding me back from doing more workouts.

If the hamstrings are overloaded, either the seat is too high or too far back. Or possibly both. Normally, if having the seat too high is what causes the hamstrings to load up, discomfort is felt either very high in the hamstrings or very low, not in the belly. This is not a 100% occurrence but it is more likely that your seat setback is too great as more often than not, when this is the reason for hamstring problems, it is the belly of the muscle group that feels the pressure.

I've realized that I said belly of hamstring in my previous email when I've realized in actuality the pain in the hamstring was mostly high in the hamstring. So I decided to lower my seat a bit, and move it back a bit. The new position feels a lot better - especially when I try to ride at higher cadences. I ended up doing a 140 mile ride the other day and noticed some soreness in the upper calf/quad/and psoas muscle definitely no hamstring/glut fatigue like I usually experience. I think I might need to move the seat up just a bit to take a bit of the load off the quad/psoas. I have been reading a few of your bike fit articles and they seem match so well with my experience on the bike unlike a lot of the information I have read in the past. Thanks again.

Move your seat back to your original position and then lower it only. You have lowered it and moved it back. Moving it back increases seat height which at least partially offsets the positive effect of dropping it. The upper calf soreness means that you are either too high or your cleats are too far forward. Your psoas soreness means that they are too tight to start with and also that either your seat is too far back or that your bars are too low.

I have suffered gracilis muscle (inner thigh) cramps for several years. These cramps almost never occur on the bike (unless I’m really tired and over-doing it). Almost always occur several hours after the ride, often when rising from the couch, or getting out of bed. By that time, I have rehydrated, eaten, and often done other activity. When questioning other riders and sports med physicians, nobody else had heard of this type of cramping (although web search does come up with some discussions elsewhere). The cramps are bilateral (although often only affect one or the other leg), excruciatingly painful and very difficult to “stretch out”.

I do sweat profusely when riding, and I know that my sweat is fairly corrosive (evidence on the bike), suggesting it’s a high-salt solution. The cramps do not appear to be related to the time of year, but are somewhat related to the exertional effort (e.g. lots of hill climbing, racing etc). I find it hard to believe that it’s a matter of “undertrained” muscles. I do not currently take any electrolyte replacements prior to riding, but usually pre-hydrate, and try to stay hydrated as possible when riding (with water).

I’m a 25 year old grad student in China. After a long struggle with my weight, I took up running, and eventually cycling about three years ago. Before this year, cycling was a way of supplementing my running and providing a change of pace, so my on-bike intensity was quite low and my mileage was rather limited. But even then I experienced some discomfort mainly in the form of forefoot numbness. About a month ago, I read in this fitness Q&A section that someone experienced similar numb feet problem as I do, and Steve’s recommendation was, vastly simplified, to drop seat height. I tried this and it relieved a lot of the numbness I felt.

Recently, I have had to re-adjust my position, because the old saddle I used was an Allay Sport Racing. The air filled cushion didn’t help me so much as the massive-setback rail on the saddle. The setback option allowed me to achieve my ideal position as defined by Steve’s “No Hand at medium intensity test”. However, the complex shape at the side of the saddle meant it was shredding my shorts to pieces. But I’ve found that almost all the other saddle and seatpost combination I can get my hand on and/or afford simply would not allow me to go that far back. I’ve managed to find one combination which I could manage to be as close as possible. I guess my question here is: is the setback I need a function of my core strength and/or flexibility? If it is, would improvement in one or both allow me to move forward while still being able to maintain a stable position?

If the seat needs replacing and you genuinely need a lot of setback, have a look at SMP Dynamic, SMP Lite 209, or SMP Glider. Not only do they have long rails but the shape of the seat dictates that the rider sit further back relative to the length of the seat than almost any other seat. The Dynamic and Lite 209 are better in this regard compared to the Glider but not by that much. Choose the Glider is you are a large, heavy person.

I am looking into the use of protein based shakes and supplements to improve recovery, however with the number and variety of products on the market it can be difficult to differentiate between the science and the marketing hype and work out what is best to take, and when. I am purely looking to maximise my recovery, rather than gain or lose weight, and I have already given some thought to my diet, sleep, stretching and compression clothing. I usually ride five days a week, including one race, for a total of around 10-12 hours. I think I generally recover quite well and have no trouble training on consecutive days but I am keen to investigate whether there is something extra to be gained from the use of supplements and shakes.

The two main sources of protein in supplements seem to be whey and milk, and it is claimed that these release protein at a different rate. There are also supplements for additional amino acids, particularly glutamine and creatine. Some products offer these elements in isolation, others have combinations or an all-in-one approach, and some offer a blend of protein and carbohydrates in varying ratios, and even extra vitamins and electrolytes.

What products to use depend on what you are looking to recover from. According to the research, protein in recovery drinks does not help with glycogen recovery unless the total calorie intake in the recovery period is inadequate. That is, when protein is added to a small dose of carbohydrate, it increases glycogen formation, but when you compare the protein plus carbohydrate drink to an equal number of calories of carbohydrate alone, the advantage of protein disappears. The important thing is to get enough total calories, with most of it coming from carbohydrate.

I agree with your assessment of recovery drinks: They are a convenient way to get the calories you need. They don't contain any magic that is different from what you'd get from real food and water. You are right that the body is in the ideal state for glycogen formation shortly after an exercise session, but the research says that by 24 hours post exercise, glycogen stores will be no different between people who take advantage of the "glycogen formation window" and those who eat similar total calories spread over the following hours. If you are doing two workouts in one day a few hours apart, eating (or taking a recovery drink) right after a ride can be important. If you are not exercising again until the next day, then the timing of your calorie consumption becomes much less important.

The feeling you describe of needing to work harder to reach your usual speeds could be glycogen depletion, dehydration, electrolyte issues or a variety of other things. Depending on your size your body can store somewhere around 1000 Calories of glycogen. If you exercise to exhaustion of that supply, you'll need to eat about that on top of what you usually burn on a rest day to restore. Be aware though that you cannot 100% restore completely depleted glycogen stores in one day, no matter how much you eat or what you eat. That takes closer to three days, so avoid running your stores all the way down if at all possible.

In addition to glycogen repletion, another important aspect of recovery from endurance exercise is protein synthesis. During aerobic exercise, such as cycling, protein breakdown in increased and protein synthesis is decreased, resulting in negative protein balance. By contrast, during recovery from exercise, synthesis of the skeletal muscle proteins that are needed for repair of muscle structures and for adaptation to training, e.g., mitochondrial proteins, is markedly increased. Consequently, protein balance during the post-exercise recovery period should be positive (i.e., a net increase). However, this aspect of recovery requires both adequate cellular energy and amino acids (building blocks of proteins). In other words, provision of dietary energy as carbohydrate without co-ingestion of amino acids will not allow optimal post-exercise protein synthesis.

The branched chain amino acid leucine plays a critical role in regulating skeletal muscle protein synthesis. Leucine directly stimulates protein production by increasing the cellular machinery needed to make proteins. Fortunately, the amount of leucine required to stimulate protein synthesis (~2-4 g) can be easily obtained from a high quality protein such as cow’s milk (~ 16 ounces) or whey protein.

What puzzles me is that if I lay flat with legs up against a wall in a 45 degree angle, I consistently see that my right heel is about 0.5-1.0" lower than my left one. I can rule out the trivial explanation that I'm not perpendicular to the wall since it is very reproducible, and I checked the alignment of the exercise mat relative to the walls, and my position relative to the exercise mat. I have to lay at least 10deg to the right (i.e. visibly non-perpendicular) to level the heels.

What are the possible explanations, is this something that should be compensated on the bike, and - if so - how? It seems the 45deg hip angle is much more relevant for my position on the bike. Although I frequently have some pain and tightness in my left quadratus lumborum, this is much more pronounced after sitting for too long, and much less so while or after riding my bike. If I get saddle sores, it is always on the right though.

Scott Saifer (www.wenzelcoaching.com) is head coach, CEO of Wenzel Coaching.com and has been coaching cyclists professionally for 18 years. He combines a master's degree in Exercise Physiology with experience in 20 years of touring and racing and over 300 road, track and MTB races to deliver training plans and advice that are both rigorously scientific and compatible with the real world of bike racing.

Steve Hogg has owned and operated Pedal Pushers since 1986, a cycle shop specialising in rider positioning and custom bicycles. In that time he has positioned riders from all cycling disciplines and of all levels of ability with every concievable cycling problem. Clients range from recreational riders and riders with disabilities to World and National champions. He can be reached at: www.stevehoggbikefitting.com

James Hibbard progressed from the junior to the professional ranks as a rider and has over 15 years of competitive cycling experience. He is a former Collegiate All-American track cyclist, trained as a resident athlete at the United States Olympic Training Center, earned international medals as part of the U.S. National Team, and was a member of the powerhouse Shaklee and HealthNet Professional road cycling teams.

Carrie Cheadle, MA (www.carriecheadle.com) is a Sports Psychology consultant who has dedicated her career to helping athletes of all ages and abilities perform to their potential. Carrie specialises in working with cyclists, in disciplines ranging from track racing to mountain biking. She holds a bachelors degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University as well as a masters degree in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University.