At some point, every one of us deals with an injury. Maybe it’s backpain, a sore neck, tight muscles or a little nicknack somewhere. And since our trainingload is high and we are short on time, we often put the decision for a doctor on hold. And you’re right, this doesn’t make it better. But the good news is, that most of the time it’s just a thing of muscle imbalance, unfavourable body movement or wrong bike setup. Therefore, you can solve the problem most of the time by yourself. So here’s my simple way of self-dealing with an injury.
1. Name the pain
Usually you search the symptoms on google a là “pain on the right side of the knee”. And what Google usually does is, take the word “knee” and “pain” and throws out one specific, very common injury like ITB-Syndrome. Good for that one guy with ITBS, bad for all the others.
So here’s the “right” way:
Visit www.sportsinjuryclinic.net, go to “Symptoms Checker”, click on the hurting part of your body and then read through the injurys. Pick the ones, that fits best to your pain.
2. Find the cause
Now, you have to find the cause. But with your injury named, you can now google it better. I use the picture search, wich usually brings up a stretch or strengthening exercise. Then, when you try out a few of these exercise you’ll soon find out, which muscle hurts the most or where in your body an imbalance exists.
Then the question arises: Where does this come from?
But Google should throw up a few ideas for that. Maybe your saddle is to low or you’re just using one foot too much. Interstingly this is the case for me, since I’m always standing weighted on my left leg.
3. Treat
Now is the time to be patient. You found the cause, you have the exercise or stretch. Don’t expect, that you stretch one time and the pain is gone forever. It took your body weeks, months or years to develop this injury, now you have to put some time in, to get it back to normal.
Do you have any tipps on dealing with injury?
The Bike Escape 
Hi Stephan
Great article but I think there’s a mistake in the link. Should it be http://sportsinjuryclinic.net?
Bruce
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Yes, I try to figure this out 😉
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Can’t really improve on that. Just posted a similar thought for a very different application. Both are a form of “Action Research”. End result is to help one arrive at a better place.
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Hopefully 😉
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Great post and thanks for sharing.
My tip would be to ensure that you know where the pain originates from. As an example, lower back pain may be referred to your glutes or upper leg. In my opinion, it is better to see someone who fully understands the body, rather than trying to self diagnose. I have been guilty of self-diagnosis in the past. For a long time I convinced myself that I had platellar tendinitus. My self diagnosis combined with self treatment only made the problem worse. It was not until I spoke to someone with greater knowlege than me was I able to sort the problem out. So, I would always give caution to self diagnosis. It could lead to further, more chronic problems.
Thanks again for the post. Rob 🙂
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Sure always the better idea, to seek advice from a professional when you have the time.
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Good point. Reminds me of working about 10 days trying to alleviate pain that I figured was being caused by kidney stones. Gave in an had a CT scan ruled that out. It was suggested I had pulled a muscle in that area. I cut back on my exercise route and had it clear up in about a week.
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