Wolf616
Über Member
I've been struggling with a strained achillees/what could perhaps be the return of plantar fasciitis from my teenage years recently - it started just before Christmas and peaked two weeks ago. It's mostly manageable now and a slight irk rather than debilitating, and is probably a mix of overuse and tight leg muscles (I inherited naturally tight calves from my Mum, naturally tight hamstrings from my Dad and mutated to have naturally tight quads too - thanks genetics!). I rested for two weeks over the Christmas period and then started cycling again, but fewer days a week, when I went back to work.
Has anyone else ever noticed that stopping cycling actually makes the aches and pains of such problems worse?
Undoubtedly if I do a long ride on one day then the next I'll have to take off just to deal with DOMS, but then if I take the next day off my heel pain (mostly left foot) becomes much more pronounced than if I cycle (not too far - 22 miles round commute). I stretch even when not cycling (after walking home or to work), but perhaps not as 'vigorously' as when I have cycled.
I guess my long round-a-bout question is: can stopping exercise when your body is used to it make injuries worse? This seems counter-intuitive, but anecdotally for me it appears to be the case. Is it just that tight muscles get tighter if you don't exercise them as you would normally?
Has anyone else ever noticed that stopping cycling actually makes the aches and pains of such problems worse?
Undoubtedly if I do a long ride on one day then the next I'll have to take off just to deal with DOMS, but then if I take the next day off my heel pain (mostly left foot) becomes much more pronounced than if I cycle (not too far - 22 miles round commute). I stretch even when not cycling (after walking home or to work), but perhaps not as 'vigorously' as when I have cycled.
I guess my long round-a-bout question is: can stopping exercise when your body is used to it make injuries worse? This seems counter-intuitive, but anecdotally for me it appears to be the case. Is it just that tight muscles get tighter if you don't exercise them as you would normally?