Cycling and Preventing Bone Density Loss

by Jered Gruber

As the year winds down and your season draws to a close, the oft-hyped end of year celebration known as Transition rolls around. Transition is a time to rest, recuperate, and generally recharge your badly worn down batteries after a long and hopefully successful season. As a cyclist, you participate in an activity that is almost completely non-weight bearing. This is good for avoiding impact related injuries but a complete absence of load bearing activities can lead to crippling skeletal maladies far down the road. One study found Tour de France racers had bone mass densities between 10 and 17 percent lower than those of age-matched counterparts.

A solution? Use Transition to get off the bike and apply some weight bearing force to your body- run, hike, jog, or jump rope. I know a pro cyclist who can't stand the idea of downtime, so he uses October and November as a time to devote to running. He races numerous 5k's before settling into the ardors of a hard winter. Don't stop at the end of Transition though; maintaining bone density is an ongoing process.

Of course, just getting up and going for a run would be foolish. And, of course, I've done it on more than one occasion. The basic act of walking the next day became nearly impossible as a result. Incorporating running too quickly into what has previously been a plan based entirely around cycling will definitely cause immense soreness and in all likelihood cause some sort of injury. You should begin to add it slowly into your program, and besides, who wants to do anything fast in October?

While enjoying your time off the bike after that last race - go out for 15 minutes of foot-driven exercise. Walk 5 minutes, run 5, and finish with 5 as a pedestrian. The next day, add another ten minutes, but make sure to finish the day walking. Gradually increase the time running and decrease the time walking until after a week you're hopefully enjoying a little run around the neighborhood sans the crippling soreness or injuries you'd encounter if you just decided to do a 5-mile run one day.

Once you move out of Transition, running will start to play a smaller role, and perhaps stop altogether, but there is still hope for your bones. Weight training is another great way to maintain bone density, but like running, it should be implemented slowly and steadily so as not to injure.

Incorporate weight bearing activity throughout the season. At some point daily try to do something weight-bearing. Some coaches just have their riders jump in place for a minute or two everyday. Jumping rope is a great choice - not to mention its excellent polymeric effects. Hiking is an excellent weight bearing activity and can be used as a recovery work out for the muscles. At the bare minimum: take the stairs!

When talking about bones and bone density, I would be remiss to neglect mentioning calcium intake. Try to get 1000 to 1500 milligrams of calcium from your diet. As an example of a calcium source, an eight-ounce glass of milk contains 290 milligrams of calcium. If you are not getting enough, consider a supplement. Perhaps you don't have to consume a supplement every day, only on the days when your food consumption doesn't match the recommended requirements. The superior supplement is calcium citrate malate, found in many juices. On average, people absorb 35 percent of the calcium in calcium citrate malate, compared to 30 percent of the calcium in other supplements.

The skeletal system is not a priority on anyone's list of concerns, but just taking some general, simple steps can make sure that it never forces its way to the fore. This October, try a little off the bike time, lace up your running shoes, get out and tap out some easy miles on foot. You'll enjoy the different activity and your bones will appreciate the stimulation. When you stop running there's plenty more � a little weight training, jumping rope, and a well-formulated supplement can all help you keep your bones strong for many, many years.