I’ve been using PC’s for a little while now and I’ve seen improvement in my running. I haven’t used them enough yet to see a noticeable improvement in my biking, but I’m sure that will come.
The question I have is that with the strength gains in your hip flexors with regular usage of Power Cranks, is it possible to create a muscle imbalance that could cause injury elsewhere, such as your lower back or hamstrings? The reason I ask is someone I know that used them regularly (was up to 80 mile bike rides with them) messed up his lower back last year and feels that a contributing factor was the imbalance created by the PC’s strengthing his hip flexors beyond what the tendons and muscles in his lower back could compensate for.
If this is possible, would it be advisable to do more stretching and strength training for the other parts of the body to make up for it? Wouldn’t it also be advisable to build up your time on the power cranks very slowly to allow other parts of your body to catch up some?
Thanks,
Jim
I don’t know about muscle imbalances but I got a really bad case of tendonitis in my hip flexors after several weeks of hard intervals. I gave it some rest but everytime I went back to PCs it flared up again so I was forced to go to normal cranks since the season was starting. On the positive side, and even though it is has been 2 months since I used them, my running is still considerable stronger than pre-PC. I recover faster after long runs and overall just feel much stronger so the gains seem to have stuck so far from a running perspective. I can only guess how much faster I would be if I could of continued using them. I will give them another try late in the summer.
I’ve been on PC’s since jan and I recently have had a nasty achilles tendonitis re-flare up. I’ve noticed as well that my hamstrings are “tighter” than I’ve ever felt them. I’m not good at stretching but I think I may need to incorporate a routine to account for the difference in muscle use/mass this year vs. other years.
I’ve used them for over a year now and if anything my back is much stronger than it ever has been in the past 15 years. But I am sure this has nothing to do with PC’s. Around 15 months ago, I decided to sit ‘actively’ and had the armrests and the backrest from my office chair removed. While not quite like sitting on a swiss ball (I’d be the object of ridicule in my office), it works really great in strengthening the core muscles 8 hours per day. Either way, all triathletes, should be engaging in an active program of core strenthening 12 months a year. Otherwise you’ll come off the bike with your back locked in the aero position and will be unable to run well for several miles, not to mention, to weak to hold the aero position for long periods into stiff headwinds !
I don’t think what you are seeing is due to “muscle imbalance” but, rather, an overuse type of “injury” or something totally unrelated.
If anything, I would expect PC’s to reduce incidence of injury because they tend to better balance the muscles, both right left and fore aft. However, if one does anything too much too fast, injury can occur.
Stretching before and after workouts is always indicated although I rarely do this and have not seen a problem, but then I am not in a serious training mode. I don’t believe strength training would be very effective at preventing these types of problems, and it would probably aggravate them.
One should be careful in building up their time on the cranks. It is not necessary to go slow if your body adapts easily (as many have experienced) but it is necessary to go slow, ifit doesn’t.
Frank
It is hard to imagine the PC’s being responsible for an achilles tendonitis, at least from riding the bike, as most people tend to back off on the down stroke in the beginning, which should put less pressure on the achilles. However, achilles problems can occur with running and I would tend to think you would be better off cutting back on your running and biking more (on the PC’s of course). Did you cut back on your running mileage when you started the PC’s?
Frank
if youre gonna work muscles that havent really been worked before, youre gonna have to strech them… a lot. Stretching 3-5 times a day would probably counteract any tightness created by PCs, or any other sort of workout.
I am seeing a huge imbalance between me and my training partners. I use PCs and am getting huge and strong and they are scrawney and slow.
Damn, I’m still in a great mood from Gulf Coast! Hoowa, pass me another…