Posts
19
Joined
6/16/2015
Location
Baden, PA
US
Edited Date/Time
5/9/2018 12:08pm
Hello all have any of you experienced a crash yet being older like a Shoulders, Arms, knees, whatever happened to you can you explain how long it took you to heal it yourself? I have went to the doctors and all they seem to do is want to operate on you.. I recently went over the handle bars on my Fatboy bruised my ribs and quad area and my arm. I don't think it is serious , i think i would be in serious pain if it was. i can not raise my arm yet but it is stiff some what
Welcome to the forum, btw! Keep shredding! I know plenty of 45+ riders still killing it.
Dec, 2014 Massive high speed OTB onto my neck, thought I broke it, by myself in Santa Cruz. MRI negative. Didn't rest it at all and kept riding. Had a major spell of vertigo after that for about 5 days, straight up face down on the couch until I needed to use the bathroom, then would literally stumble to the bathroom. It was crazy. Once all that subsided I realized my sternum/rib interface was really painful. Can't even do push-ups. Went to dr., went to physio for 3 weeks, nothing helped. Got an x-ray, turned out negative. Just got Cortisone injections last week in the chest area. I have been off the bike for 2 months, the ribs are a pain in the ass and really never heal 100%, especially if you keep using them...
I am 31 and all of my nagging injuries are noticeable. I was always easily fit, never really had to work out or stretch up until I hit 30. Rest, Ice, stretching, cross training, all very important I have started to realize. I am signing up for yoga to see if that helps.
Also, crashing is part of it, and if you see the big pros go down hard, you realize they have so much muscle and are prepared for it in much different ways than we are. Take Gee, he is the poster boy for being able to leverage your muscle to withstand massive crashes. He is an absolute tank.
Hoping to get back on the bike within the next month, but starting a cross training rehab program now that i have rested from the cortisone shots. I think base fitness and proper stretching are essential to good rehab, also rest and ice on the ribs, there is no good solution. Finding a smart physical therapist who understands sports injuries is essential. There is no way my shoulder would be at 95% had I not gone to leading PTs after my injury.
So far at 39 now im still on the bike more digging than riding but i do enjoy racing even at veteran class i do my best and never crash
low-intensity, but longer-duration stretches of key muscle groups for my particular injury have been helping me a bunch. using a foam roller has too. the biggest thing for me (w/ my particular back problem) is laying on a tennis ball. it's mind-blowing how much it's like a personal masseuse that can focus on key spots of tightness. i can be stiff as a board and spend 5 minutes using the tennis ball in key spots on my back and i loosen right back up. it's not comfortable doing it, but i'm helped greatly by it. w/ the stretches, icing, some chiropractic help and foam roll/tennis ball, i was able to be off the pain meds/muscle relaxers in 2 days and i've now been back on the bike twice in the last couple days (taking it easy, but still out there just a month later). since i feel good now, the hard part is keeping up the stretching before getting into my daily routine. when i was jammed up, i couldn't sleep well anyway, so i'd be stretching at 5am.
for impact injury, icing bruised areas asap has always been something i've heard for helping healing.
personally, i've always done best (regardless of age) if i have a decent warm-up. if i go straight into a hard ride, i feel more blown out after compared to when i've had 15 mins on a road/flat trail before to get the blood flowing. seems even more important as i get older.
nothing new here, just my personal experiences and stoked to hear from others.
the problem was way better the next morning but not totally gone. i went back to chiropractor and he seemed to think it was my neck being out of alignment. i got "cracked" as normal and i never experienced it again. he thought he could feel the right "crack" happen when he tweaked on my neck.
chiropractor may not be for everyone, but it's helped me. seems like there are the "ambulance chaser" kind of chiropractors and then legit ones, some emphasizing on active/sports patients. maybe worth a shot if you haven't tried? ask some fellow riders?
I go to a DO, Dr. of Osteopathy, and they do adjustments on spine, head, neck, ribs, etc. It helps but sometimes you just mess up the little calcium deposits in your inner ear that keep your balance. Vertigo causes are a big mystery in the medical world, they really have no way of telling what's goin' down.
Good news is it is not prevalent anymore.
Ice, rest, realizing you aren't in your 20s anymore, and stretching.
Still just mountain biking injuries.
http://racerxonline.com/2015/06/14/broc-schmelyun-injured-in-scary-cras…
You can also get paralyzed, maimed, and die from mtn biking as well. I definitely respect the gravity, rocks and trees a bit more after crashes that I can walk away from. Lots of people aren't so lucky, including pros like Tara and Matti as well as passionate advocates like Matt Klee. I tend not to belittle the real consequences of when blasting down trails goes wrong.
I've never seen you puke. Let's have some fun!
I'm 48 and on January I've flown over the bar landing with my right arm on a rock. Result: head of radius completely smashed.
The orthopedist decided that my original elbow was not repairable and replaced it with a brand new prosthesis made of some metal (maybe Volverine's adamantium).
After 6 months I've still some difficulties in extending and flexing my arm... honestly: I can't extend it completely unless someone slowly and strongly push it down and I have to struggle a lot to touch my right ear with my right hand.
Anyway now I'm back on my bike, trying to regain confidence with trails without worring to much of falling again.
Not so bad except for steep slopes, where it hurts a little (maybe more than a little) whenever I plant too much the hand on the grip.
Ah! In any case now I ever wear elbow pads
So I had to change my riding from pinning to flowing, don't take the race bait, ride within myself, and max at 80%, not the previous 110% (which was 10% over my skill level, ha ha).
And no racing.
All of this has reduced my once a year broken something injury rate to almost nothing.
Collar bone, ribs (x??), ruptured tendon, wrist, broken back (but still came in 1st!!! stupid.), but the final straw was impailing my handlebars 6cm into my groin (a la Cedric Gracia)
I love this sport too much to be forced to stop, I'm in it for the long haul. So if I have to slow down a bit, I'm ok with that. I'm not competing for the front of the pack, but I am loving flowing the trail and popping off everything in sight rather than mowing it over.
"Riding fast is a hell of a drug" - Rick James
The vertigo part is scary as fuck.
YouTube has videos of physical therapist showing the movements of the head to get the crystals back into the proper part of the ear canal.
I followed the video and it instantly solved my vertigo.
"Knowing is half the battle. Yo Joe!!!!"
Funny story about vertigo. I've only had one concussion (go figure...) and it was non-biking related (go figure X2). Tripped on the rug in my bedroom and slammed my head on my closet door. Doc said I shattered those balance crystal things in my ear and I was spinning for almost two weeks. That's not so funny, but hitting my head on my closet door is.
the Brachialis is where my pain is the most at! I thought by me lifting weights like i do would shorted the injury , well i use to lift a lot more maybe i really need to get back into this since i am riding in the woods again! LOL
After I hit the ground hard now, I usually just lay there look at the sky and have a temporary existential moment.
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