Leg muscle pain after fitness cycling

Hope you guys are able to help me with this.

I've recently started cycling into work, and finding the muscle pain in my body quite uncomfortable.

To understand the whole picture I'll start a ways back a bit.

I'm 45 yrs old, and have in the past (at school - 20 odd years ago) been quiet active in sport. After leaving school got into work (similar story to many I'm sure) and sport was lost. I now work in a managerial position and therefore get little exercise :(. I am over weight (originally 136 kilos, now 126 kilos after cycling over the last few months)

Recently, about 6 months ago I started going for a walk each morning for up to 2 hours, and approx 10 kms. Out of the blue, (after 3 months)I hurt my foot, and on the advice of my Physio started cycling (as a less stressful form of exercise). I started cycling around home getting used to the seat initially, and then getting used to cycling of 15-20 kms at a time. My initial goal was to cycle to and from work, 22kms each way, 44kms round trip. My secondary goal after a month was cycling to work, 3 out of the 5 days per a week (44kms per day, and 132kms per week). This has been going really well, although I’m finding my body is getting quiet tired and sore (aches, not strains). I’m now hoping to ramp my cycling up to everyday, as I’m really enjoying my cycling, but I’m concerned about the aches and pains I’m experiencing. Do you have any advice as to what I can do to lessen these aches and pains? My boss has recommended a whey power (low in carbohydrates) which I have been using, but this doesn’t appear to be helping the regeneration of my muscles.

In reading my post again, I can see it may sound as though it's just muscle fatigue. The thing is though I have a weekend in between each week to have my body and muscles recover, but come Monday morning, I'm still very sore.

Hi Geoff,

First thing that springs to mind for me is are you stretching? Secondly, did you get this feeling when you first started cycling, or has it just been when you have increased your weekly milage?

Thanks Karen,

1. Re: Stretching ... Hey no I haven't done any stretching at all. Do you think I should Stretch before each ride? (I work an afternoon shift 1pm - 9:30pm and ride to work 1pm and home 9:30pm) I didn't give any thought to stretch as I though the excercise was so low impact, I felt I didn't really need it.
2. Re: geting this feeling when you first started cycling ... Actually no, I only really got these aches and pains when I was doing the greater mileages 40 kms per day.

When you exercise, be it impact or not, you build up lactic acid in your muscles. Stretching would be better used after you have cycled to try and help the removal of lactic acid. The thing to avoid would be a hot bath as well when you get home as this may exacerbate things.

The other thing is that perhaps you have increased your mileage too quickly. If the stretching doesn't help, then reduce your milage again and gradually build up. I definately wouldn't advise increasing your milage at the moment as you would just get worse.

Thanks for your advice Karen.
Can you give me some idea of what specific stretching exercises I could do after my daily cycle?

I guess like all things, now that I have been continuing my cycling and have now cycled two consecutive days, and my muscles appear to be handling the ride a bit better now, and I'm experiencing less aches, but I will be careful about increasing any more mileage.

If you can let me know more about the specific stretching exercises for my cycling I would be greatly appreciative. Thanks again Karen.

You want to stretch all of your leg muscles (hamstrings, quads and calfs) and then probably your pecs, due to the arm position. You might be best investing in a stretching book.

Glad your feeling less achy. Obviously you just increased the stress on the muscles too quickly and the ache was them unable to cope. Now they are getting used to it and getting stronger the ache should die down. As I said before, just watch how quickly you increased your milage in the future,

hi

good ure getting better, on top of that u should do once a week mass/strenth training. sorry, but in cardio training u do, should be adventage of carbo-slow release, cos u need energy (easy digested) and less building materials.

suggest cold hot shower with a shower head massage ie 2min hot/1min cold x 5.