there are surely few amongst us who do not suffer from intermittent aches and pains, not all of which are necessarily the result of riding our bicycles. with the exception of those who do so for a living, the majority of us have non-cycling day jobs and nowadays most remunerative toil involves sitting in front of a computer for at least a part of the day. no matter how many adjustments can be made to the seats on which we place ourselves, there's always the clear and present danger that we'll sit in a less than optimum position and thus incur aches and strains without really trying.
then there's the flipping gardening; i am convinced that whoever designed the black and decker strimmer never had cause to use one prior to it being sold at b & q for a discounted price. i am luddite enough to own a push-mower and though the croft features a postage stamp-sized portion of grass, i seriously believe that it is worth the price of admission in place of a gym membership. i'm afraid i leave any necessary weeding to mrs washingmachinepost, since she is better able to identify the differences between weeds and flowers.
but who would be less than man or woman enough to admit that any aches and pains were not acquired in the heat of battle, sprinting for the 30mph signs at bruichladdich village? far more admiration and brownie points can be gained by limping into the office on a monday morning, claiming to have strained a thigh muscle just at the point when both hands were held aloft (carefully avoiding the fact that i cannot ride with both hands distant from the handlebars).
strained muscles are one thing, but joint pain can be a darned sight more annoying, for it is a form of uncomfortable irritation that seems to hang about far longer than sore muscles, which quite often seem to cure themselves overnight. add to that the fact that sore muscles are often indication of some serious effort, the very thing that we'd wear as a badge were it possible so to do.
personally, my bête noir is the left elbow. there could be any number of reasons for this recurring annoyance; the most likely is a propensity to over-reach myself when practising drum rudiments. not that i intend to bore you with the finer details, but i personally favour tradional-grip as practiced by buddy, gene, vinnie and weckl, but without any of the ability demonstrated by the above. switiching to matched-grip seems not to lessen the nagging pain by any desirable amount, but then, i'm probably not doing so for a favourable length of time.
this particular ailment seems magnified when riding bicycles with shorter than 130mm stems and for those who haven't noticed, the majority of bicycles sold as complete entities seem to favour ten millimetres fewer than that. it's a discomfort that seems rarely, if ever, to afflict my right elbow, a fact that simply adds to the iniquity. however, though i have not sought medical treatment (it's more irritating than life-threatening), i think i might well have found a drug-free solution.
flexiseq active comes as a gel in a 50 gram tube and subheads itself as joint lubrication therapy. though the velo club has yet to instigate drug testing after the sunday morning sprint, for those of you who suffer joint pain but also race, this would appear to be a solution worth considering. application is simply a case of spreading the gel over the offending joint without actually rubbing it in (remarkably hard to stop yourself doing) and leave it uncovered for at least ten minutes.
i practised this particular regime twice per day over the course of a week and though the pain has not disappeared entirely (i cannot deny that i still have a tendency to overdo the paradiddles), it has certainly substantially diminished. the box claims that flexiseq active is clinically proven, a claim with which i would find it hard to disagree. if this sort of injury/affliction is one with which you can identify, i'd recommend getting yourself a tube of flexiseq gel and (hopefully) curing thyself.
the cost of a tube of flexiseq active would appear to be around £16.50 - £18.50 depending on where you decide to purchase, but on the basis of its apparent effectiveness, it's a small price to pay, especially when you consider how expensive bicycle components are these days.
monday 4 july 2016
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