Triathlon is one of the UK’s fastest growing sports and gives those involved a great way to get all round peak physical fitness. Due to the demanding physical nature of the sport as well as the unique combination and order of disciplines involved triathletes appear to be subject to particular types of injuries.

Triathletes tend to have particular difficulty getting their bodies to adapt to the extremes of posture and movement demanded of them at the lower back/pelvis and hips. The transition from cycling to running is probably the most testing part in terms of biomechanical demand. With cycling the lower back and hips are working in largely flexed postures and the main driving muscles are working in more lengthened positions. Running is the other extreme in that the trunk is now upright and the hip needs to fully extend. This is something that most people find very difficult to achieve and is not necessarily something that just gets better with increased training.

In a similar way, on the bike the calf muscles work in relatively shortened positions where as with running they need to work through a larger range of movement into relatively long positions in order to control the lower limb joints well and this is also something that often proves hard to manage without specific muscle conditioning. 

Triathletes do tend to get aches and pains associated with these muscle imbalances as a result; we often see lower back and sacroiliac joint complaints, pains on the outside of the knee associated with iliotibial band restriction, and foot and ankle problems associated calf muscle length.  It is possible to train these muscle groups to work well and support the spine and lower limbs properly across both disciplines but this often needs in-depth analysis of muscle function as well as video gait analysis. We encourage triathletes as well as cyclists to bring their bikes to the clinic where we can video them on a turbo trainer to see the exact movement patterns they are subject to in relation to any injuries or slight niggles they may be getting.

We also work closely with swimming coaches at ‘Swim for Tri’ who video swimmers in an endless pool and are able to pick up on movement problems and swimming technique.  Optimising stress at the shoulders is especially important as these swimmers put in large distances in training and competition and are particularly vulnerable to conditions such as subacromial impingement.