I have a knee injury. I am seeing the MD tomorrow and should be able to assess the extent of the injury. I am frustrated because I am not able to unicycle. I went out today to do some light uni practice – it was not good. I had to stop
I need the solace of like-minded unicyclists, so I have returned to the Hive to put out this thread. Has injury ever prevented you from unicycling? How did you cope with it? I see so many extreme videos on the forums and now I wonder if anyone else ever has to stop because of injury. Am I in the minority here?
Consider this to be an anti-depressant post. I am not the type to linger on negative aspects – and I am positively looking forward to riding again Can anyone relate to this? If so, if you wish to tell it, what’s your story?
I sprained my right ankle last summer while playing racquetball. That slowed down my riding for a couple weeks but I got over it in time.
I am a conservative rider because I don’t want to get hurt. I have a real difficult time doing simple things like a 3 set of stairs. However, I do enjoy off-road riding and I have several unicycles ranging from 20-inch freestyle to a 36-inch Coker.
I used to go into uni-depression during the winter when days are short because I knew I would have less time to ride after work. Now that I am retired that is not a problem. In fact, this has been my best winter in many years. Having access to the outdoors during daylight hours has been great. I did not have to spend my daylight hours sitting at a desk.
I was in Stanley Park in Vancouver BC 3 miles from where I was staying. I hopped a curb, got my leg pinned between the frame and curb, fell, and broke my leg in a freak accident where I used the unicycle like a crowbar. I rode the unicycle three miles back to where I was staying. The following day I drove my truck from Vancouver to Seattle. Two days later I had it x-rayed and cast.
True story. I didn’t know the fibula was broken until after the x-ray. The leg was swollen so tightly that it essentially set the fibula. The orthopedic surgeon chastised me for how stupid it was to ride a unicycle with a broken leg. (Hey, I didn’t know it was broken. I heard it crack but that doesn’t mean it broke.) But after he looked at the x-ray he thought it was maybe not so bad an idea after all. I wore a wrapped cast which was to be non-weight bearing for two weeks and a walking cast for four weeks after that. I was unable to ride either my bike or uni with that big, fat, walking cast on.
I broke my ankle 2 weeks ago on a XC downhill on my 29".
My fibula on my left foot snapped right above my ankle.
It hurt like hell the first 15 minutes, then the pain got much less.
Still needed to walk up the hill to get close to the road to waith for my transport to the hospital. So I’m in a cast right now for another 4 weeks.
I realy want to go out and ride, but its not worth the risk of an operation.
Is it a new injury? Or pain while riding from an old injury? The 36, road crown, and our older knees can lead to some knee troubles.
Do a search for knee pain or injury. You should find a few threads. In the past while training and increasing distance rapidly, if I took a break from riding for more than a four days, the first day back on the uni I some times had knee tendonitis and/or it band from road crown give me trouble.
Last June I fractured my tibia plateau. It stopped me for 12 weeks.
well we are about the same age so…
unicycling is the first sport where I started injuring myself … but this has not stopped me. Ended up twice in the emergency ward (worst one was phlebitis due to undetected snapped achilles tendon) and last year I broke one wrist and severely damaged the other (not going to list everything)
Though I am certainly not the the “macho-that-boast-of-his-numerous-injuries” I will say that being addicted to unicycling I can’t stop going back on the saddle as soon as possible.
My father and my MD moan and usually tell me “stop playing like a kid!”
So don’t give up: unicycling is worth it and until now I will say that the benefits are vastly more important than some pesky bruises…
Wow! these stories really put things in perspective for me! I can’t say I have too much of a problem! But yeah, missing the ride sucks. Get well sooner
retired at 55? impressed!
(were you in the army or did you start working in the coal mine at age 14?)
I still have 10 years to go… and in my job (computing) I am considered as a survivor.
I sprained my ankle pretty badly this summer and couldn’t ride for about two months, it sucked. Its still a little bigger and weaker then the other one, but I’ll be ok.
You just need to relax a few days, don’t stress your knee to much and you’ll be riding in a week or less. If you overdo your knee, you can be recovering longer then you needed. So just take it easy for a while.
Yeah, I noticed I started to ‘injure’ myself when I started to unicycle - but nothing serious at all like the injuries being posted here. So, not sure I should be pleased I haven’t any real injuries so far, or be worried that I am statistically heading for a major bone-crusher
Just getting over a rotator-cuff tear but my first question when I did it was, ‘How bad is it’. Same thing with knee. Fairly certain it is caused by learning to mount my 36er. getting up and down has stressed one of my knees. Just kept stuffing ibuprofen and carried on mounting. Probably ligaments but I seem to be lucky compared to other dudes…
I’m not sure about the nature of everyone’s injury here, but I’m guessing a head injury must’ve occurred at some point. All these posts are in the wrong forum!
Don’t know ab king. I have an ab strap that fits around the shoulders but find the leg press is good for toning the legs for unicycling. There is also a lower pully and chain for glute kicks and hip abductions that really focus on strengthening the legs and lower body that are used for unicycling.
Can anyone relate to this? If so, if you wish to tell it, what’s your story?
Way to go Harper! Somehow I feel a lot better - in a perverse sort of way 
How long did it take to get back onto one wheel?
