Yesterday, while trying to learn to freemount my 29er I landed very hard on my Sacroiliac joint (lower back) ugh… Well I went to bed last night with difficulity and was in a lot of pain all night. Getting up out of bed (getting in and out of a car etc) with this type of injury is very painful. I was thinking to myself “no unicycling until this heals…this could take a couple of weeks” My wife also reminded me to at least take the day off. Well I had to find out if Unicycling was going to make it worse. I tried. My worst fear was falling or at least dismounting and causing alot of pain. I was stunned however to find out that actually dismounting or jumping off my unicycle actually made it feel better. That is crazy… But it is true. Any explanations, anyone? Almost like therapy… or at least a warm compress.
Nov 11, last year, I went riding on my 29’er with one of my dogs (pit bull mix) on a leash, came in the the church parking lot and two other dogs started to tangle with mine, and somehow my dog pulled me backwards fast, needless to say I did what I think is called a sufflex instantanously, landed on my tailbone and back. I laid on the pavement I don’t know how long, it was the worst crash of my life. For a while I thought I busted my tailbone too. Bunch of other parts hurt bad too. My Thumbnail is still healing up.
My tailbone healed fast, I was riding again some the next day. It took about a week for me to be back to normal. I don’t remember now if I felt better riding or not.
Now back to the freemounting, the way I do it, left foot pedal at the 6 o’clock position, I put my left foot on the left pedal, most of my weight on the left pedal, tilt the seat and post back about 10 to 20 degrees, launch myself on the seat, with my right foot hit the right pedal backwards just enough to stabalize myself, and then start off wherever I am going. This works about 90% to 95% of the time for me.
Keep practicing the freemounting, soon you will get it.
I’m not a doctor, but over the years I’ve found the unicycle to be good medicine. It’s not riding that makes me feel crappy, and getting back into it makes me feel more healthy. I say this after doing my first major ride in about a month. I’ve been either out of town, otherwise committed or rained out all of that time, and wanted to make today count. So I went 20 miles and purposely threw in extra hills. I feel better, but also noticed I have a bunch of pounds to lose before going for my century in June…
When I have a sore back, unicycling has never been a problem. It’s probably less about the unicycle, and more about getting the heart and lungs pumping, breathing fresh air, etc. But the unicycle is mostly how I do that.
Whenever I have back problems, I usually pamper it, and avoid doing things that make it hurt more. But if I get on a unicycle, it forces me to stretch out my back and remain active, which always seem to help, even if it is just a little ride down the street or 2.
I’ve been dealing with wisdom teeth coming in the last two weeks, some sickness got the better of my immune system in the process so I’ve had pretty much a flu for 4 days now, on 3 of them I unicycled (yesterday I was too worried about what’s going to happen if I actually go to the dentist to do anything) and it’s always made me feel better, in fact I think I’ll go for a morning ride right now
I was just getting into MUni when I was getting growing pains. My knees were hurting super bad. Then after 2 months of riding my knees havent any pain. My core also is very firm.
Maybe because when you are riding you are concentrating on riding and therefore not aware of that good feeling. But after you bail off, you then perceive it. -Twas just a thought but it was certainly true with me: Now after a couple of years, riding a unicycling feels as easy as riding a bike. And every time I get on my uni, and straighten my back, It does feel very nice.
I had sore knees in my first few weeks of real riding too, but wasn’t in a growth spurt. Are you sure it wasn’t just having your seat too low? That’s what it looks like in your avatar…
Are you sitting on your testicles? That would definitely explain it. Also, when I rode the Marathon race at Unicon XIV in Denmark, I would have been happy to bail at any point in the last few miles. I did the whole thing without a dismount, and I don’t think the human crotch was meant to do that…
Interesting topic. I also have back problems. First I had a slight scolioses in my back, due to muscle imbalances. This is probably because all the sports and activities i seem to do only really work one side of my body. It seems that trials unicycling also didn’t help due to always hopping sif with my right hand. Physio didn’t fix anything, however the osteopath has given me a great number of stretches that have straightened out my spine over the course of a year and greatly improved my posture. I’m going to have to return to him to help with my sacrum for i’ve seemed to of done something to jar it or something has set it out of place. I’m surprised many other trials riders don’t have muscle imbalances and back problems for they are always working one side of the body more than the other.
I am naturally right handed, so of course my right arm is bigger and my right upper body is slightly stronger.
However I always hold the uni with my left, and wave my stronger, right , arm in the air for balance. For some reason I find this easier. I guess it helps build up my left upper body as well.
I’ve noticed since using the handle heavily now with my right arm, that my muscles will sometimes settle slanting that way, and it will appear that I have scoliosis. So I’m trying to find ways to keep my muscles more balanced. The one obvious way is to alternate hands.
Also, when I rode the Marathon race at Unicon XIV in Denmark, I would have been happy to bail at any point in the last few miles. I did the whole thing without a dismount, and I don’t think the human crotch was meant to do that… 