Take pleasure in The Advantages of Train However Keep Secure

A few days in the past, fellow blogger Tony posted this: Most forms of exercise are overwhelmingly safe – but don’t ignore the dangers. Thanks, Tony. It’s based mostly on an attention-grabbing study lately revealed within the journal Damage Prevention [1]. By analyzing accident statistics in England and Wales within the interval 2012-2017, they got here up with damage charges for numerous exercise-related actions. Biking had an damage price of two.8 per 100,000 outings, whereas strolling had 0.03 per 100,000, and health actions (e.g. fitness center participation) had 0.21 per 100,000. All of those are comparatively low, I’m solely prone to get injured about as soon as each 33,000 rides, and it may be argued that the well being advantages of the exercise outweigh the damage danger. However notice that biking had 100 occasions the damage price of strolling. So it is smart to do no matter attainable to reduce the dangers. That is very true in my case, as within the few years I’ve been penning this log, I’ve accrued the train advantages of many hours of exercise. However I’ve additionally: damaged a collarbone in a motorbike crash, ripped my rotator cuff in a mountain climbing fall, and needed to go to the hospital for a head trauma (fortunately not too extreme).

For biking, listed here are some apparent security measures:

Accident danger increased at evening than in the course of the day, so if attainable keep away from driving at evening, in any other case have good lighting and vivid reflective clothes.
Accident danger is increased at busy roads on rush hour. Using at these occasions could also be unavoidable for bike commuting, nevertheless it helps to search out alternate routes on quieter roads. Again within the late Seventies I used to be commuting from Mountain View Ca to Palo Alto. Palo Alto is now thought-about a bike-friendly metropolis however was significantly much less so again then. I keep in mind my route went midway on Central Expressway, which had a pleasant bike lane, however then become Alma Ave, a busy avenue with no bike lane and a slender shoulder. I rapidly mapped out a route that averted Alma Ave through the use of quieter streets, in any other case I may not be right here to jot down this weblog.

I used to be already doing measures like these and others like holding my bike well-maintained. My latest accident induced me to rethink what I might need carried out in another way, and I got here up with: Use fatter tires. The bike I crashed on is taken into account a “gravel bike” and may have been sure-footed on the street I used to be on. It got here with 32 mm huge tires, and after they wore out I changed them with 25 mm to be quicker. Security first! I’ll be placing 32s again on the bike quickly. I’ve additionally all the time prided myself on being a “fearless descender”. For the reason that crash occurred on a downhill flip, I feel it’s time to slightly take pleasure in being a “cautious descender”.

References

Davies M, Lawrence T, Edwards A, et al, “Sport-related main trauma incidence in younger folks and adults in England and Wales: a nationwide registry-based research”, Damage Prevention Revealed On-line First: 24 October 2023. doi: 10.1136/ip-2023-044887.