I wanted to share with you the summary of a recent medical research paper entitled “Correct Poor Crank-arm Fit to Relieve Chronic Knee (and Hip) Pain.” The paper was authored by Rick Schultz of Bike Fitness Coaching (OCW member) and Amy Schultz, PT, DPT, CSCS. It is scheduled to be published this year.
Background:
Amy is a licensed Doctor of Physical Therapy and I am a master bike fitter and we specialize in medical bike fits. This paper was in direct response to the hundreds of clients that have come in for knee pain relief. Most wait until they get to the point of not being able to apply any pressure to the pedals without severe knee pain.
It is extremely important to look at and solve their knee pain from two sides, i.e., physical therapy and bike fitting. For example, if a cyclist with chronic knee pain goes in to see a physical therapist and does nothing to correct the original cause, their knee pain will return immediately when getting back into their ill-fitted bicycle.
Post physical therapy, the cyclist should be sent in for bike fitting to ensure their knee pain does not return. So far, we have helped over 1,000 cyclists reduce or eliminate their knee pain. I mention reduce since there are those cyclists that have waited too long for treatment or a bike fit that they now have permanent knee damage, meaning that there will always be some level of pain when cycling. For these cyclists there are two possible solutions, (a) see an orthopedic surgeon who will prescribe a medical; course of action and (b) once healed, consider even shorter crank arms to reduce knee and hip movement.
Data Collection:
Metrics are collected for all bike fits with special notes added for those that exhibit knee pain.
The data collected shows a direct relationship of long crank arms causing hyperflexion of the knees when cycling.
Paper Preparation:
In preparing the paper, several photos needed to be detailed by overlaying angle and force vector data onto the photo.
After photos/videos were taken, Dartfish was used to determine angles. The resulting photo was then imported into an image editor program to show, in this case, Force Vectors.
Summary:
I wanted to show another utilization for Dartfish. In our case, Dartfish was instrumental in helping put together a medical analysis and research paper.
For more information on bike fitting, please contact me at: bikefitnesscoaching@gmail.com
For more information on physical therapy, please contact amy@evolution-pt.com
