cycling with fibromyalgia, CFS: bike and pedal advice please

[andy14]

Comfort is everything. If you are comfortable you will enjoy being on the bike (and probably feel less tired) and both distances travelled and speed will become secondary issues. So I'd investigate different posture options. Drop handlebars don't sound too good an idea but it's basically whatever works. Dutch style handlebars might do the trick (maybe sitting up straighter will allow you to flex/rest muscles/change posture more).

Re the efficiency of cleated versus non-cleated pedals, I think you're really only talking about one or two minutes per hour of cycling and maybe not even that. The advantages are over-stated.

Some of the wide mountain bike or BMX platform pedals are very good, and provide excellent grip in the wet. Grip is the main issue if you don't use cleats (and as you said, specialist cycling shoes aren't really that handy for when you're off the bike).

Hope you find something that works

[thesheep]

Been away....did a little bit of cycling and used OH's bike, also Cannondale, a bit. He changed the pedals on his to MKS Lite and I really found those easier than the resin manufacturer supplied (although they are a tad heavier) so may try those first.
Also found that cycling in warm, sunny climate helped no end with the fibro side of things

[VeroH]

Just stumbled across this post.. and Forum:-).. while searching for opinions on Cycling with Fibromyalgia. Like you, I also have CFS, as well as arthritis etc.My knees are playing up and legs weak and I walk with a cane, but I have a dream and my goal is to buy an e-bike in the Spring and take up cycling again. Cycling played a huge part in our life as a couple and we would cycle 30-50 kms on a weekend and I am keen to start again. He is worried that we will buy a bike then I will give up. That's not the plan! We have recently moved to France and are surrounded by rivers and canals.. the ideal setting and landscape. We need the exercise. I tell him that the can cover more ground with an assisted bike than walking which is best for the both of us.. I happened to test run a an e-bike in a car lot for about 1km last autumn...it was in the showroom and I could not resist... The freedom!The exhilaration! I was like a kid again, only I happen to be 60 on disability leave:)! The comments and thread have given me the additional inspiration and I will be using some of this to persuade my husband. I am confident it. It's others that have the problem Sorry about the ramble but I am so happy to meet like-minded people. Let me know how you get on, please. Thanks everyone. Veronica

[Vorpal]

Welcome to the forum. I'm afraid that the user who made the original posting hasn't logged in for over a year, but maybe he or she is lurking and will reply. And some of the other contributors are still regulars. I wish you luck finding the right ebike.

[VeroH]

Thanks Vorpal. I expect she has found answers and is happily cycling away. I will be keeping an eye on here for tips and inspiration. I have a bike in mind and will achieve my goal.

[Gearoidmuar]

If you have one of these conditions, or if you have irritable bowel syndrome a low-carb diet might help.

I've been on one for more than a year and it maintains me at a much lower weight than I was, but I've read extensively about it and it has added benefits in many if not most people.

They are, increased energy, better concentration once you're settled into it, much improved mood, cessation of irritable bowel and at least in some, great improvement in CFS etc...

It's worth trying..

P.S. I'm not making this up! I'm a retired doctor and have read all the science and my own sister-in-law, herself a retired doctor had terrible irritable bowel all her life. I told it to try it. Two weeks later off all meds, IBS gone and has been gone for several months.

By low carb I mean no wheat or grains, no pasta, no potatoes, no rice. No fruit but berries are ok. No starch veg as parsnips, and peas, carrots etc., in small amount. Eat loads of greens, cauli, sprouts etc. Loads of fat, butter, coconut oil, fat meat etc. No margarine, no "low fat" food etc.

[[XAP]Bob]

That's a very significant dietary change and shouldn't be done without active consultation with a Doctor.

[pete75]

That's a very significant dietary change and shouldn't be done without active consultation with a Doctor.

He is a doctor

[Gearoidmuar]

That's a very significant dietary change and shouldn't be done without active consultation with a Doctor.

It's ONLY a signficicant dietary change for someone who's a diabetic ON TREATMENT, as any dietary change in such a patient will be. In fact, it's what man ate for most of his history and is the diet which is most tuned to our metabolism. That's why you don't see fat people eating this diet. It makes them thin. Most doctors, I would say 90%, really know nothing about nutrition. It's a huge hole in their training.
When I discuss such matters with former colleagues, their lack of knowledge astounds me.

I'll give you the simplest example. It is universally believed by the population and by nearly all doctors that if you eat a fatty diet, it increases the fats in your blood. The exact opposite is true. Eat carbs, the blood fats rise, eat fats, they fall. There's an explanation for it and it has been demonstrated numerous times in experiments. They don't read this stuff.

[[XAP]Bob]

Without a patient in front of you there is no way you can categorically state that dietary changes are appropriate or good.

Your proposed diet would have put me in serious trouble a few years ago - and my existing symptoms would have matched well enough. As it was I went through a fairly strong elimination diet (I never did the complete elimination diet - down to liquid, but it was a fairly serious exercise) with good supervision and ended up with relatively few things that I still can't eat.

When I typed my first message I typed Dr/dietician, but since dieticians aren't regulated I dropped that part. Dr's aren't perfect, but I trust the one in front of me more than one on the far side of a computer screen who has never seen any of my history.

[Vorpal]

That's a very significant dietary change and shouldn't be done without active consultation with a Doctor.

It's ONLY a signficicant dietary change for someone who's a diabetic ON TREATMENT, as any dietary change in such a patient will be. In fact, it's what man ate for most of his history and is the diet which is most tuned to our metabolism.

People have been eating carbohydrates as staple food for all of recorded history. In ancient Sumeria, bread made form barley was the main staple. Some of the oldest written records known to humankind document barley, wheat, and bread. As for prehistoric human, the diet varied hugely from one place to another, but included large quantities of soft fruit in season and where available.

Most tuned to which metabolism? Prehistoric? Or that of the last 5 or 6 000 years? The wonderful thing about our metabolisms is that they are quite adaptable.



I refer users to this extensive thread about diet viewtopic.php?f=1&t=83408 ask that futher discussions about diet be taken up there, or on a new thread.

[Gearoidmuar]

Chaps, I said might help...not would...

As for low carb diet. With that you just cut the carbs right down and continue to eat what are not carbs... There's nothing radical about it..

As for recorded history. Since man began to eat grain etc., he has not been quite as healthy as he used to be it would appear.

Some peoples have only been eating significant amounts of grain for a short period of time, as the Irish, Northern Europeans. That's why coeliac disease is so common here.

6,000 years is a blink in evolutionary terms...

[thesheep]

oops, sorry not to have posted for so long and to do a Lazarus on this thread. I'm back on here after latest unpleasant fibro flare up - no cycling or swimming as legs currently all taped up with lurid red physio tape due to IBT inflammatory pain, more normally found in long distance runners.... Thank you to everyone who replied (so long ago): I forgot my login, then forgot the name of this forum...cognitive issues, my apologies.
I still have my old hybrid and changed to a better quality flat pedal after advice on here. I found a good local mechanic who keeps it going nicely as gearing is so important (I can't use no 1, just mostly 2 or 3 on big cog and usually 3-6 on the small one; too much rapid pedalling hurts, as does standing up off the saddle up hills).

I'm just taking it as it comes. I did manage a 20km section of the Velodysee in the Basque country on a fat tyre hire bike in early July so that's keeping me going, that I'll be back on the bike soon. So easy to overdo things though and get a "red tape" setback.

As for the diet tip ideas - I eat gluten free, hardly any red meat and was on the low fodmap diet for 2 years, now thankfully off it for the most part (avocado, peach and mango back and well tolerated ). I eat too much sugar but I enjoy it; I have to put up with a lot of annoyances - fibro/CFS is 30 years this August - so not going to give up anything more that I enjoy. Drinking wine isn't good for the B*stard (the illness' name) but I have a glass a few times a week anyhow. I do need more sunshine though!
I am going to get back on the bike as soon as I can.
Hope everyone is enjoying some cycling this summer.