Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Bicycles and Hip Replacement for Dummies

What type of bicycle do you need?
Far be it from anyone here at the Antisocial Network to give medical advice (except, perhaps, when it comes to correcting common dumbassery). When it comes to your health and your body, we think you should stick to getting advice from professionals; by which we mean doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and other trained professionals; not a "professional freelancer" with a BFA in film. That's why today's DotD nominee is one such freelancer, Breann Kanobi¹, and we caught her attempting answer the eternal question, "How do I Choose the Correct Bicycle After Hip Replacement Surgery? " at SportsRec.com

A hip replacement is serious stuff, and we strongly recommend that anyone who needs post-operative advice talk to the surgeon or a physical therapist, not cruise over to eHow.com (which is where this dreck was originally posted). We did some research, though, and we found a lot of inconsistent advice: MTB forums all seem to say road cycling is bad; road cycling forums seem to say that mountain biking is bad. It just goes to show you that you can't trust forums...
You probably can't trust Kanobi, either. Given some of the statements in her post, it's a reasonable assumption that she is unfamiliar with both body mechanics and bicycle design. For instance, there's,
"Chose a road bicycle over a mountain bike. Road bicycles require you to put less pressure on your hip flexors and are lighter, making them easier to maneuver."
In fact, the upright riding position of mountain bikes may well put less stress on the hip flexors than the more aerodynamic position of a road bike. Kanobi then contradicted herself, saying,
"You may want to choose a cruiser style bicycle..."
That after saying that road bikes are lighter: cruisers are among the heaviest bicycle styles. Next, Breann said,
"Always chose a bicycle with an adjustable seat..."
We polled the staff, and everyone here is pretty certain that it's impossible to find a bicycle without an adjustable seat! After that bit of dumbassery, Kanobi just regurgitated some basic bicycle-fitting instructions and a blanket post-op warning about pain. The only useful information she provided is to raise the seat a little higher than normal. She neglected, however, to warn people not to try to swing a leg over the seat when mounting.²
Given her contradictory suggestions and her tenuous grasp on the basic design of bicycles, we submit that Kanobi is perfectly qualified to be just another Dumbass of the Day (again).

¹ Help me, oh Breann...
² We suspect that means using a step-through (i.e., "girl's") frame or standing on the pedal to reduce that "swing height."

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

At 55 I had a hip replacement. I was back on a bike (MTB) within 3 weeks and riding trails again at 5 weeks. Now, 9 months later I'm feeling the best I have for over 10 years and have competed in a few races at the novice and age category level. I can even run again. All comes down to the individual, your motivation and 'will' to want to participate in the sport/s you love. Also, keeping your muscle groups active prior to surgery and throughout the time of the injury. My injury was Arthritis and I lived with this pain for 10 years before surgery. Throughout this time I struggled to walk let alone ride a bike but I did up until the point my hip said fcuk you I can't do this anymore and off to surgery I went. As for road cycling i would have no problem I'm just not interested in it anymore.