Getting Treated
Andrew talks about some of the medical support he received throughout his career.
I made a terrible mistake in my recent retirement announcement. I must sheepishly admit that I forgot to thank my medical team for all the support that they gave me throughout my career, particularly over the past few seasons with all my crashes. I find that the medical side of things – giving our bodies the support commensurate with the demands we place on them – is something often overlooked or not valued enough amongst athletes.
During my last few seasons I had the pleasure of working with Kevin Jardine, the developer of the SpiderTech applications, through his clinic, the Urban Athlete here in Toronto. Working with Kevin was a great learning experience, filled with revelations about my body and how it functions. Perhaps most revealing of all was when he showed me how weak my body was, me the “professional” athlete. The first winter we worked together Kevin started me on a full-body strength and stability program to help combat fatigue and put more power into the pedals.
The first run through the exercise routine was embarrassing. I struggled to do the simplest of the exercises, my body quivering with the effort, knees buckling and shoulders shaking. How could I be so weak? What did it mean for my performance on the bicycle? As Kevin likes to say: ” try sprinting with no hands on the bars”, a reflection of the role core strength plays in peformance. General bodily strength is integral to performance, something that no one in my career, until I met Kevin, had addressed. Best of all the stability and strength I developed through the exercises has played a big part in mitigating my injuries, and speeding along my recovery, suffered in my bad crashes the last two seasons.
Kevin also impressed me during the many treatments he did on me. He has a seemingly unique way of seeing the body, of putting together what I call the jigsaw puzzle of the body, to understand the importance of the neuromuscular pathways, and to see the unexpected connections in the body that explain why an injury or pain has occurred.
The most amazing example was when I broke my femur. Several weeks after the surgery I was still on crutches and finally managed to see Kevin. He treated me with some deep tissue work, stretching and other common therapies. What was more interesting were the exercises that he gave me to do to get the leg firing properly again, the main obstacle he said to walking again. The exercises were simple, lying on my back, bending the knee and pressing my foot into the ground, all to get the neuromuscular pathways going again. After only two days of doing the exercises I moved from crutches to a cane, and soon was walking with the cane only as a secondary support largely un-needed. Amazing!
As a society we take a funny view of our bodies: they are simply there to work for us, with or without support. We spend thousands maintaining our cars, thousands on light bikes and fast wheels, and little to nothing on our bodies. Why is that? I was lucky to have a great medical support team while I was racing and feel that their support means that I will be healthy long after my days of riding are done. A hearty thanks to my medical team: Dr. Jardine at the Urban Athlete; Dr. Neskar at Momentum to Wellness; Dr. Clarfield at the Sport Medicine Specialists; and Dr. Greib at The Sport Lab.
All the best for 2012 to everyone, catch you next time.
Recently retired from professional cycling, Andrew Randell has taken up a management/rider development role with the Jet Fuel/La Bicicletta team for 2012 and opened up his coaching services to the public. Reach him at arcoaching@gmail.com.
