Get pleasure from The Advantages of Train However Keep Secure – BionicOldGuy

A few days in the past, fellow blogger Tony posted this: Most types of train are overwhelmingly protected – however don’t ignore the risks. Thanks, Tony. It’s primarily based on an attention-grabbing examine not too long ago revealed within the journal Harm Prevention [1]. By analyzing accident statistics in England and Wales within the interval 2012-2017, they got here up with harm charges for varied exercise-related actions. Biking had an harm price of two.8 per 100,000 outings, whereas strolling had 0.03 per 100,000, and health actions (e.g. health club 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 harm danger. However observe that biking had 100 instances the harm price of strolling. So it is sensible to do no matter potential to attenuate 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 motorcycle crash, ripped my rotator cuff in a mountaineering fall, and needed to go to the hospital for a head trauma (fortunately not too extreme).

For biking, listed below are some apparent security measures:

1. Accident danger increased at night time than throughout the day, so if potential keep away from driving at night time, in any other case have good lighting and vibrant reflective clothes.
2. Accident danger is increased at busy roads on rush hour. Using at these instances 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 bear in mind my route went midway on Central Expressway, which had a pleasant bike lane, however then become Alma Ave, a busy road with no bike lane and a slim shoulder. I rapidly mapped out a route that prevented Alma Ave by utilizing quieter streets, in any other case I won’t 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 current accident brought on me to rethink what I may need completed in a different way, and I got here up with: Use fatter tires. The bike I crashed on is taken into account a “gravel bike” and will have been sure-footed on the street I used to be on. It got here with 32 mm extensive tires, and once they wore out I changed them with 25 mm to be sooner. 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”. Because the crash occurred on a downhill flip, I feel it’s time to quite take satisfaction in being a “cautious descender”.

References

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