ASK GCN: BEST REHAB TRAINING USING ZWIFT
ZWIFT COMMUNITY | on 19 novembre 2018 by Daniel Park
Question: Thanks for the shows, loving the content. I am slowly recovering from a hip fracture and will end up using Zwift to build power and fitness. What type of training progression do you recommend when coming back from a major injury?
WHY?
Starting rehabilitation from injury on Zwift is ideal because it provides you with a safe, closed environment where you can eliminate any unpredictable elements such as traffic, animals, weather, and terrain. It also allows you to end your training session the moment you feel any pain or discomfort.
Prescribing s set durations and power sessions to aid in returning from a hip injury is difficult for a coach, though.
HOW?
Focus on the duration you can exercise for each session. Take note of how long you can ride until you experience any pain. For example, in the first week, you may only be able to ride for 15 minutes until pain kicks in.
Give yourself a weekly goal of riding. You may still only be riding 15 minutes at a time in the early stages, but try to increase the frequency from 2-3 times per week to 4-5 times per week.
Throughout your training, also note you cadence and refer back to your regular cadence before the injury. The cadence will be much lower than the before the incident. However, you should start to see an increase in your cadence during the first month of training.
Finally, when you can exercise for close to 1-hour without the pain and with a similar cadence to before the injury, you can start to look at the power you are producing. You should avoid any efforts that place a high amount of torque on the cranks like sprinting because this type of effort can transfer to your hip and produce discomfort. Begin with short, tempo-type efforts. Gradually increase the length and volume of these efforts until you are back to your normal levels. When you can complete longer tempo efforts without any discomfort, start to implement some higher intensity work.
Be prepared for a long and gradual process, and good luck with your recovery.
DOWNLOAD AND IMPORT THE WORKOUT
You can download the recommended workout here. Next, you’ll want to import the workout into Zwift and get training. This article explains how to import.