Are you mad?
2009
Unicycling good for the back?
It may sound ridiculous, after all only clowns and street performers ride unicycles, don’t they?
Well, not exactly. Clowns and street performers do ride unicycles very often, but so do sane, respectable human beings (like myself?).
Unicycling is certainly on the fringes of society, performed by a subculture of people who have discovered that despite its odd reputation it’s actually a lot of fun, and to a certain extent practical too. In this article I’d like to explain to you how unicycling is great for the back. Read on, and prepare to be amazed (circus language)!
Popularity is not a word associated with unicycling, but let’s say unicycling’s largest following seems to be in North America and Scandinavia. It is admittedly not a big thing in the UK, perhaps because of its strong historical association with the circus, or maybe we’ve just lost our sense of fun!
Six months ago, I was searching on YouTube for a video that would help teach my son how to do a wheelie on his bicycle. Among the listings was a video showing a Chinese girl doing the most amazing ballet on a unicycle. I thought she looked fantastically graceful and really rather clever.
As well as being interested from a personal point of view, I was also intrigued as to whether or not unicycling might be good for one's balance and strength and perhaps even for one's back?
So I went online and bought one. There and then. While the iron was hot. That was six months ago.
It took me three weeks of practising for 10 minutes a day to get to a point where I found my balance and could cycle along without holding on to anything. It felt like nothing I had experienced before. In those early days I caught only short glimpses of perfect balance, where I felt that I was in total control of the unicycle, but sooner than I expected I began to feel in control most of the time.
Now I unicycle to work and back; it is my choice of commuter transport. Admittedly I only live down the road from my clinic. But I take the long way around, which is about a mile. So I get at least 10 miles of unicycling done in a week, which is quite a work out, I can tell you.
It’s also a great way to get to know people too, a real ice breaker. I’ve had no detrimental comments on my journey to work, even from teenagers (who just love it!), and had no-one say that I’m too old for this sort of thing.
Before I get into why unicycling is good for the back, I will answer the question that most people ask, which is ‘What happens when you fall off – doesn’t it hurt?’ A fair question, after all you would think that falling off a unicycle could be a dangerous, wrist-threatening, action. The thing is, when you lose balance you just step off and land on your feet. It’s as simple as that. I have only actually fallen over twice in the last six months, and that was because I was just cycling like the clappers and when I fell I couldn’t run as fast as the unicycle was going when I landed! My own fault, I was showing off to myself.
Unicycling is good for the back for the following reasons.
Balance
It goes without saying that unicycling is a balance sport (whereas on a bike you can only fall sideways, on a unicycle you can fall any which way). Balance and coordination are two of the cornerstones of back health. We can have strong back muscles, but if we cannot coordinate them all to keep us balanced and upright, then they are as good as useless.
Core strength
Balance is achieved by the development of skill in using both the core muscles of the stomach and the muscles of the back. I must say that for the first couple of weeks of commuting to work my stomach and back ached. It was a good ache though, muscles were waking up that had not been used in a long time. I now feel stronger in the back than I have felt in years – with much less of a feeling of vulnerability.
Flexibility
The constant balancing as you go along in a straight line, and the way you turn corners requires a good deal of rotational flexibility in the spine, which is of course well known to be good for the back. There must be quite a bit of twist involved, since the other day a lady who I passed said to me, “I would imagine you are great at salsa dancing”! I promptly blushed, and fell off.
Leg strength
Evidently cycling in general is good for the strength of the legs, which in turn help to support the back. In unicycling you are adjusting your speed second by second. Without going into medico-babble details regarding concentric and eccentric muscle contraction, suffice to say that the constant adjusting of speed in unicycling may be arguably even more helpful for the leg muscles than bicycling.
Aerobic fitness
Boy, what a workout. I could say, look at any unicyclist and you will see how good it is for fitness, but you are unlikely to see many on a day to day basis, so you’ll need to take my word for it!
I would love to encourage people to venture into the world of unicycling. Obviously it is not good for those with osteoporosis, severe degenerative disease, acute disc problems, or active sciatica. But for those people who need to improve the strength and coordination of their back and stomach muscles, or would like to complement the work they are doing with yoga or Pilates, it’s a really interesting and fun way of doing it, and is easier than it looks.
If you have any specific questions about unicycling I would be happy to help. My email address is at the end.
PS. I never got to find out how my son could learn to do a wheelie on his bicycle. But it doesn’t matter since he unicycles with me now!
Gavin Burt is a professional BackCare member, perhaps slightly mad, and director of Backs & Beyond, an osteopathic clinic in Highgate, London.
Please send correspondence to email, or call 020 7284 4664.
© Gavin Burt