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The BikeFit Physio

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The BikeFit Physio

A fully comprehensive approach to bike fitting encompassing physio, technology and expertise. New s thanks

Qualified as a Nutritionist in 2004 and a Chartered Physiotherapist in 2009. I have combined the two disciplines along with training in physio led bike fitting and research into cycling related injury rehab to create The BikeFit Physio brand. See www.thebikefitphysio.com for more info on the services offered.

13/03/2025

That was a success, was it maggiewhelanx?!! It was an absolute pleasure having Maggie hang out with me at the studio over the past 6 weeks for her 2nd last physio placement before qualifying. I wish you all the very best in your early, mid and late career!! Maggie is thinking of doing a post grad in exercise physiology, which made for a nice fit with what came in our door since the beginning of her placement. We had lactate testing, VO2max testing, resting metabolic rate testing and all the data analysis that goes with this. She got to see the coaching service in action and a nutritional consultation to go with it. We also sorted out a clients long standing shin splints via the running gait analysis service. We had plenty of physio-led bike fitting of course and a nice amount of straight up physiotherapy. P.s I welcome more straight up physio by the way!!! We had some really interesting findings with the neurological approach to bike fitting using appropriate footbeds and wedging plus a friendly dog visit too! Thank you for your card and gifts Maggie. Stay in touch. Physio bike fitters are hard to come by!!!

06/03/2025

Case study series and this one’s a good one!! This lady came down to Cork from Clare to see if she could finally resolve her right foot symptoms that have been hassling her for over a year and a half across all three bikes. She was getting onset of lateral foot discomfort and numbness in the right foot only. She didn’t want or need a bike fit, she just desperately wanted to solve this issue.
We recorded the foot pressure mapping and could see the build up of lateral pressure on the right foot (see pressure map image) and also we could see why in our pre bike fit screening. She had a lower arch and wider right foot which also struggled to hold its form on a single leg dip compared to her left.
We managed to lower the overall pressure on the outside of her right foot by starting with a good solid foundation by introducing a cycling specific foot bed and then adding 1 x In-the-shoe wedge and 3 x cleat wedges in order to bring the inside portion of the shoe more towards her foot and reduce the obvious right knee drifting towards the middle of the bike.
She seemed to feel pretty good with these wedges in place but we were not able to get the lateral pressure on her right foot below 500mbar. Therefore, not a successful intervention.
We finished the testing process with putting your right foot into a wide lakecycling Cx 201 shoe in order to allow more space for the R foot. And the pressure map above shows how the max pressure area on the outside of the R foot dropped below 500mbar for the first time in our session and this was with no wedging to encourage more weight bearing towards the middle and inside portion of the shoe. It certainly suggested that a wide cycling shoe is an important factor in solving this situation.
We then sent you a pair of Cx238x Lake shoes in the post for you to try at home on your turbo trainer along with some advice on cleat position and use of cleat wedges. As for the results, I will leave your review do the talking!!
See review in the comments!

05/03/2025

Today’s bike fit contained an interesting finding where we used the foot pressure mapping to show how Donnacha’s tailor-made orthotic that he uses occasionally at work has a detrimental effect in his bike shoes. We were able to show that they were causing a hot spot of pressure in the middle of the ball of both feet, resulting in onset of numbness after 90mins of cycling. Once we put in a pair of Sidas cycling specific footbeds that matched his foot profile, the high pressure points completely resolved! We also improved his stability on the saddle by reducing the tilt and also moving it forwards, but I will cover this in a case study post once we hear back from Donnacha.

27/02/2025

Case study series introduces you to Pat who came in a few weeks back with his bike and a big challenge of the TransAtlantic Way cycle lies ahead so we focussed on comfort and reducing injury risk.
You presented with low back stiffness on the bike and recent onset of lateral R knee pain
1) We identified important findings in the pre bike fit physio screening such as R ankle stiffness, R lower limb learned non-use and subsequent weakness.
2) We then moved onto the bike and could see from the beginning that your baseline posture was quite stressed, over reaching and a saddle height that was too low.
3) We started with the shoes and moved the cleats back in order to improve your efficiency. Exactly what you need to cover 1700km in 5 days!
4) We could see from our pressure mapping that you were applying very little force through the Right foot (which you were aware of) and you were leaning more over the right side of the saddle.
5) Lifting the saddle up and forward allowed you to take up a better position and reduce knee pain risk, but it did not improve R foot activation/participation in the pedal stroke. "it felt floppy" were your words.
6) We popped in some high arch Sidas footbeds, which helped, but only when we added an in the shoe forefoot wedge and 2 x heel wedges under the Right footbed did we see a big jump in performance and feel. "I feel my right foot is stable and pressing firmly on the shoe"
7) We could see the results of this on our foot pressure map and also the saddle pressure map improved with a more central pelvis. Result!
8) We then shortened the stem using a stem adjustment tool which allowed you to play between a 90mm and 100mm stem to find that the 90mm stem felt the best.
9) We retested our saddle mapping and foot mapping and were very satisifed with the results.
10) Enjoy your training and best of luck on the day of the TAW!

26/02/2025

This is a great example of the steps to take when turning a road bike into the best triathlon bike it can possibly be. The components are so important here and in this case we needed to pull out the Stride triathlon saddle which is incredible at allowing our rider Una to forward tilt her pelvis and get into a better tri bike position but whilst maintaining comfort and the ability to hold this position. Something that was not possible with the road saddle that came with the bike. We gradually moved the saddle up in 3mm increments in order to land on her optimal height and used the force/time plots from the foot pressure mapping to help guide our saddle height through a pedal smoothness metric. We finished with using the CAT 3 PUSH footbeds from GebioMized to greatly improve the pressure distribution in both foot/shoe/pedal contact points as shown in the video.
Great session and we will follow up with Una and her coach in due course.

19/02/2025

What makes a quality professional bike fit??
I feel that you have to know how your client moves off the bike in the pre bike fit screening in order to inform the bike fit itself. Then it’s all about collecting subjective and objective information from the client and quality tech, respectively. In this bike fit, we could see that our client had too much weight through the front of the bike so we mentioned it and allowed him to feel the difference in weight force through his hands on changing the saddle position. Same goes for using quality pressure mapping tech to inform our client that he was putting a lot of force towards the outside of his right foot. Once he was made aware of it, he was able to feel it and notice the positive change brought about by the foot bed inserts. Finally, the comparison with the baseline pre bike fit and optimal post bike fit objective measures, such as pressure mapping and video analysis. Top it off with some advice on correct pedal technique now that the client is in a better position to push the pedals. Tadaaa.

18/02/2025

Case study series rocks on. We have Lee here up from the Kingdom of Kerry with his Specialised Aethos. Jim covers a lot of ground on the bike hitting 7,000km per year. He was getting significant hand numbness coming on after 30mins plus neck and shoulder stiffness coming on at the same time.
1) Jim showed wonderful movement at his neck and upper spine in the pre bike fit screening, which then pointed the finger at the bike fit as the cause to his neck and shoulder discomfort.
2)We made sure that his cleats were in the correct position for his type of cycling (endurance)
3) We then moved onto the lowering of the saddle to improve the knee angle and ankle angle at 6pm
4) We then needed to improve the weight distribution on the bike and get more of his weight over the saddle and less weight force through his arms.
5) Moving the saddle back and reducing the forward tilt from -6 to -2 degrees really helped with this and he felt a significant reduction in pressure and weight in the arms and hands.
6) Interestingly, we further improved this by slightly tilting the handlebars away from him and rotating the hoods inwards.
7) We saw improvements to his ankle position both at 3pm and 6pm with these changes and he was able to perform the proper pedal technique now that his saddle was further back allowing him to pedal across the top of the pedal stroke a lot easier.
8) Nice addition to your wide shoe collection with the Cx332x Lake shoe purchase at the end of the bike fit, look after them!!!
The RESULT: We heard back from Jim 3 weeks after his fit to tell me that his hand numbness had completely resolved and that his neck and shoulder issue has 90% improved. He noticed a clear improvement in his average speed with the better position on the bike allowing to pedal across the top and down, as directed in the pedal technique section of the bike fit. He swapped to 165mm cranks so we spoke about the changes to saddle height needed to bring the bike fit back to its post bike fit measurements.

16/02/2025

Delighted to be invited to Kilmallock to deliver the basic bike maintenance workshop to a very welcoming club, the Southside Wheely Wheelers. Look forward to hearing how the club members get stuck into changing chains and brake pads in the coming months.

13/02/2025

I’m gonna let the video do the talking here. It’s a nice insight into a blood lactate test and what you can expect to discover. I found out that my zone 2 heart rate range had expanded and that my threshold happened at a higher pace than I expected due to the volume of zone 2 training that I am doing. This knowledge will inform the rest of my ultra running training and tactics on race day in April.

12/02/2025

Great to finally meet some of the people behind Lake Cycling UK. Thanks for making the trip to Cork lads. Hope you two enjoyed the scenery.

06/02/2025

Next up in our case study series is Bill with a TT bike coming in to get set up for a 70.3 later this year.
Although he did not have any injuries or complaints, we found him in a very inefficient TT position!
1) First step was to put you through the pre bike fit screening which was where we picked up on your hamstring inflexibility and patterning of your heel raise on the right lower limb. Both of which greatly informed our bike fit direction.
2) We noticed that your cleats were pushed too far forward which might be suitable for cyclocross but but for 70.3 IM. We pulled them back all of the way
3) We moved the saddle forward (best approach for TT set up) and then focussed onto the desperate need to lift the saddle, so we moved it up to the ceiling and then dropped it down in 3mm increments until we had a nice force/time plot measured by the foot pressure mats showing us a smooth pedal stroke and confirmation from yourself re pedal stroke smoothness (see image of force/time plots measured by foot pressure mats)
4) The pre bikefit foot pressure map shows a poor pressure distribution but once we popped the Sidas high arch footbed in, they greatly improved your pressure distribution at the very important foot/shoe/pedal contact point. Moving the pressure from a lateral pressure distribution to a more central one. This was more obvious on the right foot, which was the same foot that drifted laterally on the single leg heel raise. It is important to not apply more than 500mmbar of pressure to the outside of the foot when cycling since the 5th metatarsal head is not designed to take on this much force. That is for the 1st met and middle ones.
5) We further improved the pressure distribution on the right foot in particular with an in the shoe wedge placed under the right footbed, see pressure map.
6) Your posture was improving throughout the bike fit, and really found its final position when we tilted and extended the tri bars still maintaining an open hip angle at 12pm and comfortable upper body support
7) Was a joy and pleasure working with you Bill
8) All the best in your 70.3 prep

30/01/2025

Next in line in our case study series is Sergine who travelled down from Limerick to set her bike up in prep for the 1700km of the Transatlantic Way cycle in June. Right so, your main issue here was the level of saddle discomfort causing extreme discomfort to the frontal soft tissue. You let us know that you have persistent low back pain, but that cycling makes it worse
1) We addressed persistent low back pain in pre bike fit screening and found a strong source to work on plus education around pain science
2) We moved the cleats back fully and we moved the saddle forward to help with your reach to the hoods. (you mentioned that you had to hold the handlebars at the tops or shy of the hoods in order to have some level of saddle comfort/ spoke about a shorter stem to which you did later get on the bike)
3) The saddle went higher but we were getting no improvement in saddle comfort.
4) We then tried out a few saddles and landed on the Area 155mm GebioMized saddle. This allowed for better sit bone contact and once we tilted the nose down to 3deg, you felt less front tissue pressure too. At this point we noticed that you were sitting off to the right side of the saddle thinking that you were in the middle.
5) Once we helped you to find midline, you felt better sit bone contact and all round more comfort on saddle.
6) We then agreed that foot beds would be a good idea to bring more of your midfoot into the pedal stroke and for overall comfort. We opted for the Cat3 PUSH which matched your foot profile very well and you could feel the improved contact under the arch when cycling. We could see this improvement on the foot pressure mapping too.
7) We needed to improve the foot/shoe/pedal contact point so that you wouldnt drop off to the right side and so we put an in the shoe wedge in under the R footbed
Sergine’s feedback : after a 300km Audax the bike fit changes were very promising with little to no saddle discomfort , very little low back issues but noticing that you would prefer a wider shoe. On that note, we have posted a pair up to Limerick for Sergine to try on and make a decision after that

Address

The Life Fit Studio
Ballygarvan
T12P981

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 2pm
Tuesday	7am - 12pm
	1pm - 2pm
Wednesday	7am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 4pm
Saturday	7am - 2pm

Website

https://thebikefitphysio.com/

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