Eastbournemtber

Specialized Hill Billy 29x2.6.....been running them front and rear almost all year round in UK conditions, and preferred them to Shorty (which I had before)....now seems the new Shorty is exactly the same pattern as the Hill Billy, except the Hill Billy price for both tyres is still less than one Shorty and they last much much longer too.

Hi, Sorry for such a delay in replying...life gets in the way some time. Firstly I would like to apologise if my original comment came across as negative. It was not meant to be in any way a slight on your professional integrity, knowledge and training, or care towards your patients. It is not in my nature to be derogatory towards a colleague. Secondly, I would reiterate the positivity towards your venture to get yourself out there and try to make a positive impact by sharing your knowledge and experience in an attempt to help the mtb community. Too many people sit on the couch and make negative comments without actually trying to make a difference themselves. So keep going, you’re clearly doing a good job of it. Unfortunately though, I will continue to respectfully disagree with the selection of an upright row. I understand that at very low resistance and carefully metered sets/reps the actual real world risk of negative effects is so low it is almost not worth worrying about. Sadly, the same reasons will likely negate any clinically significant training effect beyond a short term neuromodulation effect....similar to the documented responses to manual therapy/manipulation/soft tissue techniques. The very fact that it needs to be kept very low intensity/ low load is the same reason it will likely have a very limited physiological training effect, and therefore begs the question ‘is it really worth it?’ From a personal perspective, as I mentioned previously, I spend too much time in direct contact with upper limb patients under the care of orthopaedic consultants, consultant physiotherapist, and fellow advanced practitioners to advocate the use of an upright row in the rehab process for those presenting with upper quadrant dysfunction. I understand it may still be advocated in the specific fields of athletic training etc but I don’t see a place for its use in therapeutic rehabilitation, as the number of alternatives which do not come with the need for such specific performance cues or considerations to avoid a negative outcome are just too numerous. Thank you for providing the research links, they made for very interesting reading, and it is always nice to delve deeper and continually questions ones own opinions and beliefs...without this approach we risk becoming set in our ways and miss out on development and progress. Good luck with your ventures and best wishes for the future. I hope to see more content from you appearing on here, and thanks for the stimulating debate. @theridelife:

I can see where you get that idea, but I’m afraid to say the commenters are right. Her justification / explanation is fair enough (and we’ll explained I’d like to add), but it’s much simpler to avoid that exercise altogether. I’m a physio specialising in musculoskeletal conditions with a masters degree in rehab science and I currently work as an advanced practitioner, and I would never under any circumstances prescribe this exercise to a patient experiencing shoulder pain or loss of function. There are so so many alternatives that it’s just not worth it. The post is a good one, and props to her for getting out there and doing something positive, we need more articles like this to help injured riders, but a little more consideration for the evidence base behind any recommendations would prevent misunderstanding which leads to doubt, which leads to a lose of engagement and trust from patients / clients - not conducive to a good patient-therapist relationship or outcomes.

He was spotted ridding a Haibike ebike at Chicksands today, and confirmed in person that they are his new sponsor

I don’t get when people complain about pricing, it’s as simple as ‘are you too poor? No? Cool, then buy this bike and enjoy the shit out of it!!!’ If you are too poor, then sorry, but maybe you should have tried harder at school....... you need to stop hating on everything!!!!