Painkillers

steerpike

For rides of 60 miles plus I get a lot of aching in my lower back and shoulders.

Long term I guess I can look at strengthening muscles that support these areas and/or upgrading my seat / seat post / riding position.

Short term - is there any evidence that use of certain painkillers is detrimental to performance and or health? I'm using Paracetamol but could do with using something non-drowsy but stronger if such a thing exists.

Thanks

ride_whenever

You don't really want to be taking painkillers to ride, all that will happen is that you'll hurt yourself and not realise.

More stretching and try and blag a massage post ride from the OH/family/random passerby/bar skank.

andy_wrx

Agreed.

I know of too many people in my running club who took painkillers so they could carry-on training despite various aches and pains and did themselves rather more serious damage, ended-up with much more serious problems and took far, far longer to sort themselves out than if they'd sought proper treatment in the first place.

Try some core stability work or pilates

GavH

andy_wrx wrote:

Agreed.

I know of too many people in my running club who took painkillers so they could carry-on training despite various aches and pains and did themselves rather more serious damage, ended-up with much more serious problems and took far, far longer to sort themselves out than if they'd sought proper treatment in the first place.

Try some core stability work or pilates

+1. I used to get seriously sore shins whenever I ran which typically lasted for the first ten minutes and then re-appeared as soon as I stopped. Pumped myself full of Ibuprofen and even Voltarol but ultimately all I was doing was mitigating the pain I felt whilst still actually damaging myself whilst running. Turned out I had periostitis caused by poor biomechanics whic took 18 months with ZERO running and a LOT of stretching to help improve the biomechanics before I was able to start running again.
Do yourself a MASSIVE favour and get the source of the problem sorted rather than masking it with ineffective medication.

weeve

Totally agree with all the above etc etc etc ..although having spent quite a bit of my life mountaineering/polar travelling etc I have to say living on good old "Vitamin I" for short (ish) periods is not unheard of (ahem). Im NOT suggesting you use it to train ...sounds like you should just start with higher bars and get stretching until you can go lower/have less pain.....but on occasions and as a means to an end I have/do take some to control swelling/pain for specific events/expeditions ...Im absolutely sure thats not medical advise ...so dont read it as such....but Im not dead yet if that helps.
PS pretty sure paracetamol doesnt do anything for except kill pain...not an anti-inflamatory....

howiejmidlands

I use a TENS unit, better than any painkillers.

Get them in Boots, for about £30. They have pads you stick to your body, and then it passes a current through the body. Works a treat.

funckchicken

a bit random here, but somewhat related.

i have some serious toothache at the moment (long story) but still want to train through this weekend as it's going to be great weather and i've got sportives coming up. i'm booked in to see a dentist early next week. in the meantime, if i were to take painkillers and train at the same time, which ones would have the best combination of painkilling and no detrimental effect on performance - will just some regular anadin extra or something like that do?

Greenbank

funckchicken wrote:

if i were to take painkillers and train at the same time, which ones would have the best combination of painkilling and no detrimental effect on performance - will just some regular anadin extra or something like that do?

I've suffered with some evil dental pain over the last few years (thankfully all done now). If you really want maximum over-the-counter painkilling then use Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Codeine. Maximum doses, interleved to give maximum pain relief.

Co-codamol for the Codeine+Paracetamol.
Usual Ibuprofen tablets (but make sure they don't have any Paracetamol in them.

Take the maximum 4-hourly dose of one. Then, two hours later, take the maximum 4-hourly dose of the other. Two hours later, back to the maximum daily dost of the first.

Never exceed maximum doses, with paracetamol this can easily lead to death. Make sure you know what you're taking. Don't be afraid to go into a chemist and ask for their advice.

Cocodamol gave me nightmares after a couple of days (I was taking it for broken/cracked ribs). It gives others constipation. But it does a wonderful thing of relieving dental pain.

After all of this, my advice would be to lay off hard training until you can do it without painkillers. Do a few gentle recovery rides and look forward to getting the dental pain out of the way.