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Walking and cycling are good but how much?

Posted , 6 users are following.

peter22765
peter22765

I've had both my hips done one 4 years ago and recently the second hip. I am 70, pleased with both hips but like to walk up to 3 to 5 miles twice or thrice a week and go out on my ebike for 3 to 4 hours. I'm aware that I will probably slow down with age so will not be able to over do things to much.

logic tells me that the more distance I cover the quicker I will wear my hips out.

Does anyone know if this is true or not.

I would like to swim more than the walking and cycling but the pools around me are not ideal to say the least.

Thanks for reading,

pete

1 like, 4 replies

4 Replies

  • andrew77015
    andrew77015 peter22765

    Edited

    hi Peter

    i'm not a surgeon but can give my opinion and experience

    i am 60 and i had rthr in sept 2019 and lthr last wednesday

    i have not been able to run for some years because of pain (having done lots of marathon in the past) Walking too has been painful; on rare occasions ive had to stop to "re-align" the (original not replaced) hip before being able to continue Cycling however has been entirely problem free except a very few times recently - either spinning out in too low a gear or pushing too hard in too high a gear. Both of those were easy to avoid once the issue became apparent. In the 18 months between my operations, i cycled about 10,000 miles with no ill effects on my new hip

    i cant find research about cycling but impact on hip joint of walking seems to be 3-5x body mass and running 5-10x both ranges dependent on speed. my experience would indicate cycling impact at less than walking. i would suggest that the relative impact on your new joint would be swimming (freestyle, backstroke) cycling, walking, running. and i suspect that impact/calorie burned would be the same.

    my surgeon suggested to me that more use would led to more wear and therefore higher risk of a second or even third set of operations. but there would be far less chance of that if i cycled rather than ran

    my approach in your situation would be to focus on the cycling for exercise. and if you do enough, perhaps you can trade in that expensive e bike for a nice lightweight hybrid!

    • peter22765
      peter22765 andrew77015

      Posted

      Hi Andrew,

      Thanks for your reply and sorry for delay in responding.

      Your reply is similar to James. As much as I used to love running I'm not going to go there, not at my weight, 13 st at 5' 10".,if I was 11 stone it may be possible.

      Cycling is my new love for the past ten years and it's good that it is generally accepted as being beneficial. I think ones weight is a big factor in longevity and am striving to lose some muscle mass towards this end, easier said than done.

      10000 miles is a lot of miles in such a short time, you must be very fit. I do have a light weight racing back stuck in Spain but I couldn't ride it around where I live, too many hills and cars. As soon as I get back to Spain I will be mounting up.

      I used to ride twice weekly with a group average 70 miles per ride, the better groups where doing 100 mile rides. I'm not sure if I will risk riding in a group again.

      Don't knock ebikes, great for getting up the hills, but hopefully will get the best of both bikes, ebike for the hills and racer bike for the ☀️.

  • james56388
    james56388 peter22765

    Posted

    Hi Pete,

    I asked this exact question to my surgeon, as being relatively young and receiving a THR it's important to me to keep my new hip as healthy and strong for as long as possible.

    There is no limit to how much you can do of low impact exercise such as walking, swimming and cycling. In fact the more you do the better (as long as you are fit enough), because you are keeping the muscles around the hip strong, which increases the life of your artificial joint due it to being properly supported.

    The problems occur with high impact exercises such as running, tennis, etc. These can cause excess stress on the joints which in some cases may limit their lifespans. Having said that, many people run and do other high impact exercises after a THR with no problems.

    As always, confirm with a professional, but from what I was told if you're keeping to the exercises you mentioned, don't worry, there's basically no danger to the new joints. Happy walking and cycling!

    James

    • peter22765
      peter22765 james56388

      Posted

      Hi James,

      I've just replied to your pm message, and thanks for this reply.

      Your reply via your consultant is interesting because I think it is generally thought, the more you walk the more the wear, but conversely if you don't walk much your hip muscles won't support your joint as well and this can accelerate wear/damage.

      So I think there must be a sweet spot between exercise duration and not exercising.

      I'm at 12 weeks and have been walking 6 miles twice a week and cycling up to 3 hours on my ebike but think that's more about proving and reabilitating the hip but in future I will reduce the durations. At 70, this will come about naturally with age and if this pandemic ends I hopefully will have other outlets.

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