Jan 1st, 10. Sore muscles and cycling go hand and hand, but with daily use of The Stick this could be a thing of the past. Ben from RoadCycling.co.nz uses The Stick to roll away his knee trouble.

The Stick, packaging and instructional material

Cycling is a very repetitive sport where leg muscles don't get much of a respite. 

Over time these muscles get tight and if you don't do enough maintenance through stretching or massage, injury could be just around the corner.

This is exactly what happened in my case when I tried to pick up my volume of training after a winter of no more than two rides a week.

After a while the tightness of my leg muscles resulted in a knee problem. Pain behind the knee cap.

An Ironman friend put me on to a device called The Stick which he predicted would roll away the pain.

From TheStick.co.nz website:

"The Stick works by simultaneously compressing, stretching and warming the muscle, inactivating trigger points [muscle knots/kinks] and increasing circulation. Relax the muscle then simply roll your way to "happy muscles". This simple therapeutic action increases the quality of the connective tissue and allows the body to regenerate. Tight muscles will relax and the resultant improved flexibility will aid muscle recovery, adds strength and lead to a much reduced incidence of injury."

After a quick call to the New Zealand distributor, Terry from www.thestick.co.nz,  The Stick was in the post and I was looking forward to getting my very own in house massage therapist, all day every day – that is their claim.

The Stick arrived well packaged in a cardboard tube, and came with all the instructions needed to understand how to use it. The model I received was the Standard 24" 16 spindle version.

Rolling the quad with The Stick ©RoadCycling.co.nz

A nice personal touch was the fact the 'how to use' information was personalised with my name. I like that, and it made me feel like the distributor had actually taken the time to pick the information for me.

The paper on Lance Armstrong using The Stick was suitably chosen.

Also included were a couple of brochures on the research studies highlighting the tested benefits The Stick would provide.

These studies have proven a 64% increase in flexibility from the use of The Stick is achievable, translating into more power and speed in the muscles.

The general instructions were to use the stick by rolling over each muscle group for about 20 passes or about 30 seconds per area. When I found a sore point in the muscle, being a bump or knot, I was told to apply a little more attention to this area until it was gone.

There were more than a few sore points in my legs and I was happy to start working them away.

The rolling action of The Stick helps to remove knots through compression and stretching, promoting a healthy blood supply which assists natural recovery and health of the muscle.

The advice in the instructions was to use The Stick in the morning, just before you go to bed, or in fact anytime you want your muscles to feel better.

Verdict

Overall this products gets a thumbs up from RoadCycling.co.nz.

Over the last four weeks I have been using The Stick most days and it has certainly uncovered a number of knots that have needed some serious attention.

The knee pain is now all but gone and the legs are feeling better and better every day.

The Stick is a fairly simple device that you can just throw into your bag and take anywhere, meaning you never need to be without a device to roll your muscles.  This is a big benefit over large foam rollers which many athletes use.

The Stick also has a fairly reasonable retail price of $82.50 for the model I had.  About the cost of one to two good massage sessions.

The Stick is available online in New Zealand from www.TheStick.co.nz

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