Stitches while climbing

lalorm

Whenever I put in a hard prolonged effort, after a while I start to get stitches in my side. I thought first of all, I was eating too close to training, but even if I only eat 2 hours before training, and then only small snacks while on the bike, I get stitches if I have to climb hard or have to prolong an effort.
Anyone got any suggestions how to prevent this?

Cheers
M.

Raam

lalorm wrote: »

Whenever I put in a hard prolonged effort, after a while I start to get stitches in my side. I thought first of all, I was eating too close to training, but even if I only eat 2 hours before training, and then only small snacks while on the bike, I get stitches if I have to climb hard or have to prolong an effort.
Anyone got any suggestions how to prevent this?

Cheers
M.

It might be to do with your breathing, i.e. you are not getting enough oxygen into you. Try concentrate on your breathing.

E@gle.

are you standing on the pedals all the time when climbing?

lalorm

no, I usually sit in the saddle rather than stand. I only stand if I have to.

I thought it might be the cold air, however it also happens when I'm on the turbo trainer inside.

It could be my breathing. I usually try to regulate my breathing to the peddle strokes when a larger effort is involved. It's annoying when you know you have the energy for something, but stitches causes you to drop back and loose position.

Cheers
M.

E@gle.

i use to get stitches and stomach cramps from mixing my energy drink too strong, and eating too many energy bars on an empty stomach

davyjose

Try to change the rhythm of your breathing against your cycling. I know in running if someone begins exhaling on the left foot, the advice is to swap feet i.e. begin exhaling on the right foot. It's possibly the same for cycling!

kona

In the nose and out of the mouth, warm up first. most people dont breathe right, you fill your chest first via your diaphragm, then your stomach.

Ghost Rider

Dunno about cycling but when running it's important to learn to breathe from the diaphragm. It might sound like something you do naturally but it's actually quite counterintuitive until you get the hang of it. The method I was shown (as a runner) is to push out the stomach as you breathe in; again, it feels wrong, but do it for a while and it will eventually feel natural. When running, I find I only get stitches when I fall out of this habit temporarily.

(As for eliminating stitches, I've read that stopping and briefly heaving in your diaphragm with both hands works but I've never tried it. I've found that resuming the right breathing technique gets rid of it each time. Also, you might find heaving in the diaphragm annoying when cycling...)

lalorm

Thanks for the suggestions guy's.

M.