One of my first posts on this – somewhat bleak – blog shall be a positive one: how to train up again after losing a significant amount of muscles in one leg – losing your mobility completely, with the leg straightened out by a brace, locked at zero degrees flexion.
Two ingredients to the rescue:
One,
Denmark is the country of cargo bikes, and one of its most iconic is the good old Black Ironhorse (Sorte Jernhest). The big plus of this cargo bike: the front does not move, with the back wheel doing the steering.
This means you can rest your bad leg on the cargo box. Just add a little footrest, or a belt to hold your leg, and add a pedal strap on the good side.
Then ride the bike with one leg. It is hard work, but doable – and great training for the working leg.
As the bad leg slowly recovers and regains at least some mobility, enter
Two,
the genius work of Highpath Engineering, the Pulse Swing Crank.
It does two things: it shortens the effective crank length, but even more importantly, reduces the circle your foot will move in, while keeping the lowest point of the movement. The effect: you can cycle even if your leg only has moderate mobility. The soft moves with limited power make for excellent mobility training.
