July 1, 2025

Set to go the distance: Prehab for cyclists

You’ve felt it, haven’t you? The summer surge. The urge to ride longer, climb harder, push further. The sun’s out. The roads are calling. The Tour de France is just days away and every ride feels like a stage. But here’s the truth; when the mileage stacks up, so does the risk. Niggles turn to knocks. Tightness turns to time off. That’s why smart riders don’t just train. They prehab.

Prehab could reduce the risk of setbacks before they happen. It turns injury prevention into part of your plan. That’s the role of prehab. The smarter, sharper cousin to rehab, and it’s something more and more cyclists are turning to, including Josh, a Bodyset client training for one of the Tour’s most brutal spin-offs: L’Étape du Tour.

Before we go deeper, let’s start with the good stuff. Before you get in the saddle next, book a Physiotherapy Assessment. Get expert insight into your movement, flexibility, and areas of vulnerability, and walk away with practical guidance to keep your body race-ready.

“Prehab is so much better than rehab.”

Josh came to Bodyset with one goal: Attack the Tour. 136 kilometres. 4,500 metres of climbing. One huge personal challenge. He’d already recovered from injury, but the real game-changer was what came next.

“I had such a blinkered view of physio before Bodyset,” Josh says. “But it’s been a proactive, preventative tool, it’s helped me absorb the training stimulus and stay strong as I build towards my ‘A race’ of the season.”

That’s what prehab offers. Not just treatment, transformation. Not just healing, but performance. Whether you’re chasing Strava segments, pushing for a personal best, or just want to ride pain-free, it starts with setting your body right before any damage can be done.

So, what exactly is prehab?

Short for “prehabilitation,” prehab is the art of injury prevention. It’s a personalised mix of physiotherapy, strength and mobility work, muscle activation, and joint alignment, all focused on your movement patterns and riding style. It’s designed to spot the weaknesses before they become injuries. In short: it’s what the pros do, and what everyday cyclists should be doing too.

Common cycling injuries and how prehab helps avoid them.

Cycling might be low impact, but it’s high repetition. The same patterns over and over, hour after hour. That repetitive load can lead to serious stress on vulnerable areas:

• Lower back pain from poor posture and weak glutes
• Knee pain from poor tracking, tight hips or muscle imbalance
• Neck and shoulder stiffness from long periods in an aggressive riding position
• Achilles tendinopathy from sudden mileage increases
• Numbness or tingling in hands, feet or perineum from poor bike setup or posture

Prehab doesn’t just help after you feel these symptoms, it helps stop them from showing up in the first place.

How does Bodyset do it?

At Bodyset, we don’t offer generic plans or cookie-cutter routines. Every cyclist is different, and so is their body. Our prehab approach includes:

• 1:1 Physiotherapy Assessments tailored to cycling biomechanics
• Musculoskeletal screening using our BodyCheck MOT
• Strength and mobility programming to bulletproof your weak points
• Ongoing support via in-clinic or virtual sessions through the Bodyset app

Whether you’re training for the Tour, weekend miles, or your daily commute, your body deserves the same performance-first thinking.

What’s the best time to start?

Before you feel that niggle. Before your hamstring twangs or your knee clicks. Before race day panic sets in. The best time to start prehab was yesterday. The second-best time is now. Cycling places unique demands on the body, but with the right support, it can be the most rewarding thing you ever do. Just ask Josh.

Ready to get started?

Don’t wait until you’re sidelined. Get ahead of injury, train smarter, and ride stronger with Bodyset’s prehab plans.

Book your Physiotherapy Assessment. You’ll get insight, a clear action plan, and the chance to ask all the questions you’ve been sitting on. Because at Bodyset, we believe in getting your body set for life, and any cycle track or race you want to own.