The BikeFit Physio

The BikeFit Physio A fully comprehensive approach to bike fitting encompassing physio, technology and expertise. New s thanks

Qualified as a Nutritionist in 2004 and a Chartered Physiotherapist in 2009. I have combined the two disciplines along with training in physio led bike fitting and research into cycling related injury rehab to create The BikeFit Physio brand. See www.thebikefitphysio.com for more info on the services offered.

Here’s a nice Case study from the series. This gentleman was presenting with sit bone pain and hand numbness. Turned ou...
29/01/2026

Here’s a nice Case study from the series. This gentleman was presenting with sit bone pain and hand numbness. Turned out a lot of his sit bone symptoms were coming from a proximal hamstring tendinopathy identified in the pre physio bike fit assessment.
Have a read through the bike fit steps and his review

Main symptoms was the onset of R sided proximal hamstring tendinopathy and hand numbness.
1) We assessed you in the pre bike fit screening and diagnosed the proximal hamstring tendon as the source to your R buttock symptoms when cycling
2) We then picked up a significant leg length difference with the R leg shorter than L
3) We measured your angles and pressure mapping and could see obvious reaching on the R side (as well as the L, but more on the R) with a saddle that was too high and also saddle pressure mapping showing excessive pressure on R side. Foot mapping showed less force through R foot also.
4) We then fitted you with an 8mm shim, and moved the cleats into a better position and retested to find some improvement saddle pressure mapping data, but you needed a drop in saddle to further improve things.
5) Found the ideal saddle height and levelled the saddle from a -4deg tilt to 0deg. This allowed you to sit into the saddle
more and in combination with the lower saddle height, increased your weight force through the saddle, taking more
weight from your arms and hands.
6) We finished with the addition of footbeds to find a subjective improvement in your contact/feel/comfort and objective
improvement in your foot mapping

The review
: I guess the easiest way to say how I'm getting on is by stating that Ive recommended John to about 10 people! So my feedback would be that whatever he did it worked! Your feedback to me was very informative and I feel the cost has paid off in the long run as pain, numbness and niggles are something I don’t think about which I don’t think you can put a price on.

Our case study series continues with a female new to cycling who came in during the early summer months this year. She ...
18/12/2025

Our case study series continues with a female new to cycling who came in during the early summer months this year. She had entered Ring of Kerry but was getting a lot of symptoms that were beginning to force her to consider pulling out of the event. Interesting case in that this lady was using a gel cover on the saddle in order to get some relief but the underlying issue was that the saddle was far too high.

With your main issues around knee pain, shoulder and neck tension and saddle discomfort, we set to work.

1) First observation was clear that your saddle was way too high which was the reason why you felt the need for the soft saddle cover since the high saddle was throwing your forward onto the nose of the saddle and also moving lots of your body weight onto your arms

2) We started with removing the gel saddle cover and lowering the height so that it was too low, and then slowly moved it upwards until we found the most comfortable position based on your feedback and the saddle pressure mapping

3) We lowered the front end of the bike to allow for more comfortable and lighter arms

4) We adjusted the saddle fore/aft until we were happy with the overall weight distribution on the bike.

5) Finally, we finished with pedal technique advice and info around bike shoes when/if you make that move!! ENjoy and all the best in the Ring of Kerry

And she did have a successful Ring of Kerry after all that!!!

We’re back with the weekly physio bike fit case study series. This case study was when I brought the bike fit service in...
11/12/2025

We’re back with the weekly physio bike fit case study series. This case study was when I brought the bike fit service into a corporate setting. This gentleman’s main concern was his R knee discomfort from pushing too much through the Right side and not feeling good contact at L foot/shoe/pedal

1) Initial observation showed us obvious low saddle height and also we could see your L knee falling in towards the cross bar of the bike ++ and L foot collapsing in also.

2) Assessment of your feet showed low arches but some arch muscle activation on heel raise movement. Would like to see better arch muscle condition, see other report.

3) We pulled back the cleats to improve your shoe pos on the pedal and we lifted the saddle to improve your knee angle and pedal smoothness and knee alignment.

4) But we needed to pop in some footbeds that matched your foot profile instead of your standard footbeds and then lifted the inside of your left shoe with 3 cleat wedges// much improved knee alignment and more importantly improved feeling of contact at the Left foot/shoe/pedal

5) You then noticed a more equal sit bone contact at the saddle now that your left foot/shoe/pedal contact point had improved.

6) Enjoy and safe cycling. John

His feedback revealed that his left knee alignment is so much better and that he feels equal contact at his left foot to that of his right. His overall position is much more comfortable.

I’ll keep these coming as a way for you to get an idea of how we carry out our bike fit service and what sort of issues we meet and how we sort them.

That was a success, was it maggiewhelanx?!! It was an absolute pleasure having Maggie hang out with me at the studio ove...
13/03/2025

That was a success, was it maggiewhelanx?!! It was an absolute pleasure having Maggie hang out with me at the studio over the past 6 weeks for her 2nd last physio placement before qualifying. I wish you all the very best in your early, mid and late career!! Maggie is thinking of doing a post grad in exercise physiology, which made for a nice fit with what came in our door since the beginning of her placement. We had lactate testing, VO2max testing, resting metabolic rate testing and all the data analysis that goes with this. She got to see the coaching service in action and a nutritional consultation to go with it. We also sorted out a clients long standing shin splints via the running gait analysis service. We had plenty of physio-led bike fitting of course and a nice amount of straight up physiotherapy. P.s I welcome more straight up physio by the way!!! We had some really interesting findings with the neurological approach to bike fitting using appropriate footbeds and wedging plus a friendly dog visit too! Thank you for your card and gifts Maggie. Stay in touch. Physio bike fitters are hard to come by!!!

Case study series and this one’s a good one!! This lady came down to Cork from Clare to see if she could finally resolve...
06/03/2025

Case study series and this one’s a good one!! This lady came down to Cork from Clare to see if she could finally resolve her right foot symptoms that have been hassling her for over a year and a half across all three bikes. She was getting onset of lateral foot discomfort and numbness in the right foot only. She didn’t want or need a bike fit, she just desperately wanted to solve this issue.
We recorded the foot pressure mapping and could see the build up of lateral pressure on the right foot (see pressure map image) and also we could see why in our pre bike fit screening. She had a lower arch and wider right foot which also struggled to hold its form on a single leg dip compared to her left.
We managed to lower the overall pressure on the outside of her right foot by starting with a good solid foundation by introducing a cycling specific foot bed and then adding 1 x In-the-shoe wedge and 3 x cleat wedges in order to bring the inside portion of the shoe more towards her foot and reduce the obvious right knee drifting towards the middle of the bike.
She seemed to feel pretty good with these wedges in place but we were not able to get the lateral pressure on her right foot below 500mbar. Therefore, not a successful intervention.
We finished the testing process with putting your right foot into a wide lakecycling Cx 201 shoe in order to allow more space for the R foot. And the pressure map above shows how the max pressure area on the outside of the R foot dropped below 500mbar for the first time in our session and this was with no wedging to encourage more weight bearing towards the middle and inside portion of the shoe. It certainly suggested that a wide cycling shoe is an important factor in solving this situation.
We then sent you a pair of Cx238x Lake shoes in the post for you to try at home on your turbo trainer along with some advice on cleat position and use of cleat wedges. As for the results, I will leave your review do the talking!!
See review in the comments!

05/03/2025

Today’s bike fit contained an interesting finding where we used the foot pressure mapping to show how Donnacha’s tailor-made orthotic that he uses occasionally at work has a detrimental effect in his bike shoes. We were able to show that they were causing a hot spot of pressure in the middle of the ball of both feet, resulting in onset of numbness after 90mins of cycling. Once we put in a pair of Sidas cycling specific footbeds that matched his foot profile, the high pressure points completely resolved! We also improved his stability on the saddle by reducing the tilt and also moving it forwards, but I will cover this in a case study post once we hear back from Donnacha.

Case study series introduces you to Pat who came in a few weeks back with his bike and a big challenge of the TransAtlan...
27/02/2025

Case study series introduces you to Pat who came in a few weeks back with his bike and a big challenge of the TransAtlantic Way cycle lies ahead so we focussed on comfort and reducing injury risk.
You presented with low back stiffness on the bike and recent onset of lateral R knee pain
1) We identified important findings in the pre bike fit physio screening such as R ankle stiffness, R lower limb learned non-use and subsequent weakness.
2) We then moved onto the bike and could see from the beginning that your baseline posture was quite stressed, over reaching and a saddle height that was too low.
3) We started with the shoes and moved the cleats back in order to improve your efficiency. Exactly what you need to cover 1700km in 5 days!
4) We could see from our pressure mapping that you were applying very little force through the Right foot (which you were aware of) and you were leaning more over the right side of the saddle.
5) Lifting the saddle up and forward allowed you to take up a better position and reduce knee pain risk, but it did not improve R foot activation/participation in the pedal stroke. "it felt floppy" were your words.
6) We popped in some high arch Sidas footbeds, which helped, but only when we added an in the shoe forefoot wedge and 2 x heel wedges under the Right footbed did we see a big jump in performance and feel. "I feel my right foot is stable and pressing firmly on the shoe"
7) We could see the results of this on our foot pressure map and also the saddle pressure map improved with a more central pelvis. Result!
8) We then shortened the stem using a stem adjustment tool which allowed you to play between a 90mm and 100mm stem to find that the 90mm stem felt the best.
9) We retested our saddle mapping and foot mapping and were very satisifed with the results.
10) Enjoy your training and best of luck on the day of the TAW!

26/02/2025

This is a great example of the steps to take when turning a road bike into the best triathlon bike it can possibly be. The components are so important here and in this case we needed to pull out the Stride triathlon saddle which is incredible at allowing our rider Una to forward tilt her pelvis and get into a better tri bike position but whilst maintaining comfort and the ability to hold this position. Something that was not possible with the road saddle that came with the bike. We gradually moved the saddle up in 3mm increments in order to land on her optimal height and used the force/time plots from the foot pressure mapping to help guide our saddle height through a pedal smoothness metric. We finished with using the CAT 3 PUSH footbeds from GebioMized to greatly improve the pressure distribution in both foot/shoe/pedal contact points as shown in the video.
Great session and we will follow up with Una and her coach in due course.

19/02/2025

What makes a quality professional bike fit??
I feel that you have to know how your client moves off the bike in the pre bike fit screening in order to inform the bike fit itself. Then it’s all about collecting subjective and objective information from the client and quality tech, respectively. In this bike fit, we could see that our client had too much weight through the front of the bike so we mentioned it and allowed him to feel the difference in weight force through his hands on changing the saddle position. Same goes for using quality pressure mapping tech to inform our client that he was putting a lot of force towards the outside of his right foot. Once he was made aware of it, he was able to feel it and notice the positive change brought about by the foot bed inserts. Finally, the comparison with the baseline pre bike fit and optimal post bike fit objective measures, such as pressure mapping and video analysis. Top it off with some advice on correct pedal technique now that the client is in a better position to push the pedals. Tadaaa.

Case study series rocks on. We have Lee here up from the Kingdom of Kerry with his Specialised Aethos. Jim covers a lot...
18/02/2025

Case study series rocks on. We have Lee here up from the Kingdom of Kerry with his Specialised Aethos. Jim covers a lot of ground on the bike hitting 7,000km per year. He was getting significant hand numbness coming on after 30mins plus neck and shoulder stiffness coming on at the same time.
1) Jim showed wonderful movement at his neck and upper spine in the pre bike fit screening, which then pointed the finger at the bike fit as the cause to his neck and shoulder discomfort.
2)We made sure that his cleats were in the correct position for his type of cycling (endurance)
3) We then moved onto the lowering of the saddle to improve the knee angle and ankle angle at 6pm
4) We then needed to improve the weight distribution on the bike and get more of his weight over the saddle and less weight force through his arms.
5) Moving the saddle back and reducing the forward tilt from -6 to -2 degrees really helped with this and he felt a significant reduction in pressure and weight in the arms and hands.
6) Interestingly, we further improved this by slightly tilting the handlebars away from him and rotating the hoods inwards.
7) We saw improvements to his ankle position both at 3pm and 6pm with these changes and he was able to perform the proper pedal technique now that his saddle was further back allowing him to pedal across the top of the pedal stroke a lot easier.
8) Nice addition to your wide shoe collection with the Cx332x Lake shoe purchase at the end of the bike fit, look after them!!!
The RESULT: We heard back from Jim 3 weeks after his fit to tell me that his hand numbness had completely resolved and that his neck and shoulder issue has 90% improved. He noticed a clear improvement in his average speed with the better position on the bike allowing to pedal across the top and down, as directed in the pedal technique section of the bike fit. He swapped to 165mm cranks so we spoke about the changes to saddle height needed to bring the bike fit back to its post bike fit measurements.

Delighted to be invited to Kilmallock to deliver the basic bike maintenance workshop to a very welcoming club, the South...
16/02/2025

Delighted to be invited to Kilmallock to deliver the basic bike maintenance workshop to a very welcoming club, the Southside Wheely Wheelers. Look forward to hearing how the club members get stuck into changing chains and brake pads in the coming months.

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The Life Fit Studio
Ballygarvan
T12P981

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1pm - 2pm
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