The effects of cycling posture on exercise performance as determined by infrared thermography

A sore neck and back are very common among cyclists and can be caused by a change in spinal curvature and forward head posture during cycling. In addition, elite cyclists were found to have a decreased infrared thermography measurement during incremental exercise, and increased measurements after exhaustion. This study aims to assess the benefits of corrected cycling posture, evaluated by the OpenPose evaluation system and physical therapists, on exercise performance as determined by infrared thermography. We adopt a case-control study design. Thirty participants were divided into the group riding with a natural posture (control group) and the group riding with a corrected posture (experimental group). While both groups had comparable back and neck temperatures before and0 min after finishing the exercise, the corrected posture group had a statistically lower temperature compared to the control one after riding for 30 min (33.58 +/- 0.69 degrees C vs. 35.18 +/- 0.89 degrees C; p < 0.001). This observed decrease in skin temperature during exercise implies better heat dissipation mechanisms and hence fatigue avoidance among cyclists with corrected posture. Larger studies with various static and dynamic cycling positions are required to gain better insights about the correlation between those positions, infrared thermography measurements, enhanced athletic performance and injury prevention.