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Anecdotal, but perhaps interesting: I rode a bike every few weeks with my father as a child. When I was 11, I had a pretty serious health condition including p

Anecdotal, but perhaps interesting: I rode a bike every few weeks with my father as a child. When I was 11, I had a pretty serious health condition including paralysis from the waist down. I had to spend several years retraining my muscles to be able to walk and run again. I'm 22 now, and have just (literally in the past two weeks) started riding a bike again. I wasn't particularly confident but I was happily surprised to discover I had no issue just riding. I'm having trouble with U-turns and signalling, but this feels pretty cool considering that half of my life so far has gone by without riding.

heavenlyblue 8y ago
To be fair, I think the article misses one of the points, though: for example, I had a time between 14 and about 22 when I didn't swim at all, having spent about 4 years doing swimming as a sport. When I started swimming again at the age of 22, I could swim obviously - but it took me weeks of re-remembering all of the correct positions of my hands, which muscles to contract and how should I breathe in order to sustain that swimming for longer than a few laps. I am pretty sure it's the same with the bike-riding.
- jxi 8y ago
  Would that mean that the main thing you actually learn is confidence? Your brain knows that you were able to do this before, so it makes you behave physically in such a way that you assume you'll succeed (which ends up helping you succeed) even though really you don't have the muscle/technique memories anymore.
- Andrex 8y ago
  Swimming uses more muscles and requires more concentration. I had a large amount of form degradation when I took a years' break swimming, and it took a few weeks to get back in form. I was noticeably faster after I regained my form -- I'm not sure what the equivalent would be on a bike, since theoretically I would just need to pedal faster (requiring more raw strength, not form.) I don't think there's much comparison to the bike example in the OP.
  - stonecraftwolf 8y ago
    I agree. When I swam competitively taking even a week off was something you could feel in the water. It might only add a second or two to your splits, but you could definitely feel it. It was weirdly distressing, actually.
  - lukeschlather 8y ago
    Shifting gears has always been a conscious activity for me, at least in part. Even biking a lot I can get surprised by a hill if I'm not consciously planning my shifting 5-10 seconds out and end up with my chain jumping off.
- jplayer01 8y ago
  > When I started swimming again at the age of 22, I could swim obviously - but it took me weeks of re-remembering all of the correct positions of my hands, which muscles to contract and how should I breathe in order to sustain that swimming for longer than a few laps. But it's important to note that it took you only a few weeks. Originally learning all these movements probably took years of training and you still knew them so well that you could retrain your muscles to use them like back then. You didn't really forget. If I started swimming now, with near zero experience, I wouldn't be able to imitate that.
  - heavenlyblue 8y ago
    >> Originally learning all these movements probably took years of training and you still knew them so well that you could retrain your muscles to use them like back then. Nah. I am actually making the opposite point: I had to consciously re-remember (from whatever I remembered my instructor told me) how it were back then and retrain myself to do it correctly all over again. For example, getting over anxiety that I would be out of breath the next time I am breathing in. The only reason I could get over it was because I have consciously remembered I could do that when I was a kid, so it was just a matter of training and habit both of which I had to consciously push myself to acquire again. "a few weeks" would only be related to "conscious remembering how it needs to be done", rather than "swimming like the old days". It took me a few months; constant attention and reading how to swim properly otherwise.
    - pbalau 8y ago
      I think you are missing a tiny point, you are comparing being able not to drown to swimming efficiently. I didn't bike in ages, but I am fairly confident I can ride a bicycle all right. To go back doing cross country biking is a different matter, I will probably need to make mental efforts to keep the right posture, to keep the weight over my back wheel etc. But this doesn't mean I won't be able to ride my bike without crashing.
kibwen 8y ago
Similarly, I suffered a traumatic bike crash when I was 8 (on literally the very first day of summer vacation, sigh...) and didn't end up riding a bike again until I was 24. Circled in a parking lot for a few hours to get my confidence back and then I was golden. The just-like-riding-a-bicycle aphorism really is scarily apt. And congratulations on your recuperation!
simonebrunozzi 8y ago
Wow. It sounds like a tough way to grow up. Happy to read that you got back on your feet (perhaps even literally). Thanks for sharing your experience.
agumonkey 8y ago
Our system is so large and full of over-capacity, somehow it takes extreme cases like yours to know it firsthand. Anyways, happy to know you're back on track.

heavenlyblue 8y ago

To be fair, I think the article misses one of the points, though: for example, I had a time between 14 and about 22 when I didn't swim at all, having spent about 4 years doing swimming as a sport. When I started swimming again at the age of 22, I could swim obviously - but it took me weeks of re-remembering all of the correct positions of my hands, which muscles to contract and how should I breathe in order to sustain that swimming for longer than a few laps. I am pretty sure it's the same with the bike-riding.

jxi 8y ago
Would that mean that the main thing you actually learn is confidence? Your brain knows that you were able to do this before, so it makes you behave physically in such a way that you assume you'll succeed (which ends up helping you succeed) even though really you don't have the muscle/technique memories anymore.
Andrex 8y ago
Swimming uses more muscles and requires more concentration. I had a large amount of form degradation when I took a years' break swimming, and it took a few weeks to get back in form. I was noticeably faster after I regained my form -- I'm not sure what the equivalent would be on a bike, since theoretically I would just need to pedal faster (requiring more raw strength, not form.) I don't think there's much comparison to the bike example in the OP.
- stonecraftwolf 8y ago
  I agree. When I swam competitively taking even a week off was something you could feel in the water. It might only add a second or two to your splits, but you could definitely feel it. It was weirdly distressing, actually.
- lukeschlather 8y ago
  Shifting gears has always been a conscious activity for me, at least in part. Even biking a lot I can get surprised by a hill if I'm not consciously planning my shifting 5-10 seconds out and end up with my chain jumping off.
jplayer01 8y ago
> When I started swimming again at the age of 22, I could swim obviously - but it took me weeks of re-remembering all of the correct positions of my hands, which muscles to contract and how should I breathe in order to sustain that swimming for longer than a few laps. But it's important to note that it took you only a few weeks. Originally learning all these movements probably took years of training and you still knew them so well that you could retrain your muscles to use them like back then. You didn't really forget. If I started swimming now, with near zero experience, I wouldn't be able to imitate that.
- heavenlyblue 8y ago
  >> Originally learning all these movements probably took years of training and you still knew them so well that you could retrain your muscles to use them like back then. Nah. I am actually making the opposite point: I had to consciously re-remember (from whatever I remembered my instructor told me) how it were back then and retrain myself to do it correctly all over again. For example, getting over anxiety that I would be out of breath the next time I am breathing in. The only reason I could get over it was because I have consciously remembered I could do that when I was a kid, so it was just a matter of training and habit both of which I had to consciously push myself to acquire again. "a few weeks" would only be related to "conscious remembering how it needs to be done", rather than "swimming like the old days". It took me a few months; constant attention and reading how to swim properly otherwise.
  - pbalau 8y ago
    I think you are missing a tiny point, you are comparing being able not to drown to swimming efficiently. I didn't bike in ages, but I am fairly confident I can ride a bicycle all right. To go back doing cross country biking is a different matter, I will probably need to make mental efforts to keep the right posture, to keep the weight over my back wheel etc. But this doesn't mean I won't be able to ride my bike without crashing.

kibwen 8y ago

Similarly, I suffered a traumatic bike crash when I was 8 (on literally the very first day of summer vacation, sigh...) and didn't end up riding a bike again until I was 24. Circled in a parking lot for a few hours to get my confidence back and then I was golden. The just-like-riding-a-bicycle aphorism really is scarily apt. And congratulations on your recuperation!

simonebrunozzi 8y ago

Wow. It sounds like a tough way to grow up. Happy to read that you got back on your feet (perhaps even literally). Thanks for sharing your experience.

agumonkey 8y ago

Our system is so large and full of over-capacity, somehow it takes extreme cases like yours to know it firsthand. Anyways, happy to know you're back on track.