I'm 62 and recently got back on my bikes after a 2.5 year layoff. I road my mountain bike for several weeks and have now included riding my road bike. I feel pretty strong and enjoy the ride up until about 20 minutes in. Then holding my head up is extremely hard and my Neck starts killing me. Do I just keep riding to build up those muscles or are there other exercises?

Get something with a Neck rest...I like mine.

Are you wearing a helmet with a brim that may be forcing you to tilt more to see ahead?

Search "Shermer's Neck" a condition named for Ultra marathoner Mike Shermer for some insights.

I'm not saying you have this, which is related to days and hours but the causes are related.

Eventually your muscles will strengthen (hopefully) and the amount of time you can go will increase, but in the meantime, you want to prevent the muscle spasms holding your head up causes. There are two basic methods that help - short of changing your riding posture entirely.

1- keep your head and neck in motion. You want to avoid the dead ahead stare that is causing the spasm, so become a sightseer. Look up at the birds, down at the pavement, and to both sides and enjoy the scenery as you pass. Of course you also have to look ahead, and sometimes behind for traffic, but the key is to keep your head and neck in motion as much as possible.

2- reduce the load on your neck by minimizing the amount of time you look ahead. So look up and check that the road ahead is clear, then you're free to relax your neck and let your head drop for anywhere from 5-20 seconds. Then repeat. Of course, this is not suited to busy urban roads because too much is happening, and there may be surprises at any time, but on open roads with long distances between intersections, you could ride for hours while actually holding your head up only for minutes, which will make a world of difference for you.

Between the two methods you can make your riding life better right now, while you wait for the improvement that will come over time.

Is it the road bike or mountain bike that causes this, or both?

Do the "yes, no maybe" exercises for your neck:

https://healdove.com/injuries/how-to...-a-stiff-neck#

You might try rotating hour hips forward. This will straighten your back and reduce the amount you have to crane your neck.

Do Upper chest reps,
and as above tons of yes no maybe,
then,
lay on your back on the bed with your head hanging off,
Hang a weight,,about 2.5 pounds should do it,, hang that around your head, a strap above your eyes,,
five reps, nice and slow should make you take note,, 12 should be good,,,

then get onto push-ups and crunches, your core sounds soft,,like a desk jocky,

Make sure your arms are always bent at the elbows and learn to support your brain bucket with your abs and chest..

Make It Hurt...

Thanks for the advice! I've been off the bike for 4 or 5 years and getting back in shape. I had ridden metric centuries with this bike and current fit. I don't have the same issue on my mountain bike because I am more upright. Which makes me wonder if I should have the bike fitted again or just do the exercises and ride.

No. This is not right and is extremely poor advice.

My brother had similar issues and solved it by changing his fit. He raised his bars a good bit and that solved his issue. Since you're not having issues with your mountain bike I wonder if that would be the place to start.

I like those exercises. I have slowly gotten a stiffer and stiffer neck over the years (I am approaching 68). It has coincided with taking up cycling ten years back. I think the primary culprit is the looking up/ahead position I ride in. Some of the suggestions here feel like they may help. Another exercise I learned from an Alexander Technique instructor is to lay on my back with the back of my head elevated by a few books for 15-20 minutes. I use this position while meditating and feel like I have gotten some improvement from it.

Go easy on the neck stretches. I wouldn't add any weight, or do any boxer/wrestler type weighted neck rolls -- at least not without consulting a specialist, and even then I'd take weeks or months to build up to it very gradually. We ain't kids anymore and don't rebound well from serious neck and back injuries.

Due to a C2 injury I'll never be able to ride a bike with drop bars at or below saddle height. For now I can just about manage bars slightly above saddle height, and it took months to build up to that from elevated riser bars. I still need to do gentle neck stretches before and after rides, and often soak in a hot tub of epsom salts.

This is just my experience. About 10 yrs ago I got a radiating pain that would shoot from the bottom of my neck down into my shoulders. When I saw the Doc he gave me a sheet of Cervical Spine Exercises. Said to try them and come back if they didn't help. Tried to find the sheet online but couldn't. Here is the closest thing I could find.

https://www.orthoinstitute.com/wp-con...lexercises.pdf

Well, they helped but it took time. I would say it took a couple of years before I felt truly "cured". You have to learn how much to push though. Push too hard and you aggravate the problem. Don't push hard enough and you may or may not be doing any good. That is a hard line for me to find. And it moves from day to day.

The reason I say all this is because I used to have neck pains from time to time. They are pretty much gone now. And when I do have them they get better faster. I attribute the better neck to those exercises.

Worked for me,,when I started I had the neck strength of a small woman,,,
Neck pain was bad
I'm good to go now, My physical therapist got me back on track, I haven't seen her in three years now

Muscles need resistance training to get stronger, upper chest and neck work as one. But I guess at some point as we age we cannot do things we used to....

Still I am going to fight body aging with all my energy...

I had gotten back into riding about 6 years ago and just went out and ordered a bike that was in the price I was comfortable with and went with what the size the chart said sight unseen. I rode it for short periods about 15 / 20 miles or so. A few years go by and I started to train for a 80+ mile ride so I started to put in 30 - 40 miles and subsequently more time in the ride. I started to get neck pain from looking up so I got a 30 degree angled stem which helped raise my upper body but not enough. This year I was searching YouTube for bike fitting videos and I came across one where a young girl was getting a fit (the thumbnail I'm sure generated lots of hits on the video). When I looked at this I immediately thought this is how I want to sit on a bike and this person was on a road bike with drop bars. Basically I want my head upright enough to not bend which is about a little greater than a 45 degree angle with respect to parallel to ground and thus my search for an "endurance geometry" bike. I bought an endurance frame that felt good on the 20 minute test drive but again after about an hour and a half the neck hurts a bit. I got another angled stem (17 degrees) and now I'm pretty good for about 3 hours or so. I agree with the other posts regarding some exercises and I would throw in the idea of stretching out the neck muscles prior to the ride and when the roads clear stretch it during the ride. The other thing I'll have to throw in there is that with getting into better shape now and peddling a little harder more consistently it's easier to keep my core in a better position and keep weight of my wrists/hands. Peddling as it turns out keeps weight off the arms and in turn allows less vibration traveling up into the spine.

I have never had neck problems/pain while cycling:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010XRMLQ/

For riding a bike these weightlifting type exercises are just overkill. You are riding a bike, not WWF wrestling.

Flexibility exercises will be OK, plus experiment with bar height and reach, and take FBinNY's advice.

You will improve with practise.

Not sure if serious but Bwahahahahahahaha!

OK....no, don't do that without seeking some real medical advice first.

C-spine is some serious s***! Don't play games and guesswork. I had some relatively minor neck issues at one point about 5 years ago at 50 y/o. Had some PT and traction therapy and went on with life. A bit over 3 years ago, I was having low back issues (still do) and sought PT. I wasn't riding bikes yet and my legs were weak and wasting even though I was walking 3 miles everyday as prescribed by PT. I spent Superbowl Sunday 2013 in the ER because my legs literally completely disconnected from my brain. I couldn't walk but I was able to stand. A week later I was under the knife of a fantastic neurosurgeon getting a 2 level fusion and Ti plate installed at C5-C7. Stenosis caused huge spinal cord damage. I got about 90% back over a year long recovery after the surgery. This all lead me to getting on a MTB for recovery and now Road. I was lucky, they were able to fix it. Don't mess with these pains on your own, go seek some medical advice and maybe you can get onboard with some proper PT to teach you how to properly maintain mobility in your neck.

Thanks for the endorsement, but I'm not sure that weight training is totally wrongheaded. However, you don't need nearly this kind of weight, or building up that much strength. You're only trying to gain some minimal strength to hold up your head plus the weight of the helmet or whatever. So, if you want to try weights, limit them to what's called for, maybe an improvised harness and plastic 1 quart milk bottle half full of water (1#), or maybe a bit more. Do plenty of reps at this low load vs fewer reps with a big load.

The goal is to gain a bit of a strength reserve, but it's more about flexibility and movement to prevent spasms than it is about strength.

2 years ago, after 4 months off due to a crash, I got back on my road bike and had difficulty with posterior neck pain during rides, had a hard time holding my head up. I did easy stretches, massage and the "yes, no, maybes". It took about 4 weeks, but all settled in just fine. I'd simply lost strength from my lay-off.

I'm only 52, but have some osteoarthritis in my neck, and have experienced bouts of pain running down my arm. The links in posts 6 and 14 show neck exercises that are quite similar to what I was told by my physical therapist. It took several months for my neck to heal each time, but the pain did go away.

What's always puzzling, is that a lot of things heal on their own, so one is never sure that the treatment was beneficial, but it seemed to make sense.

I've been able to continue riding, but haven't attempted to ride a drop bar bike. Even a low posture on my upright bar bikes is uncomfortable. So be it.

No joke.

I am 63 and have been doing the neck weight exercises since high school (as well as a full routine of weight lifting). I do the neck exercise in all four directions although for cycling you only need to do it in one direction, strength balance is best for your body.
Although my neck exercises have been intended to prevent neck injuries while playing football and rugby, plus military duties, the exercises do work well for cycling.

I am not suggesting anyone should jump in with the 25 pound plate like shown in the picture, but using a 2.5 pound plate would work great for a starting point and still be great for cycling.

If you are going to use this exercise, I strongly suggest buying the head harness and not rig up something on your own. A home rig might slip the weights and cause a severe neck injury from the sudden weightlessness.

PS - I see several 50+ 60+ and one 70+ folks come into the gym for the first time to do weights. The 70+ comes in with his nurse and a physical trainer. The younger ones just start with physical trainers until they know what they are doing on their own.

I'm 71 and can still enjoy 10-15 hour days in the saddle. The first thing is to get your back position correct. https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...discovery.html

The exercises described above are all good, though I've never done them. Instead I've always done ordinary gym work. I do one thing that's not ordinary, though: hanging. Once or twice a week, I hang by my hands as long as I can, three reps 1' apart. Just straight arms, relaxed. It's too bad we don't play on jungle gyms anymore. Climbing is supposed to be a natural part of our lives.

Otherwise, it's dumbbell work: shrugs, seated dumbbell presses, front dumbbell raises, rear dumbbell raises, side dumbbell raises. As long as you have them out, might as well do concentration curls, bench presses, and straight arm pullovers. Never had a neck problem so maybe it's like keeping the elephants away. Be that as it may, it's worked for me for 50 years. Randonneurs who have had Shermer's Neck have gotten themselves fixed by doing this dumbbell work.