Back Pain Advice
 

I just recently upgraded to a new bike, but am getting some back pain right between my shoulder blades/below my neck. It starts hurting within 2 miles of being on the bike, and I'm trying to adjust my riding position to fix it but am not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Has anybody else ever had this problem?

If you did not get it on your prior bike but you get it now, smells like a fit problem. Measure the position on the old bike at all contact points (handlebars, saddle, and pedals) to try to duplicate the "good" position on the new bike. It may be as simple as raising your bars a couple of cm.

I hope that helps.

1. get a bike fit
2. do planks to strengthen core

Conversely, it may also be as simple as lowering your bars. Another BF member once posted about how his upper back pains were relieved by dropping his bars so that more of his weight was carried by his torso instead of his arms. It sounds counterintuitive, but it's what worked for him.

What had been happening was that the bars were high enough that he didn't have to use his core muscles at all to stay up -- it was all shoulders & arms, so his neck and upper back would start to sag (think of shrugging your shoulders backwards).

Try the same effect with your posture, if you haven't already. Relax your arms, ride with a little bend in the elbows, and roll your shoulders back, down, then a bit forwards. Don't let your body hang between your arms.

BarracksSi, that sounds similar to me. My previous bike was a little taller and longer (about 5cm too long, hence the new bike). So I might have just gotten used to not using my core muscles and riding with a slumped back. Now that my fit is closer, I'm still slumping my back...wow I feel like I have to relearn how to ride.

Most upper body pain during short rides is caused by poor posture on the bike. Try bending your elbows and waist more and relax your shoulders and back. If you have trouble riding with bent elbows for long periods of time, you probably need to improve your core strength.

add on question: do you guys keep a natural curve in the lower back, or do you "hunch" a bit. i am new and plan on getting a professional fitting in a month or so due to my schedule, but i just want to make sure it's not a postural issue that can be fixed in the mean time. thanks. oh, as a side note, how much do fittings usually run?

fitting can run from free (from a serotta certified fitter, no less, but that's because he's a former coach of my team) to $300. you fit is completely dependent upon what you want to do on the bike. as long as you're not racing (for which back parallel to the ground is preferred), the most important thing is just to keep your back flat.

here's something you could try. get on a trainer (or get someone to support your bike if you don't). make sure you have a mirror next to you so you can look at it to evaluate posture. get on that trainer and sit up straight. the goal here is that your torso will fall like the hand of a clock, going from 12'to about 10'. you should be contracting your abs while you let your torso fall. when your hands are on the handlebar, take note of your posture. is your back flat? if not, then you need to work on that. then, notice where your hands are when they make contact with the bar. ideally, the point of contact should be the top of your hoods. also, squeezing your shoulder blades is another good way to straighten your back and removes weight from your hands & transfer it to your core. the advantage of the latter may not be so obvious, but the thing is that you want as little weight on the handlebar as possible so that your bike will go straight without excessive input from your hands.

you'll find yourself getting into bad form for the first few rides, but if you actively think about it, your posture should improve in no time.

For me at least, pain between the shoulder blades is a sure sign I'm reaching too far and there's too much weight on my hands. This could be a good place to start...

Only time I had upper back and lower neck pain was when I demo'd a Tarmac with the handlebars too low. I was sore within ten miles.

I try to not hunch, and imagine a straight line from my head to my butt. I'll rotate my pelvis forward and basically let my joints do the bending instead of my spine, if you catch my drift.

An opposite example was another BF'er who posted pictures of himself looking for posture advice. His lower back, from his tailbone up through the first few vertebrae, was almost vertical, and his forward lean came almost entirely from his stomach area. It just looked really uncomfortable to me.

There's some yoga-like sensibility to how I try to set my posture. The more I can keep my body in balance, the more comfortable I feel, and the longer I can last doing whatever I'm doing.

thanks for all the replies guys. i worked on not hunching on my last ride and it felt much better.

i was curious about stem length because i did some searching online and perusing the search function and i read a couple times that, as a rule of thumb, the handlebar should obscure the view of the front hub. for me, the hub is quite a bit "under" my bar - i know this is a completely subjective measurement and everyone's body geometry is different, so i took that advice with a grain of salt. i guess my objective now is to try to get as many miles under my belt before i get take my bike into my lbs to get a fitting so i have a better idea of what's going on.

thanks for being so helpful, as always.

do the thing i described. if your hands fall on the tops instead of the hoods, that's a sure sign of a stem that's too long. otherwise, you can always play around with the angle or the handlebar & the spacers underneath your stem to compensate.

Thanks!
 

Hey All,
Thanks so much for the advice. I finally got to try out everything you guys suggested and rode for an hr today with no pain! It took a lot of thinking to keep myself from revert back to my normal position so I'll definitely keep working on it to get better.

Thanks again!

Definitely get your fit checked by at least your LBS, if not a pro fitter. Also, planks do wonders for core strength and I highly recommend them to anyone suffering from back pain, they have helped me get a lot lower recently.