How To Deal With Back Pain While Cycling

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Dave W

Cycling is considered as a great fitness exercise and it is also becoming a increasingly popular sport not only for casual trainers but also for serious athletes. However, if you do it everyday for long hours, you may experience mild to severe back pain while cycling – maybe because it requires you to remain bent forward with your muscles tensed for long. Following are some tips that will help you deal with this problem effectively.

Cycling Posture
Your cycling posture plays a very important role in this regard. If you are practicing the wrong posture regularly, you may end up developing some serious problems with your back in the long run. So, this is high time you must examine your posture – is it the right one? It has been found that most cyclists while gripping the handlebars keep their back curved. You are inviting troubles if it has become your habit. The right posture is to lean forward with a straight back. Start practicing this posture from today and keep practicing it until it becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, you will be doing it automatically. Likewise, you also need to be careful about your shoulders – make sure that your shoulders are not hunched or tensed. However, it is quite normal if your shoulders are bowed forward while cycling.

Make Some Adjustments With The Handlebars
If you are experiencing back pain while cycling, you are also recommended to make some adjustments with the handlebars. For example, the pain can dramatically be decreased if you raise the handlebars of your bicycle slightly up. But, you have to do it without increasing drag or wind interference.

Weight Training
Some specific weight training programs may also prove to be very effective in avoiding back pain while cycling. You have to focus the training on your back and neck. Regular cycling strengthens the lower parts of your bodies far more than it strengthens your back and neck. So, it will be wise to have some additional strength training for these two crucial parts of your body. A proper training will not only decrease the pain but it will also significantly increase the endurance of your back.

Stretching
Stretching is very important exercise for cyclists. Before you go for a ride and after you come from a ride, you are strongly recommended to stretch all your muscles. During these warm ups and cool downs, you should focus on neck and back stretches as well along with other parts of the body.

You can also achieve good results by providing extra support for your spine. For example, an easy way to do this is to wear an elastic back brace while you are cycling. The best thing about this type of brace is that it does not interfere with flexibility or movement. Besides that, they are also very inexpensive – you don’t have to spend big money on that. Overall, if you keep in mind the above things and follow the tips thoroughly, you can easily avoid back pain while cycling.

About Author

Dealing effectively with back pain requires a thorough understanding of the associated symptoms. An effective back pain treatment and relief procedure may essentially involve a number of stretching exercises and weight training programs.
Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/how-to-deal-with-back-pain-while-cycling-1264270.html

Cycling Training Programme?

I am intending to take on a self organised bike ride for our companys charity from either Bham – Aylesbury same day or Bham to Paris ovr a number of days.

I currenmtly cycle to work which is 12 miles a day without problem, what sort of time frame would I need to get ready and up to what sort of mileage?

I am 38 and pretty fit but having not done this before, unsure what I need to prep [miles, diet, if Paris recovery between on the evening?]

Any guidance would be great.

Tks

Answer
I have no idea of the distance but 12 miles a day is not very much. Take a few long rides and find out what you can do and go from there. Once you reach a certain level of fitness you can go until your butt tells you to stop.

http://www.ultracycling.com/training/training.html

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