Do you love cycling? What does your cycling posture look like? Just like the professional cyclists who are currently taking part in the famous Tour de France, you might enjoy cycling whether it is for pleasure or for commuting to work. Like many people, you might also experience some discomfort or even pain in different areas of your body. If so this is quite likely down to your cycling posture. This article and images will give you some insight to understanding why and also give you some ideas about what can be done to help.
Well, because of how most bikes are made, the spine tends to flex forward. When doing so, your pelvis goes backward, your lower back is flexed and your shoulders are going forward. But you also need to be able to look ahead so you are going to have to tilt your head backwards to have your eyesight straight and even.
Reading Osteopath Jérémie Agius says: “By maintaining this position you are over stretching the joints in your pelvis and your back. This cycling posture puts a lot of pressure on the junction between your neck and your upper back. You are also creating a significant amount of pressure onto the intervertebral discs in the lower back. Excess flexion in these discs can cause them to develop tiny tears which may lead to a slipped disc.”
As a result a large variety of symptoms could occur. Muscle aches in your shoulders or stiffness in your neck and/or back, lower back pain or neck pain. You may have potentially more serious symptoms including pins and needles in your arms, sciatica, migraines or headaches.
So, whats the best cycling posture?
Here, the pelvis is going forward using the core muscles. Doing so, the spine is much more straight and there is much less pressure on the neck. Also, the shoulders aren’t going forward reducing the impact on the lower neck.
The idea is to try to have the spine as close to your normal neutral position as possible. This reduces the impact on the joints and therefore on the muscles, the ligaments, the nerves, and intervertebral discs.
What if your cycling posture causes you on-going discomfort?
If the symptoms caused by your poor cycling posture start to impact on your daily life then please Act! Don’t let your passion become your problem! Even if you are not going to ride Le Tour please don’t accept that pain is normal! Now is the time to contact your local osteopath, or ask yourself who is my “Chiropractor near me?”. Here, at Reflex Spinal Health, your Reading osteopaths and chiropractors will do a proper assessment of your body and then suggest the appropriate adjustment program. First, we want to sort this out for you as soon as possible and, secondly and more importantly, we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again!
Call Reflex Spinal Health today at 01189462100 to see what we can do to help!
