How Actually Can You Prevent The Pain On Cycling

As a near 10-year so-called experienced cyclist, there is no doubt that I love cycling. I nearly spend all of my spare time on riding my bike to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and fresh air along the way. Indeed, I benefit a lot from cycling. It not only improves my health standard to a larger extent but also helps me to get away from the heavy work and get complete relaxation. However, after all these years’ riding, there are also some problems that trouble me a little bit in my daily life. That is the pain that gets from cycling, such as back pain, knee pain, neck pain, sore butt and so on. Not all of them, but nearly every cyclist will have trouble with at least one of these pains. Does that mean we should give up cycling for the sake of our body health? Of course not, here I will give you some practical tips on how to prevent pain from the bike. Let’s get the start.

Back pain
The reason that why cycling will put your back at risk is a little complicated. Although cycling has long been considered as a legs-based exercise, it is actually a sport that requires every part of your body to work and coordinate together. Anyway, it is hard to put into a few words to make it clear how cycling put your back at risk. Let’s figure out what can you do actually when it comes to back pain.

As a matter of fact, the solution to this issue is more about the bike itself. The very first thing you need to do is to ensure that you have selected a perfect bike that fits you and it is set up for your current range of motion. After choosing the right bike for the bike here comes to some concrete steps you should pay attention to.

♠♠ Seat height: many cyclists don’t care about their seat height, considering that it won’t matters a lot on their cycling as long as they can ride well. It is completely wrong. You should adjust the height of the saddle so as to make sure your foot just rest on the pedal in the fully down position. When you are pedalling your bike, your foot ball should rest on the centre of the pedal and your knee could move smoothly.

♠♠ Foot position: The ball of the foot should be over the centre of the pedal spindle and the foot aligned with the direction of the cycle.

♠♠ Handlebar height: General speaking, the height of the handlebar is typically between 0 to 10cm below the seat height. If you are less flexible and a beginner to cycling, it is highly recommended that you ought to adjust your handlebar height to zero. However, if you are a pro rider or racer, 10 is perfect for you. Usually, raising the bars slightly could help to release your back pain a little bit and get your back more comfortable on the bike.

♠♠ Handlebar width: Well this is much easier to make an adjustment. The width of the handlebar should be set to the width of the shoulders, measured by the distance between the small bumps on top of the shoulders.

Knee pain
If you would like to beat the knee pain on the bike, then you have to resort
to some specific exercises. It is actually pretty easy to do them, as long as you could insist on doing these exercise, knee pain on the bike would not be the problem anymore.

♥♥ Active bridges

If you have the internal rotation of the knee of your knee, the active bridge how to prevent knee pain on the bikewould be a perfect option for you relief it. It could help to strengthen your weak external hip rotators that are usually the main cause of internal misalignment. The process of this exercise is pretty easy. Above all, lie on your back with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Relax your lower back with a natural curve. Keep your feet flat on the ground, point straight forward and spread hip-width apart. Place your arms at your two sides with palms up, place a strap around both legs above the knee joint, then tighten it so as to ensure you will have 1 to 2 inches of space between each knee. Push your hips up off the floor as a height that your knees, hips and shoulders form a straight line. Hold it for 5 to 10 seconds and complete 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.

♥♥ Hip crossover stretch

Since we have found the perfect solution for internal knee rotation, what should we do on the externally rotated knees? In this case, it is time for hip crossover stretch to come in handy. It can certainly help to strengthen the external rotators of the hip. In fact, this exercise is largely the same with the above one. Cross your right ankle over your left knee, rotate your body down to the side until your right foot touches the ground, turn your head to the right and try your best to lay your ear on the floor. Use your hip muscles to push your right knee away from your body. Make sure to keep your left leg relaxed. Hold for one minute and repeat on the other side.

♥♥ Counter stretch with feet wide

This exercise is aiming to relieve the tightness in the hamstrings and calves. First of all, stand facing a counter with your feet and spread 2 to 3 feet apart. Place your hands on the counter shoulder-width apart. Extend your legs, push your butt back, and drop your chest through your arms to create an “L” position with your upper and lower body. Hold the position for 1 to 3 minutes.

prevent cycling pain

Neck pain
The position we use on the bike is different from what we use usually. When we are riding our bikes, we have changed the weight distribution and bent the back and neck into an unnatural position. Therefore, if you tend to ride your bike regularly, it is highly possible that there will be something wrong with your neck. So it is time for us to make a change.

♦♦ Position adjustments

As the same as the back pain, your handlebar position also matters a lot. Making an adjustment on your handlebar position before your neck pain becomes a runaway problem.

♦♦ Increasing handlebar height

how to prevent neck pain on the bike♦ Stem spacers: modern thread fewer stems limit how much up and down movement is available, as they clamp directly to the fork steerer. To achieve the maximum height, all the spacers can be put them all beneath the stem, positioning it at its highest point on the steerer.

♦ Stem angle: if you cannot gain sufficient height with spacers then a positive rise stem, one that points upwards, is an alternative or additional method. The angle at which the stem rises can be varied as several are available to give more or less rise. Some stems allow you to actually adjust the angle of raising yourself to find an optimum position.

To recap

Even all the problems that cycling may give rise to, cycling is still an excellent sport for us to prevent diseases and keep healthy, physically and mentally. The key point is that you should grasp some effective tips on how to prevent these possible pains that come from cycling. I really hope what I have said above could really help you to solve problems. If you have any better ideas, welcome to leave me your messages. For more information, please read on our website:http://www.cycling4you.com/