relaxing...

[KOGAN]

hi

in a bid to improve over winter i am picking up on some problems, i find that when i ride my upper body is very tense and my shoulders are tense also not relaxed at all. i guess this wastes energy and most importantly on rides longer than 3 hours it really starts to make my neck ache. weirdly i dont seem to be as tense when riding in a group!

any ideas? anything specific i can do? are there any neck/shoulder exercises that could strengthen this area?


thanks

KOGAN

[Mottsauce]

An older rider told me this when I first started riding and I've done it ever since: pick a number that you pay attention to. Every 5 miles, every 10 minutes, whatever...

Everytime you see that number, simply think about your shoulders, neck and arms. You'll automatically notice that they're tense and you just kind of shrug them and let them fall.

Rinse and repeat

I was the opposite of your situation; I used to ride with everything clenched, including my butt, when I was riding with more experienced riders and I simply didn't want to screw up. After remembering to relax my upper body my line and rhythm got a lot smoother.

[madhatter]

Yoga...

[iliveonnitro]

I had problems early in the season last year. I did some shoulder shrugs in the gym and worked a LOT on flexibility. Usually flexibility (and relaxing) can fix most of the problems.

[FWCC_neil]

I can't remember where I heard this but it does seem to work: If you let your jaw relax then the upperbody seems to relax too.
Sounds weird but really it does work (for me anyway).

Good luck for the coming season, keep us posted on how it goes.

[drjones96]

I tend to be a little tensed up when I ride in a pack because I've always got my hands in a position to grab the levers if something goes wrong or if the pack slows unexpectedly.

When I ride alone I relax a lot more and am able to settle into a more comfortable position.

[rustychain]

What worked best for me and has in fact worked now for many years was to marry my massage therapist. A less expensive solution would be a physical therapist that will give you specific streaching for your issues. Yoga has some advantage as well but to be truthful I find some of the yoga ladies a bit distracting

[Infin1ty]

What worked the best was working on my CORE in the gym, which is possible doing without a gym as well.

Working on the CORE of the body helps alot and if you have a very weak CORE you may witness a big difference.