tense or relaxed?

[aicabsolut]

Yes, stay relaxed. There are a lot of muscles in your torso that, if tensed, will impair your breathing. So you might be able to dig down and use your core for a sprint effort, but you want to be as relaxed as possible on a difficult hill, as well as for general comfort. If I tense up because of nerves or being cold or whatever, my bike handling also suffers.

[velogirl]

roguedog, what you're seeing is a lack of body fat. most pro cyclists have a lot of muscle definition because you can "see" their muscles -- no fat obscuring the view.

but, besides that, you do need a strong core and upper body to ride well. but there's a fine line between being loose and relaxed on the bike (I describe it to clients as being like an al dente noodle -- loose on the outside and firm on the inside) and being too tense.

a relaxed upper body will allow you to respond to changes in terrain (bumps, potholes, obstacles) and will help you ride comfortably for long periods of time.

[gingergin]

Sounds to me like it makes a lot of sense to stay relaxed after reding all your posts, thanks, but is there a trick to it? Just keep reminding yourself? I think my tenseness is contributing to a lot of my comfort issues, possibly even including the tendency for my fingers to start to get numb because as soon as I relax my arm/shoulder/neck the feeling goes away!
I do also know that numb fingers can be the result of wrong fit/adjustments, etc, which I am working on, constantly still making adjustments.

[SouthernBelle]

It's something I continue to work on. One thing that helps, and has been mentioned, is to keep your elbows bent. You can't really lean on your hands that way, thus your shoulders don't scrunch up into your neck, etc.

[velogirl]

don't try to master everything at once. pick one aspect to focus on at a time and once you've perfected that, move onto another one. for example, start with your elbows -- big bang for your buck there. to remind yourself, write a little note on your stem or tie a ribbon around your handlebar or create some trigger that will help you remember to relax your elbows. even though I've been riding forever once in a while I still have to remind myself. I usually make chicken wings and flap them to loosen myself up. for fingers, my trigger is to play piano on the bar. those are the only two things I tend to tense up occassionally.