Neck/shoulder pain.

[Helen]

Now I'm doing simple exercises to put the curve back into my neck so it shouldn't be a problem next summer.

Someone posted on this forum a great link regarding neck streching exercises but somehow I can't find it right now.
What kind of exercises are you doing mtbdarby?

[Allie1DukeFn]

....and for me, the web between my thumb and forefinger, from riding on the hoods......
Emily

Emily - what kind of gloves do you have? I'm finding myself having this kind of pain as well and I was thinking it would be great to find some gloves that have some padding in there. The one's I have are fingerless and the palms are really well padded, but not the web area between the thumb and forefinger.

Thanks!

[wabisabi]

I had the chance during a long ride on Saturday (we had actual no rain and sometimes sun....) to notice my riding stance and the effect on my neck. I realized that sometimes climbing a long/steep hill, or when tired, I tend to kind of collapse my neck and shoulders. I tried what the yogis/pilates folks call putting attention on, or energizing, that area. I was almost pushing lightly on the handlebars and keeping strength and attention on neck/shoulders. Does that make sense? I noticed that when I did this that my "core" ab muscles were more engaged and I rode better, and did not have soreness in my neck. I tend to have bad neck issues, probably from years of reading, writing and looking at computer screens.

[Dogmama]

I tend to have bad neck issues, probably from years of reading, writing and looking at computer screens.

Not to be an alarmist, but have you had this checked out? I had years of neck issues too and was recently diagnosed with two collapsed disks, huge arthritic spurs that were compressing my spinal cord. The numbness and weakness in my arm finally conviced me to see a doc. In December I had major surgery where they replaced two discs (with bone from my hip), shaved off the spurs and fused the whole thing. It has been quite an ordeal - by the time I got into surgery, one disk had impaled itself onto my spinal cord and it took the doc 45 minutes to pull it out.

I, like you, figured it was years of cycling, computer stuff, etc. Turned out to be much much worse.

[wabisabi]

Yikes! I am glad to hear that you got a good diagnosis and repair work; it sounds like it is working out Ok for you. Thanks for the concern; I do get pretty regular treatment and have had x-rays of the area which seems to have none of those issues. I havy corrected some postural issues and have had improvement. Interestingly, when I have time off from work, the issues pretty much go away. I am planning to stop working a more high powered and stressful job (downshifting, as it is now called) in the next couple of years.