Shoulder pain (in just one shoulder)

[RolliePollie]

I am having some pretty severe shoulder pain while riding, but only in my right shoulder. I have mild scoliosis and there is definitely a noticeable curve in my spine, resulting in uneven hips and shoulders. I'm wondering if perhaps this uneven-ness is contributing to the shoulder issue. I've noticed that I tend to ride with my left elbow slightly bent but with my right elbow almost straight. That leads me to believe that the reach may too long for my right arm. Has anyone ever heard of any way to adjust just one side of the handlebars to shorten the reach? I'm wondering if extra bar tape would do the trick. Or extra glove padding. I have a feeling just a couple of centimeters might be enough.

Of course, there could be something else going on that's completely unrelated to scoliosis and a crooked body! But my suspicion is that scoliosis is to blame. Does anyone else have this type of problem?

[Wahine]

I would guess that you are probably right and your scoliosis likely is the root of the problem. If you're right elbow is totally straight, your reach is definitely too long on that side. I'm not sure how you would fix it though. A piece of foam or cork under your bar tape might work but you'd still have to stretch to reach your brakes.

This is a very interesting question. I'm going to ponder it for awhile and I may come up with more later.

[Crankin]

Yes, I have this problem, except it's my left side that is constantly hurting in some place/way. I also have scoliosis. I deal with it by lots of stretching and I had a shim put under the cleat of my left cycling shoe, to make up for the length discrepancy on my left side. That helped a lot, but when i start to up my mileage, I have to be careful to remember to stretch, do strength training, etc.
I just deal with it, because the alternative (to stop cycling) is not acceptable!

[Grog]

The massage therapist that works with our team does a lot of "realignment" stuff, i.e. gets you to develop the capacity to be balanced even if you are not initially. I haven't worked with her, personally, but I know it has done miracle for others.

Maybe you should seek the help of a good massage or physiotherapist?

(Which does not mean that you shouldn't get some fitting done on your bike, of course...)

[Wahine]

If it's a subtle scoliosis a massage therapist or PT (preferrably one with a good manual therapy background) can help. If it's a more significant scoliosis, they can still help but you're likely to still need some sort of modification to the handlebar set up.

Looking up a good massage therapist or PT is definitely worth a try.

[amymisk]

I have that same problem and it never once occured to me that it could be related to my also mild scoliosis! I continue to ride and haven't considered any adjustments and PT or massage is out of my pocketbook range. So, I ride with a sore right shoulder.

[RolliePollie]

I'm sorry to hear others have this same problem, but I'm glad I'm not alone! It really seems logical to me that even a slight bend/twist/mis-alignment caused by scoliosis could lead to this type of pain. I think I'll experiment with some temporary padding on my handlebars and see if that helps (not sure yet what I'm going to use for this temporary padding...I may have to get creative!). If that makes a difference at all, I'll head to my LBS and see if they can tweak my handlebars somehow. Today at work, one of my co-workers rubbed out my shoulder a bit and it did help. So perhaps the massage idea would be worthwhile. The pain is certainly not going to stop me from cycling, and since my balance on the bike is improving a lot lately, I'll just have to make sure I change positions and stretch more often.

If I figure out something that works, I'll share with you all. And if anyone else comes up with anything, please let me know too! I generally expect some part of my body to complain...this is exercise for goodness sakes...so if an achy sore shoulder is the worst of it, I won't complain too much