Back Pain

S

sparrow

Guest
This may have been covered before, so I'm sorry that I'm too lazy to look. I have noticed on my long distance rides that I have a great easy time riding until about 45 miles where I literally hit some sort of wall. I'm still able to keep my mph but my back starts to ache like mad and I fight for any further miles in agony. In the 45 miles prior I am switching my position, stretching on the bike, hydrating but that mile marker seems to just be constant. I need to get to 56 miles without feeling this way. What are some things i can do to prevent this?
 
Hi Sparrow,

Is it your upper back or lower back? I was "told" that lower back is mostly due to conditioning, but most pains while biking can be corrected with proper fitting to the bike. Were you professionally fitted to your bike? The person who fitted me to my bike told me if I have any pains while biking to bring my bike back in and tell him where I was having issues and he could adjust the bike to aliviate the pain.
 
Its lower back and no I wasn't professionally fitted because its expensive :(
 
hammies are tightening up. those ham"strings" then cluster at your tailbone-ish area, and pull your disks together, adn the pain comes from the lil thingys in there being squishied! I know, extremel clinical. sorry for talking at a level beyond your blonde comprehension....hehehehehe

bottom line!!! I knwo thats what you want!

Move your seat forward a lil bit. Stop and stretch if needed, and call me in the morning.

FF
 
Katie,

I have a couple of suggestions:

Fit your bike to you, not the other way around. If you have a photo of you on your bike, email that to me or post it if you like. Provide two photos: one with the pedal at the 9:00 position and one at the 6:00 position. There are a lot of methods out there. Do a google search for "bicycle fitting" and try out some of the methods.

That said, here are some standard protocols. First, you need to adjust: seat height, seat fore/aft, and seat tilt. Then, determine the distance from the seat to the handlebars. This may require that you replace the stem with the proper length stem. Finally, adjust the angle of the handlebars.

With your shoes off and the pedal down and the crank arm in line with your body, the bottom of your heel should be just at the top of the pedal with your leg straight. Alternatively, the distance from the top of the seat to the top of the pedal should be 1.10x the length of your inseam. Measure this, don't use your pant leg for inseam.

For fore/aft, with the pedal at the 9:00 position, your knee should be over the pedal.

For handlebar reach, one idea is that you should look down and your view should line up the handlebar with the front axle. But, this is somewhat personal.

Also, I used to have lower back issues too. After I started doing deadlifts, I have zero back issues. Maybe it's coincidental...

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
oh yeah sure!!! try to act all smart and win the girl's effection!!! Saturday I will kick you over, and we'll check your fore and aft position! :jump1: heheheh I think maybe I had a good workout today.

p.s. in all seroiousness, sending him pictures is a bad idea!! you should see soem of the stuff he has shown me. :eek2:


:eek:
 
flyinfree said:
oh yeah sure!!! try to act all smart and win the girl's effection!!! Saturday I will kick you over, and we'll check your fore and aft position! :jump1: heheheh I think maybe I had a good workout today.

p.s. in all seroiousness, sending him pictures is a bad idea!! you should see soem of the stuff he has shown me. :eek2:


:eek:
Click to expand...

Oh great! Now I'll have to go back to paying for photos of girls on bikes...
 
lol. well some of that I knew (g8r) so I fit it to what I knew (to this point).

I thought you were supposed to have a slight bend in the knee when the pedal is down, crank is in line with body? There is a lot there, I'll have to reread your post and go through the check list of the bike. There is a very good shop thats a little bit of a drive I go to for my repairs. They helped me a LOT with my other bike so maybe I'll pay them a visit.

Thank you very much!
 
sparrow said:
I thought you were supposed to have a slight bend in the knee when the pedal is down, crank is in line with body?
Click to expand...

If you're clipped in, yes, there is a slight bend to your knee. But, if you put your barefoot heel on the pedal, your heel should be just at the top of the pedal with your leg straight and the crank in line with your leg.

I'll have Todd take some pics of me on my bike on Saturday.
 
g8r80 said:
If you're clipped in, yes, there is a slight bend to your knee. But, if you put your barefoot heel on the pedal, your heel should be just at the top of the pedal with your leg straight and the crank in line with your leg.

I'll have Todd take some pics of me on my bike on Saturday.
Click to expand...

AHH the heel. I skipped over that part. Yes that makes sense. Yes pics would be helpful, thanks.
 
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