Wrist and upper back pain - from newboy

[GreenBikerman_19]

Hello. I am a rider of around two years. Totally addictied now -I just can’t wait to get out on the bike at every opportunity. Living semi rural I have discovered that a 6.30 am ride reveals a totally new world of early morning sun, mist, bunny rabbits and wild deers.. amazing..!

However, I am now stacking up the miles – I commute and leisure ride now – I seem to be getting pain in the lower palms/wrists and upper back Is this common?? Are there any exercises/stretches that can aleviate this a bit?

I do grip the bars a little tight during my commute - the condition of the roads near me is awful, a lose grip combined with the craters in the road has seen me have a few nasty moments on the main roads – hence my new death grip approach. I was wondering is this could be the problem?? My bikes are all set up pretty much spot on, so I don’t think it’s the bikes.

Any tips from others who have had similar would be great

 

[TexPat]

Try raising the handlebar and/or a shorter stem. Could be that it's too low or too far away. As for the rough roads and the death grip, more voluminous tires at lower pressure and thicker softer bar tape is common among those who love the cobbles--might work for you as well.

 

[GreenBikerman_19]

Tex

Cheers - I have just changed the stem for a steeper angle to raise the bars a little and bring them in - should I drop it?? Ref the tyres --I'm noramlly on MTBs and I must admit I am a much more confident rider with sumptious 2.2 knobblys on.

My problem is I'm a shorty but I have long arms, so my step over is low. This dictates a small frame on a road or hybrid (or severe pain on the twig and berries when I have to stop in a rush) - Hence I am playing with the stems at the moment.

 

[TexPat]

The discomfort you describe is often caused by bearing too much weight on your hands. This may be due to the bars being too low or too far away. It could also mean that your center of gravity is too far forward. Do you feel the need to push your bum back on the saddle?
One of the things I look at when doing bike fits is how well the rider can maintain stability in the saddle with their hands lifted slightly off the bar. This is done while the rider is pedalling a steady cadence with a fair amount of resistance and the hands on the hoods.
Have a look here especially in the section under the heading "Fore-Aft...":
http://peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm
This is even better: http://bikefitpro.blogspot.com/
Balance and comfort on the bike are closely related. Biomechanics are hugely important for performance and to avoid injury.
Of course, nothing is better than a proper bike fit, and what I've offered is only a guess and a rather simplistic solution to the problem you've encountered.
Start with mounting the motor, then place the bar where it meets the natural position of the rider's hands.
If you're in New Zealand, I'm happy to help further!

Cheers,
Mike

 

[GreenBikerman_19]

Cheers Tex I'll check them out .. nope I'm sat at home in a rather grey and drizzly UK!
I'll let you know how I get on

 

[GreenBikerman_19]

The discomfort you describe is often caused by bearing too much weight on your hands. This may be due to the bars being too low or too far away. It could also mean that your center of gravity is too far forward. Do you feel the need to push your bum back on the saddle?
One of the things I look at when doing bike fits is how well the rider can maintain stability in the saddle with their hands lifted slightly off the bar. This is done while the rider is pedalling a steady cadence with a fair amount of resistance and the hands on the hoods.
Have a look here especially in the section under the heading "Fore-Aft...":
http://peterwhitecycles.com/fitting.htm
This is even better: http://bikefitpro.blogspot.com/
Balance and comfort on the bike are closely related. Biomechanics are hugely important for performance and to avoid injury.
Of course, nothing is better than a proper bike fit, and what I've offered is only a guess and a rather simplistic solution to the problem you've encountered.
Start with mounting the motor, then place the bar where it meets the natural position of the rider's hands.
If you're in New Zealand, I'm happy to help further!

Cheers,
Mike

Also, I did need to shuffle back a bit - only last night I pushed the saddle forward a little - I'm doing everything in small steps to see if each thing makes a slight difference

 

[GreenBikerman_19]

Read it . Brilliant the fore and aft section .. that's me!! I'm off to fiddle with my saddle

 

[fatandfast]

make sure to write down where yo started. All measurements should be written down before you start changing and moving everything. Try a couple of simple drills..put your hands on the tops,hoods and drops and suspend yourself using your core muscles. If you find that you can't ride your bike with no hands your position may have too much weight on your arms/shoulders/neck/hands. Texpat has it right but don't go crazy changing and buying stuff. Sometimes you can re wrap your bars and just move your hoods up by 5mm-1cm and it will make you feel much more upright and relieve some stress .Shorter stem and for and aft position will normally do the trick

 

[GreenBikerman_19]

make sure to write down where yo started. All measurements should be written down before you start changing and moving everything. Try a couple of simple drills..put your hands on the tops,hoods and drops and suspend yourself using your core muscles. If you find that you can't ride your bike with no hands your position may have too much weight on your arms/shoulders/neck/hands. Texpat has it right but don't go crazy changing and buying stuff. Sometimes you can re wrap your bars and just move your hoods up by 5mm-1cm and it will make you feel much more upright and relieve some stress .Shorter stem and for and aft position will normally do the trick

Right, after lots of fiddling, I think I have got it just right! Indeed I couldn't hold my body up without some weight on the bars, so back and forth went the saddle and on to the rollers for 30 mins to see what hurt and what didn't. Followed by a nice 20 miler home last night after I think I got it right and you know I think I have it, very slight pain.. about 1% of what it was, so I'm leaving as is for a couple of weeks and getting some miles in to see if that is correct. Great advice though!!

 

[Richard S]

Well done for persevering and you seem to have come up with the right weight distribution.

I don't have much to add, just thought I'd mention a couple of other things in case the pains continue to 'niggle'. The fore and aft movement of the saddle is at one end of the chain, but it's the other end at the shoulders and wrist where these changes are affecting the load going through each joint.

Distributing the weight correctly is the biggest winner, and it sounds like you've got that part sorted. For a bit of fine tuning, get someone to take a photo or video of your position, then you'll be able to see how the joints of your wrist elbow and shoulder are aligned. You should have a nice strong solid line up through all the joints. Pay close attention to the wrists as they leave the bars. If your wrist (carpal) bones open up more on one side more than the other you will notice excessive creasing of the skin around the joint. Inside, even if you have minimised the load going through this area, if the forces are not spread evenly it can still get painful as you place excessive load on a small area.

Make small adjustments to the angle of the bars (easiest to do it exclusively for when you're on the drops first to get the bar angle). Once you have the bars sorted you can move to the hoods so you get a similar straight like of support when riding up on the hoods.

One final thing to look at is that you might be able to benefit from some simple shoulder stability exercises. The scapular have a great influence over the ability to spread load especially in the riding position. Even with good weight distribution, our riding position is still a bit like doing a low intensity press-up for hours at a time.

Hope this helps if you still have problems, give me a shout if you want any more details.

Richard