Fast Fitness - Stop Neck Pain From Biking
Friday, August 14, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Main concept - your neck is not a Pez dispenser. Don't tip and pinch back at the neck to look upward to drink or look forward while riding. - Notice if you jut your chin forward and upward to drink or ride.
- Instead, extend upward through your entire upper back. Keep your chin fairly still and see how much upward range you can get from your upper back. Instead of rounding the upper back forward, you get a nice straightening stretch.
Craning the neck (pinching backward at one joint) and pushing the chin forward, pinches and compresses your discs, joints of the neck bones, the soft tissue, and nerves.
To help remember good biking form, I put a reminder on a healthy water bottle. Keep your exercise healthy. Click AcademyGifts or the image to order.
- Is Your Drinking Hurting Your Neck?
- Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
- Gaze Perseid Meteors Without Neck Pain
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I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified DrBookspan.com/Academy.
I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Pez dispenser Image from blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/04/bronze_boba_fett_pez_disp.html
Water bottle by DrBookspan.com AcademyGifts
Water bottle by DrBookspan.com AcademyGifts
Labels: biking, fast fitness, fix pain, green fitness, neck, upper back
2 Comments:
At Friday, August 14, 2009 9:55:00 PM,
Steven Rice said…
Great advice! I've blogged about how bicyling puts people in an even worse version of their desk-sitting posture http://positive-massage.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-bike-to-work-day.html
(don't miss the link to an 1893 article on the topic.)
My suggest is to sit up occasionally in the saddle and do a counter stretch.
At Friday, August 21, 2009 11:34:00 AM,
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM said…
Mr. Rice, Bicycling does not have to put you in a worse position than desk sitting. Posture is voluntary, which is the point of this post - to notice and change unhealthy neck position so you don't injure as part of riding, or need an "antidote" of counter-stretch. Stretches can be great, but neck position in daily life, riding, drinking, looking up, and during exercise does not have to be so unhealthy to require them as antidotes.
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