Cycling and Pain
Over the course of 9 months since I rekindled cycling, there's been a couple of niggling pains that I've experienced so I'm gonna document it over here.
- Numbness in Fingers
This used to occur a lot on my left hand. I think I was placing too much pressure on one hand and have the tendency to have the bar going right between the flesh lumps below my palm (apparently this compresses some arteries over there causing numbness. I've consciously done 2 things;
1. be aware of my hand placement to avoid pressure on this region
2. maintain a slight bend on the elbows and focus on balancing more on the saddle whilst cycling
Yes, numbness is practically gone now.
- Numbness in Feet/Toes
I wear a 44 sized shoe. I tend believe this is caused by the fact that I probably need a wider shoe. To reduce the occurrence, I intentionally loosen the shoe, especially on the wide part of the feet to ensure I can move my feet a little even in the shoe. Another thing was to get much thinner socks (3pcs for 4.99 or something Giant). This has worked great. I don't understand why would anyone need more padding and thicker socks cos' I find that with thinner ones, the feel for the pedal is much greater. Akin to wearing those china made canvas shoes (butterfly brand?) when I used to train for badminton during the days.
- Sore Shoulders
This is mostly due to too much pressure placed on the hands and the tendency for the upper body to sag on the hands, placing pressure on the shoulder muscles. Again, getting that bend in the elbow forces me to balance on the saddle while cycling. Since being aware of this, I've not gotten this sore any more.
- Neck Sore
I have a very stretched and low-back position but somehow, by curing the sore shoulders, I do not get this anymore. Mostly its because the rider tend to arch his neck too much while riding due to the lower position BUT to me its very much related to how relaxed your shoulder muscles are which indirectly and probably affect the neck muscles. Having the same awareness as 'sore shoulders' seems to help a lot in this respect.
- Lower back ache/pain/sore with some hip-ache (sometimes)
I'm not certain if this is caused by the fact that I've been carrying my sons a lot or some positioning on the bike. I bet its a combination of both. I used to experience this on the Saronni but since changing to longer stem, and against normal convention, having a lower position the problem was minimized greatly. On the Master Piu, this came back for some reason! So yet again I'm trying out some stuff. Probably will need to do the same!(increase saddle to handlebar height).
- Numbness in Fingers
This used to occur a lot on my left hand. I think I was placing too much pressure on one hand and have the tendency to have the bar going right between the flesh lumps below my palm (apparently this compresses some arteries over there causing numbness. I've consciously done 2 things;
1. be aware of my hand placement to avoid pressure on this region
2. maintain a slight bend on the elbows and focus on balancing more on the saddle whilst cycling
Yes, numbness is practically gone now.
- Numbness in Feet/Toes
I wear a 44 sized shoe. I tend believe this is caused by the fact that I probably need a wider shoe. To reduce the occurrence, I intentionally loosen the shoe, especially on the wide part of the feet to ensure I can move my feet a little even in the shoe. Another thing was to get much thinner socks (3pcs for 4.99 or something Giant). This has worked great. I don't understand why would anyone need more padding and thicker socks cos' I find that with thinner ones, the feel for the pedal is much greater. Akin to wearing those china made canvas shoes (butterfly brand?) when I used to train for badminton during the days.
- Sore Shoulders
This is mostly due to too much pressure placed on the hands and the tendency for the upper body to sag on the hands, placing pressure on the shoulder muscles. Again, getting that bend in the elbow forces me to balance on the saddle while cycling. Since being aware of this, I've not gotten this sore any more.
- Neck Sore
I have a very stretched and low-back position but somehow, by curing the sore shoulders, I do not get this anymore. Mostly its because the rider tend to arch his neck too much while riding due to the lower position BUT to me its very much related to how relaxed your shoulder muscles are which indirectly and probably affect the neck muscles. Having the same awareness as 'sore shoulders' seems to help a lot in this respect.
- Lower back ache/pain/sore with some hip-ache (sometimes)
I'm not certain if this is caused by the fact that I've been carrying my sons a lot or some positioning on the bike. I bet its a combination of both. I used to experience this on the Saronni but since changing to longer stem, and against normal convention, having a lower position the problem was minimized greatly. On the Master Piu, this came back for some reason! So yet again I'm trying out some stuff. Probably will need to do the same!(increase saddle to handlebar height).
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