neck pain long descents
 

I'm looking for tips on how to prevent the literal pain in the neck on longish descents.

The only things that seem to have helped are stretches and doing more descents.

Thanks

Physical therapy and bike fit designed to suit your body based on exams.

Dumbbells. Heavy shrugs. Lateral raises, front raises, rear raises, supersetted. Seated dumbbell presses, no back support. There are also special head harnesses for working the neck muscles, but I've never used one. Like anything else, a stronger muscle tires more slowly when loaded. Just using one's head for load isn't enough to generate much strength. There aren't any fast, coasting descents around here longer than about 16 miles, so that's my experience.

Many ways to arrange the body during descents. I use the standard method: weight on pedals, chin 2" above stem to allow for bumps, back straight, knees gripping top tube, hands in drops, elbows tucked under stomach. I think more elaborate configurations sacrifice some safety.

I think getting glasses that go higher up on your face like a visor/shield can help. It reduces the need to absolutely crank your neck when descending.

The alternative is to sit very upright.

Trim your eyebrows and exercise the superior rectus muscles.

Seriously though, I have a fusion and two artificial discs and my neck extension is limited, so I know from this problem. I also know from long experience that staying low in the drops with weight back is the only safe way to descend fast, especially on bad pavement, of which there is a lot here. To augment the problem, I have deep-set eyes and I figure the overhang of my ugly skull costs me a few degrees of flexion.

I have actually considered looking into custom glasses with a weak prism insert at the top to help me get lower on the bike safely and comfortably, but I don't know if such a thing is even possible.

Hans device?

​​​​timtak Goofy Glasses??

Prisms lenses don't invert. They are used all the time in glasses for people with double vision from eye muscle weakness and I have uses prism goggles to study sensorimotor adaptation in the lab. People learn to function with them perfectly with seconds of practice. There is, however, an opposite aftereffect when you take them off.

Agree, eye strain is no solution.

I've done various things to deal with neck pains at various times. First thing was take the visor off of my helmet. Second thing was make sure to adjust my helmet so it sat further back on my head. Both of these things let me see further down the road when in the drops without lifting my head so much.

I'd forgotten when buying my new helmet to check for forward visibility with head down. It doesn't give me quite as good a view as the front comes down too low on my brow. So it will probably be retired early.

As for neck pain in general, I was getting some at the top of my neck where it joins my skull. Not necessarily from riding. I think just me getting old and not moving as much. So I've been simply turning my head in every direction and in circles when I think of it. At first it was as if I had a bunch of gravel in there. But now my head spins smoother and the pain is gone.

doesn't sound good

That was genius. Unless you are into motorsports, all you will hear is the jet engines flying over.

I do a 23 mile descent up to 3 times per week. There's no need for any sort of extra low head position or gripping the top tube with your knees. My knees can't get close to the top tube and unless the slope is quite steep, I keep pedaling up to 45 mph. The only exercises I've ever done require no equipment. I place my hands behind my head, tilt my head down, then apply pressure with my hands as I raise my head up straight. This helps strengthen the neck and shoulder area.

I've heard that a heavier helmet can provide a better workout ;-)

Isn't the road is still straight ahead when going downhill? OTOH, rollers would have more frequent instances of being angled down, but having to look further up to see up the next incline.

I got the exercise recs from a RAAM competitor who got Schermer's the first attempt, but not the second, which he completed successfully. I've done a bit of long distance riding, though my longest ride was only 18.5 hrs. Never had neck or shoulder pain. Triceps pain if I hadn't been doing my pushups. Rollers on the tandem are my fave. Longest tandem ride was only 15 hrs.

Whereas beer is the universal pain solvent, strength is the universal pain preventative. The way to get stronger is to move heavy weights. I think that's all quite well known. See my sig.

Massage won't help. Schermer's neck is simply the complete failure of the neck muscles. They plain old don't contract, no matter what you do, in the moment and usually for the next couple of weeks. They don't function, nada, because they are completely exhausted. What works is for your crew to attach a board to your back with a belt and then duct tape your helmet to the board. By the time they do that, they've tried everything else.

Every "Intro to Psychology" book describes this experiment done with chickens. We did it in Psych 1, but on ourselves, not chickens. Missing the basket you're looking right at, before your eye/mind compensates back to normal is trippy.

Well, mostly people don't ride in the drops when not going downhill, plus often the gradient changes around corners - steep in/shallow out, which means looking ahead is looking up - on the descents I do, anyhow.

Bars with shallower drops might help, as might larger cycling-specific sunglasses as suggested above. But also, the flatter your back is, the less your neck has to bend up. Rotate your hips forward to straighten your back. Also reduces wind resistance.

Move to Minnesota where a longish descent is a mile.

I'm amazed at how my times I hear "My ___ (neck, lower back, arms, wrists... ) hurts after riding ___". Then I ask "What does your upper-body workout look like? Are you doing core, shoulders, triceps, back..." The answer is usually "No. I guess I need to do more... I uh, I just ride."

No idea what the OP's "off-bike" workout looks like, but just riding isn't going do it.

You don't need to turn into a bodybuilder. Two 45-min. workouts twice a week would do it - just doing upper-body resistance training.

Or, ^that^ could have nothing to do with the OP's neck issue. That's what makes the internet great ;-)

at 2%.

Yep. Went to the gym yesterday and did 45' of my "pulling" upper body sets including my upper shoulder and neck work. Tomorrow will be the "pushing" sets which will include my fall leg sets, also 45'. I do an hour of moderate drills and endurance work on my rollers first. The gym is only 35-45 hrTSS.