goofball22

Good morning from Cali everyone!

I tried doing a search on this but could not find much. I recently finished reading a thread about riding positioning which was very informative. The one thing I noticed a lack of info is shoulder positioning. I recently got a bike fit, and my fitter got me a shorter and more angled-up stem for an entry level "comfort" riding (needless to say, I am playing with other positions because of a lack of comfort). He told me that my shoulders were stretched and hunched out way too forward and that they needed to be further back and relaxed.

Yet when I read the thread on riding position and numerous others regarding what seems more like a stretched out flatter back position, the shoulders seem very stretched out forward as well. I was wondering if someone could enlighten me about how this is not detrimental to your upper body health when your shoulders are unnaturally stretched/hunched out forward. I must be missing something here.

Thanks in advance everybody

tanguy frame

using words to describe posture on a bike has its limitations. I'm no bike fitter, but when I set up my bike, I work out the saddle position relative to the pedals, then I put my handle bars where I can reach them naturally in a riding posture. There's some degree of tilting the pelvis to engage the sit bones on the saddle, and there's some engagement of core muscles to hold up the upper body, and the degree of forward lean is achieved from the pelvis rotation, not the hunching of the back and sholdures. think of an athletic crouch. put a bike under it, and you'll get the idea. shoulders are generally relaxed. as the core strengthens, the crouch gets lower. there's hardly any stretch in the back going on.

eippo1

The problem with saying that you need this position w/o actually being there in person is that we don't know your physiology. I have a very large saddle to bar drop because I'm very flexible, have a flat back and longish arms. A friend of mine needs a more upright setup because his back arches, he has little flexibility and has short arms. He looks hunched compared to me, but is more comfortable. I say go back to your fitter and ask him to work with you on getting a more aggressive position. Most fits are guaranteed for a certain period of time.