# New to cycing...couple questions:



## Steady Grind (Mar 7, 2009)

I'm using my husband's account to ask this because I'm not registered here yet.

I went on my very first ride today - about 28 miles on relatively flat roads. I found that I was getting some unexpected pains in some different areas. My husband wasn't sure what to tell me as he's fairly new to road biking as well. We just wanted to know if there are any small adjustments to the seat or tilting the handle bars (etc.) that may help with these? I was getting a sharp pain from the lateral wrist all the way up my forearm to my lateral elbow (can barely bend my elbow now), and a burning pain in-between my shoulder blades. Does anyone know of anything I could try to help remedy these? Thanks!


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## tober1 (Feb 6, 2009)

Do you feel like there's a lot of weight on your hands? You could raise the bars a little to alleviate that. It's hard to know without seeing you on the bike..

There are also some pains that just come from getting used to putting in longer miles on a bike that is relatively unforgiving compared to commuters/hybrids. 

Give it a few weeks or a month and if you're still having problems you might want to look into a professional fit.


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## Ranilus (Feb 26, 2010)

You may be tensing too much. The more you tense up your muscles, the more shock you have to take, which is reflected as pain/discomfort in your joints and muscles. So try keeping your elbow slightly bent, and just relax your hands, your wrists, your arms, and shoulders. 

Essentially the same issue as above, try fiddle around with your saddle. It may be dipping down too much in front so you are leaning too much forward. Which could also result in the pains you have described. 

Raise handlebar height as someone else has suggested, or just find someone who knows about fit. Professional fit may be costly, but like, befriending someone at the LBS or local bike club and ask them a few questions about fit may help a lot too.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Are you wearing gloves? If so, check the pad pattern. I have found that many glove manufacturers do not have padding for the median nerve (the center of the base of the palm). Check out Louis Garneau gloves and Specialized gloves.


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## mendo (Apr 18, 2007)

Your first ride was 28 miles. That's a good distance. Some aches and pains are to be expected, as your body hasn't had a chance to adapt itself to the activity.

That being said, there are a lot of things you can do before make any changes to the bike. I periodically take one hand off the bars and kind of shake my arm to relieve tension. If you feel comfortable sitting up and riding no handed for a few seconds, you can do mini stretches for your back, triceps, neck etc. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, I would say, just stop once and awhile and stretch. Your not in a race. There's no reason you have to keep going and endure those kinds of pains. You're out there to enjoy yourself.

Change hand positions once and a while. That will spread the load around to different muscles.

I started out road cycling and had a similar experience. I had tremendous pain between my shoulder blades. I eventually came to the conclusion that my bars were too wide. I switched to bars 4 cm narrower, and the pain went away.

The panacea recommendation is to pay for a fitting, or consult someone experienced who can watch you ride. He or she should be able to tell you right off the bat whether something's seriously wrong with your position.


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## cyclequip (Oct 20, 2004)

Some good advices above. The wrist pain is called ulnar neuropathy (cyclist's palsy) and is common. It comes from a less-than-optimal fitting position - as suggested above try and raise the bars if you can, tilt the nose of the saddle slightly upwards and invest in a really good pair of gloves with a gel-padded palm. The neck/shoulder pain is typically from over-reaching to the bars (both reach and drop) so taken together it suggests you need to raise your bars and possibly shorten the stem. Also, as suggested, check that the handlebars are not too wide for your shoulder width. If you take a drop from the outside of your shoulders while holding in the drops, the vertical line should about intersect your wrist.


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## allison (Apr 19, 2006)

Great info and suggestions, and my experience has been similar. I got into mountain biking before road cycling, but wouldn't be able to bend or move my small fingers in my right hand for hours after a 1.5-2 hour ride. 

Your body will build up an "immunity" or tolerance to the distance and mileage, but it'll take time to get used to the new activity. You can try more frequent shorter rides.

Stretching the muscles if/when you stop helps, changing hand position, getting good gloves, and at some point a bike fit as well. If you are new to cycling in general I don't recommend taking both hands off the bars yet, but definitely stretch out the muscles at stop lights or any other breaks that are taken, and try to stretch post-ride to keep everything loose.


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## Steady Grind (Mar 7, 2009)

Thank you all very much for the advice! I will pay attention to all of the things that were pointed out on my next ride.

Thanks again!


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## bmxhacksaw (Mar 26, 2008)

28 miles for your first ride? You go girl.


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## Trek2.3 (Sep 13, 2009)

Pain is better than numbness. My hands kept going numb. It took carpal tunnel and guyon's canal surgery on both hands to stop it and six months to recover.


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